The Boston Massacre was to the British, an act of self-defense. Rioting people that didn't like you and wanted you dead, yes you would shoot at, but a crowd of people no. This was the argument that people fought to win while the British soldiers were on trial.
The Boston Massacre started on March 5,1770 while the British soldiers were standing guard. Colonists would insult and harass the soldiers. The soldiers felt that the mob of angry colonists was getting to big, and they worried for their lives. Soon the soldiers were firing into the crowd, five people were either injured or killed. John Adams wrote a letter to the colonists, and the soldiers were arrested and tried in court. John Adams gave them a fair trial and sided with the British soldiers saying the colonists made them shoot. This plee convinced the jury and the soldiers suffered a light punishment.
Three men by the names of James Bowsdoin, Joseph Warren, and Samuel Pemberton looked into the Boston Massacre case and published a pamphlet titled "A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston ... With Some Observations Prior to That Catastrophe". In that pamphlet they mentioned how the mob got to great, how the colonists provoked the soldiers to come out, and how they attacked one of the British guards.
Although this did not cause the American Revoulution it is said that the Massacre played a big role in colonial fury against the British, and that it increased tention between America and Britain. Although today we have all this information about the Massacre it will all take us back to wondering what really happened that day March 5,1770