Script + Notes:

Narrator: Justin, Ryan, Jordan 

Soldier: Ryan

Civilians: Jordan, Justin

Judge: Jordan

Why did the massacre happen?

• Because the British had instituted a number of new taxes on the American colonies
• The taxes included tea, glass, paper, paint and lead.
• Protesters were protesting the British occupation of their city sent to Boston to enforce taxation measures
• The massacre had gotten 5 people killed and 6 people injured
• The massacre occurred in the evening of March 5, 1770 King Street
• Just before the shooting began at the Boston Massacre, a British soldier struck a young boy with his rifle’s butt for insulting a British officer. Captain Thomas Preston and eight British soldiers came to his aid. Private Montgomery was hit with a stick and fired into the crowd
• Crowd had been dispersed, a total of 13 people were arrested. 8 of them being british officers.
• Some results of the massacre caused massive public outcry against british rule and further pushed the idea that the british empire was evil.
• Britain needed money due to defending the US from the french, but now that they had none, they started taxing the people in the States to gain more money. Lots of British people higher up that could make decisions secretly hated the new taxes on tea and many other imported objects.
• This was a huge opening for writers and newspaper writing because of propaganda being spread to fear and hate the british.
• After the “murders”, the soldiers were put on trial, and as their defendant, they hired John Adams, who was a well respected gentleman that was very anti-stamp act, but he also would enforce the law. 
• The court case would put Adams’ reputation at risk, but in the end impacted him much less than expected. 6 of the soldiers were proven not guilty, and 2 were proven on manslaughter, and if they committed any other crime, the sentence would be harsher.

Script:

 

(Jordan)Narrator: It was a cold winter day. The pressure was on. The british were heavily taxing the american people and they were definitely not happy. It only took 1 person to start it all.

 

Justin, angry and disappointed mood: “Oh god sakes, are you soldiers stupid? I had to pay so much money to taxes and I don’t even know if I can last 2 more years.”

 

Ryan: “I’m sorry sir, but we cannot do anything. It’s the government’s decision of making the taxes.”

 

Jordan, angry voice: “Only idiot buggers would make those kinds of decisions, like what were ya even thinkin’”

 

Ryan, British accent: “Hey!, you better take you filthy mouth somewhere else, you won’t like what’s coming next.”

 

(Justin and Jordan angrily scream at the british officer) YA WAT MATE WHAT ARE YA SAYING MATE YOU WANNA GO MATE? AH? U WANNA GO AH?

 

(Ryan) Narrator: The pressure was getting real, the soldiers were angry and so were the people. Britain needed money due to defending the US from the French but now, they have none.

 

Jordan, more masculine voice😂: “Don’t you dare tell me what to do bugger!”

 

Justin pretends to be little child; make sure to sound whiny: “Yeah you serve no right to order us”

Ryan: “ Oh wow, even a child is talking back, some rude manners there!”

 

Justin: “Shut up moron”

 

Ryan: action: hits rifle butt at Justin’s face, “don’t you dare tell me to shut up bloody scrub

 

Jordan, