Argumentative Essay: The Revolutionary War

The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the very first fight of colonists against the British. The first shot of the battle was fired by the British according to the accounts of John Parker and Thomas Fessenden. As John Parke states, the first shot was fired by the British because they were colonists and they were not going to attack first unless they were fired upon first. John states that they fired at them and killed eight of their men. This account is reliable because it is an official testimony, he wouldn 't lie under oath.

After looking at both the American account and the English account from The Battle of Lexington, The English account provides more information to prove that the Americans might have shot first. The British soldiers wanted to avoid violence, when shots were fired it was a quick skirmish and the british army was barely wounded.1 Earlier a letter was sent to General Gage in January but received in April. The letter included that , Dartmouth, Gage’s higher in command ordered gage, in letter to use force against the patriots.2 The American’s could have figured out that the English were planning on coming because the General Gage was married to Margaret Kemble, an American colonial women. It is said that she had spied against him out of sympathy

I believe that the British soldiers were using self defense in the Boston Massacre. Through witnesses and evidence, it is proved that the British killing the colonists was an act of defending themselves. In exhibit A, the crime scene showed how the colonists threw snowballs filled with rocks and sharp things at the British. I think that the British were only firing their guns back at the colonists to save themselves from being badly hurt. I believe that the British fired their guns at the colonists back without intentions go kill, but only to protect themselves.

Supporting Paragraph On April 19th, 1775, on Lexington Green, early in the morning, gun fire had broken out between the colonists and British soldiers. This specific battle was one of the first leading up to the Revolutionary war. Being one of the battles leading to the Revolution, it is important for historians to know who had fired the first shot, to this day there are speculations, but nobody knows for sure.

The British were unfair and treated the colonists as lesser beings, but still demanded loyalty which made the revolution inevitable. To conclude, if they colonists had not fought for their ideals the United States would still be smothered under British

I don’t think the colonists committed treason because they were being treated unfair by the British government. I can give many examples of them being mistreated by the British the first is that they were taxing the colonists a lot after the British’s war (Mr. Riikonen). That’s unfair because the colonists didn’t even start it and the colonists were getting punished by the British for no fair reason at all. The colonists were not only mistreated but they

Many Americans and British have different opinions on what went on and who was right in the American Revolution. Americans thought they were right and so did the British. The American Revolution went on from 1775 to 1783. The very first battle, Lexington and Concord, was “a shot heard around the world.” Coming back to our opinions, were the American colonists justified to break off of Britain?

During the trial, Captain Thomas Preston offered his account of the massacre. Captain Preston recalls the commotion outside of the Customs House. He says that there were unlawful threats being said to the British officers. He also says that some colonists brought clubs and other weapons, to be used to execute British officers. The officer felt that the colonists were indeed going to kill him, and so Captain Thomas Preston supposedly gave orders to the eight other officers to open fire into the crowd.

In Document six it talks about how the british were harassing and beating innocent people, this document again was posted in a Boston newspaper. All of the documents that support that the british soldiers attacked the innocent colonists are all the same. They all were written about in Boston newspapers, which were at the time very biased towards the colonists. So overall I believe that the british soldiers were attacked by the colonists.

The Founding Fathers rebelled against the British government for good reasons, which led to the American Revolution in 1783. The Founding Fathers were justified in rebelling against the Britain because the government was not protecting the rights of the citizens, taxing the colonists, and forced them to house British soldiers. In 1756 Britain put the first tax on the colonists. This was the Stamp Act, it required colonists to pay taxes on certain items such as newspapers, legal documents, licenses, and even playing cards.

The British soldiers are not guilty because they only used self defense against the colonist. First, the soldiers are not guilty because their lives were in danger. Captain Thomas Preston states, “They [colonists] advance to the points of the bayonets...seemed to be endeavoring to close with the soldiers.” The colonists were coming closer to the soldiers,

In this event, the British soldiers clearly felt threatened and the colonists were instigating trying to pick a fight with them. Another reason that proves that the British are innocent is that Captain Preston was standing in front of his soldiers. In addition, there was a misfire which led to the start of the soldiers to shoot. They also fired because they believed that Captain

“On April 18, 1775 several hundred British regulars under orders from General Thomas Gage set out from Boston Massachusetts to capture weapons and ammunition being stockpiled by local colonists in the towns of Lexington and Concord” (Nix History.com). In addition to capturing munitions, the British soldiers were ordered to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock who were wanted for high treason against the crown. Upon arriving at Lexington, the soldiers were met at the town center by numerous armed minutemen. It is not known who fired the first shot, but the colonists were in full retreat after a brief battle leaving left several dead behind. The British continued their journey on to the North Bridge outside Concord.

I think that the British soldiers acted in self defense during the Boston Massacre. The colonists were threatening and provoking the soldiers by shouting vulgarly, beating people with clubs, and throwing rocks covered in snow, so I believe that the soldiers had a right to fight for their lives. Just take a moment to imagine the Boston massacre, it’s late at night and people are tired and confused. The colonists are shouting “Fire and be damned, who cares! Damn you, you dare not fire,” (Exhibit B) and the British soldiers are ready to defend but don’t know what’s going on.

The colonies also called for a continental congress, in the first meeting they made decisions basically defending themselves from anything Britain could possibly throw at them: military preparations in case the British in Boston chose to attack, boycotting in hopes of abolishing trade with Great Britain, rejecting a colonial union under British control, the basically wanted nothing to do with Great Britain because Britain abused their power over the colonists to begin with. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the official turning point for the colonists, they had colonists prepared with guns, minutemen, that were ready to fight at a seconds notice and they kept close eyes on Boston just in case the British chose to attack. William Dawes and Paul Revere were keeping watch for any British movement. When the British came the colonists were ready and by the end of the battle the British had lost many of their troops in this revolutionary war. This war was definitely the beginning of the fight for independence for the colonists, thy showed the British that they could stand up for themselves and that they deserved better treatment.