If only the British soldiers had listened.
That could have prevented the legendary Boston Massacre.
So declared 7th Grade students turned detectives in Erin Casey’s Social Studies class at the Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School.
Ms. Casey’s students are in the process of learning and studying the causes of the American Revolution.
She presented them with a challenge:
“To learn more about the Boston Massacre, we have been conducting an investigation.”
Ms. Casey explained the mission.
“We want to know: What really happened on the night of March 5, 1770? Were the British Redcoats ordered to shoot? Was this really a “massacre?” Who is at fault for the deaths of five colonists? Everyone knows Paul Revere's version, so we decided to investigate whether that depiction was truly accurate,” Ms Casey stated.
She shared the project.
“Students were put into teams of detectives and given a case file with eyewitness testimonies from 22 people who were in the crowd that night. The first task was to analyze these depositions with some guiding questions. These questions focused on understanding what the crowd of colonists and the British soldiers were doing on that night and trying to determine why the soldiers shot and killed five people in the crowd,” she said.
Ms. Casey revealed that “the students, acting as detectives, compared the information that they gleaned from these testimonies and tried to corroborate the evidence to determine what information was reliable.” “Once they agreed upon a solid theory of the case, students wrote up a final report for their case file. “
“The report consisted of a detailed explanation on what they think really happened on the night of March 5th, 1770, recommendations on what to do with the party(ies) responsible, and a statement on how to prevent this from happening again. Student detectives also created a police sketch of the crime scene to include in their final report,” Ms. Casey detailed.
She added:
“The final step is for these teams of detectives to compare and contrast Paul Revere’s engraving titled “The Bloody Massacre” with their interpretation of what happened.”
The student detectives have their own theories and recommendations on how this massacre could have been avoided.
“There should have been representatives to talk to the government so to prevent the violence,” Eden Acheampong said.
The usage of rifles was another cause of this fatal historical event.
“The troops should have been carrying clubs and not rifles,” Elijah Siy said.
AAryansh Chander offered his suggestion.
“It was wrong for them to open fire; Britain had promised the Colonists that they would not shoot,” he claimed.
All three students agreed that “if the troops listened to the captain, then no one would have fired.”
Paul Revere would have been proud of these students and may have never delivered his famous Paul Revere Ride.