Civil Unrest and the Boston Massacre

After the British closed the port of Boston in response to the Boston Tea Party. The people who lived in Boston (basically everyone relied on imports for food because Boston was on a peninsula) were in danger of starvation. The other colonies responded to this by sending supplies to the people in Boston. This showed that the colonies were uniting. The First Continental Congress that met on Sept 5 1774 didn’t get much accomplished. However the Second Continental Congress meeting May 10 1775 adopted the Declaration of Independence. Meanwhile fighting had broken-out among British troops and colonial militia/minutemen first at Lexington and then at Concord. The British had finally made a move to destroy colonial munitions at Concord. They also intended to capture patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. Paul Revere managed to warn the countryside of the raid and Adams and Hancock successfully escaped. The minutemen assembled and at Lexington about 80 minutemen faced nearly 700 redcoats. They didn’t put up much resistance and only one British soldier was wounded severely. On the colonial side 8-9 minutemen were killed and several were wounded. The redcoats then continued to Concord and fighting broke out on the Old North Bridge near Concord. This time the militia drove the British troops back and the British retreated. As they marched back to Boston thousands of militia fired on them. The original force would have been destroyed if it hadn’t been for reinforcements which finally came. The British lost nearly 250 men and the colonials lost about 95 men. The militia surrounded Boston and began digging in for a siege. George Washington arrived to command the newly created Continental Army(formed from the militia).