Persuasive Essay about James Armistead Lafayette

The war was imminent after the British came back. They already had too many screwups like The Boston Massacre, taxation without representation, Punishment of Boston, and the burning of Falmouth, “An outrage exceeding in barbarity and cruelty every hostile act among nations,” said George Washington.  I believe that the thought that England has a right to own the colonies after all that happened should be terminated.

In my opinion, The Burning of Falmouth was a massacre.  After launching a barrage of incinarareis into Falmouth, they sent infantry to finish the destruction and probably kill all survivors and witnesses.  Falmouth was a “Rebel Town.” The people verbally harassed the tax collectors and had sympathy for the rebels in Boston. When the king decided to send British soldiers to Falmouth as it was a rebel town, a group of rebels from Brunswick under the command of Colonel Samuel Thompson went to Falmouth on May 7th, 1775.  With no intention of harming Lieutenant Mowatt, the Patriots took him and two others captive. The British threatened to destroy Falmouth if he was not released. Of course, one life was not worth the lives of a whole town, so they released him. Since the mission failed, the Rebels returned to their hometown. Even Lieutenant Mowatt was released unharmed.  He chose to punish Falmouth for the kidnapping him. Of course, since it was the British, they wanted to completely destroy it. The people of Falmouth made a deal with Mowatt to give up all of their weapons to stop the destruction. Half an hour after the colonist gave up their arms, Lieutenant Mowatt warned the people of Falmouth to evacuate, just as they were getting settled in.  After the 2 hours passed, they fired straight onto Falmouth. The British’s lust for destruction did not stop at firing at the town, they used incinararies; incinararies are an explosive cannonball that sets fire after explosions, causing complete destruction. Good for the British! When they saw the incinararies did not completely destroy the town, they sent a squad to burn down the buildings.  The people of Falmouth were smart and got away just in time to see their homes and everything they’ve worked for, go up in flames. At 6:00 pm, the cannon fire stopped and the destruction was phenomenal: 130 houses, the Anglican Church, the meeting house, the public library, and the fire station all were destroyed.  The fact that Falmouth was in the New England part of the colonies makes the following winter way worse. My prediction is that to rebuild Falmouth will take at least 4 – 7 years.  The church was burned down, therefore, there is no place for a large amount of people to take cover in. Even if no one died in the burning, the winter will surely take casualties.

FIRE, BOOM BOOM BOOM! Those were some of the many shots fired to kill Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwell.  March 5, 1770: Multiple shots fired on a Bostonian crowd by the 29th regiment, led by Thomas Preston.  Earlier that day: The 29th regiment rest on the Boston Green, almost everyone despises them, the Bostonians shout comments at the British Soldiers and start throwing snowballs.  When the king sent soldiers into Boston, everything became unhappy. Everyone watched where they stepped as though if they stepped on a soldier’s shoes, they would get arrested. Greens are where all Americans can use the land to do everyday activities such as play, wash clothes, have a picnic, raise cattle, and socialize with other citizens.  In October of 1768, the rights to the Boston Green were violated as Soldiers were moved into Boston and took camp on The Green. As a result, a Boston crowd gathered on March 5th , 1770 to throw mean comments and snowballs at the 29th regiment. Every single British soldier, except Tomas Preston, countered with bullets. Some reloaded and shot again at the ones standing strong.  Five people were instantly killed, the first being Crispus Attucks. This event happened to light the spark of the American Revolution and Crispus Attucks being the first man to die for the cause. Attucks was a true inspiration, he was a former slave, when everyone got out of the line of fire, he stood up. When the British reloaded, he stayed up, just to get shot again, I say it was to save a life or to make a point, nevertheless, he was a hero who gained freedom just to have it taken away by a bullet that also took his life.  One of the other people killed was James Cadwell, the British danced on his grave by burning down his house and his church 10 years later in 1780. I personally question if the Boston Massacre was even necessary! In addition to all of this, no soldiers got any jail time or penalties. The soldiers did not stop at shooting the men, they shot a 17 year old youth named Samuel Maverick, he was separated from his friend, and noticed a crowd surrounding british soldiers, he only got 2 words out before he was shot, and mortally killed.  The first man to be mortally shot was Samuel Gray, his last words before getting shot were: “God damn you, don’t fire!” You can not trust Great Britain; Patrick Carr, a Loyalist, got shot while he was walking through the street. You start to wonder: a bloody massacre on 2 children, their own supporter, 2 men, while 3 others were injured.

