Attucks has been made famous as the first casualty of the American Revolutionary War and the first African American hero. He was in the front row of the crowd of civilians confronting the British soldiers. Patrick Carr was hurt and died nine days later. Six other citizens were wounded. Thomas Preston, captain in charge of the British troops, was furious that his soldiers fired without orders and then told them to stop firing. The British men left the scene. The British faced trials a couple months after the Boston Massacre. The British were unable to find a legal representative counsel. The British also asked many lawyers, but were declined. With this declinement, John Adams said yes to defending them during the trials. John Adams later became our second President of the United States. Another person defending the British was Josiah Quincy. The reasoning for John Adams to defend the British is that he was a strong believer of all men being allowed to have a fair trial and that they deserved balanced justice. .
Seven months after the Boston Massacre, in October of 1770, Captain Preston was tried for murder in a Boston courtroom. They waited for the reactions of the citizens to settle down. Captain Preston's trial took six days. A murder trial that took six days was thought out to be long back then. Preston begged he was not guilty, but he did not testify. The idea of the defense was to prove that Preston did not order the shooting to happen. The court called fifteen witnesses to prove that Preston had arranged the British troops to shoot, but on analysing the information, their testimonies seemed to differ from what they expected. Captain Preston was not found guilty by the Boston jury. .
After the trial of Captain Preston, a couple months later, the eight soldiers were put on trial. The names of the soldiers accused of murder were William Wemms, James Hartigan, William, McCauley, Hugh White, Matthew Killroy, William Warren, John Carrol, and Hugh Montgomery.
