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The Boston Massacre

Coined by propagandist Samuel Adams, the Boston Massacre involved British soldiers firing on civilians
in Boston. When the merchant ship Liberty was seized on suspicion that it was in violation of the
Townshend Acts, the citizens of Boston protested, prompting British officials to quarter troops in the city.
With tensions high, British soldiers fired on a group of Bostonians who were pelting the soldiers with
snowballs and debris. Crispus Attucks, a young black sailor, was killed in the incident. This event was yet
another that moved the colonies toward open rebellion.

The Boston Tea Party

On December 16, 1773, a group named the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams and dressed as
Mohawk Indians, approached Griffin's Wharf where three ships loaded with tea, the Dartmouth, the
Eleanor, and the Beaver, were anchored. The men boarded the ships and destroyed the crates of tea. By
9 p.m., the men had destroyed and thrown into the Boston Harbor some 340 crates of tea.

From Resistance to War

Convened in late 1774, the First Continental Congress forged an official bond among the thirteen
colonies. The main thrust of the First Continental Congress was an organized boycott of British goods and
services, as well as the halting of all exports to Britain.

However, the following year brought open fighting between the colonists and the British in the form of the
Battle of Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. The following month, the Second Continental Congress
came together and formed the Continental army under the command of George Washington. This same
Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

See some of the key contributors to the Declaration of Independence below:

John Adams
Oddly enough, he was counsel for the defense for the British soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre.
But Adams became a Massachusetts member of the Continental Congress and was a vociferous
advocate of independence for the colonies. He defeated Jefferson to become the country’s second
president.

Benjamin Franklin
Revolutionary, inventor, author, and more, Franklin is the only founding father to have signed the
Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson
Considered the primary author of the Declaration, Jefferson later became the third president of the United
States of America. He was a man of immense erudition—his 6,000-book library was the basis for the
nation’s Library of Congress.

Question 1

Which philosopher’s ideas about government contributed to the Declaration of Independence?