Imagine you have a company, you do nothing for it and it prospers, a competitor threatens it, so you jump back in and save it.  This is called salutary neglect. In this case, England left the Colonies alone so it could focus on it’s problems in Europe. The Colonies prospered, becoming cities and states. The residents did not have to work everyday just to survive. Huge estates like plantations arose. It was becoming not just a colonial settlement, but a country of its own.  The dream lasted from colonization, till 1754, when the French and Indian war started. The Colonies, with the help from their mother country, England, won the war against the French, and the Indians. The war left England with a economical debt, their mercantilism was way below their actual power. The response to the debt was irrational: taxing the colonies even though they needed the money for their own defence. On top of this, they had no representation in the Parliament and got taxed without their consent. This is called, “Taxation Without Representation.” England also thought it was a good idea to give back Louisburg, the land the Colonist fought so hard for, lost many loved ones, and lost their homes.  These acts sparked a sense of revolution in the Colonies, England wants and deserves a war, we are going to give it to them.

From what I heard, a group of Indians destroyed 342 chests of tea on board the Beaver, Eleanor, and Dartmouth, and the British are punishing Boston for it.  That’s like taxing the colonies for the Seven Years War, wait, they did that. The inhumane punishments for Boston affected the people inside.  Imagine all the sudden, a soldier burst into your house demanding to stay, eat your food, be well rested, or you’ll be arrested. This is called the Quartering Act, even after they past the Boston Port Act, they still allowed soldiers in the homes of the almost starving Bostonians.  The Boston Port Act allowed nothing in or out of Boston, therefore the citizens of Boston had a limited amount of food in Boston. Since trying to starve the colonist, according to the British, is not enough, they wanted to taunt them by starting the Quebec Acts, giving their enemies, the French colonist, freedom of religion and more land.  They were enemies on all stages: religion, mother country, loyalties, etcetera. The British officials who were accused, stood trial in Britain, where the jury was totally biased towards him, and the Town Meetings were banned. Imagine yourself in a scenario where you are locked in your own house, can’t see your family, random strangers walk into your room and you are expected to care for them, and your nemesis gets your whole basement.  You would say those conditions are intolerable. That is why these conditions for Boston are called the Intolerable Acts.

The Massacre at Lexington, and the Battle of Concord, that is what I would call it.  70 Minute men line up on the green as protesters, they wait hours until the British march into their sites.  The minute men have weapons, yet most of them don’t know how to shoot. The drums sound in the distance. They are so loud that the minute men think there might be so many soldiers that they will ignore them.  The soldiers only have 2 objectives, Capture Sam Adams and John Hancock, then take over Concord. Colonel Smith was in charge of the British March. Colonel Smith was a heavy guy, so he rode back. Smith sent Grenadiers and some light infantry lead by Major Pitcairn over to Lexington to secure the bridges leading out of Concord, Pitcairn headed through Lexington only to see 70 minute men standing with guns.  Pitcairn’s pride got the best of him as he trotted on his horse towards the men and he demanded they hand over their arms. They told him they were protesting, yet Pitcairn’s pride was too great, so he ordered his forces to close in on bayonets. BANG! The shot that was heard around the world was shot; it was not on the green. The British charged with bayonets out and shot, a easy surrender was avoided as it was supposed to be a massacre.  Some of the Colonist cover fired for the fallen. One of the men, crawled over to his wife, and died in her lap. After 8 of the minutemen were dead, Pitcairn ordered his men to hunt the remaining men. The Massacre At Lexington was complete. When I first heard about this, it was called the battle of Lexington and Concord. I thought it was glorious that we separated from Britain and started the fighting, until I heard about Lexington. At Concord, many Patriots from all over attacked the British march using Indian Style fighting.  There was only one goal: defeat the British and avenge our fallen allies. When the attack was threatening the British, Pitcairn sent many soldiers to their deaths. For the colonist, 49 were killed, 39 were wounded, and five were missing. For the British, 73 were killed, 174 were wounded, and 26 were missing. The British: the number 1 army in the world, lost to a bunch of Yankees.

To this day I look back and wonder how many more will die in the American Revolution.   I am ashamed that you even bought this book, put it down and start boycotting the taxation as we have no representation.  The year is 1780, this is America and I am James Armistead Lafayette.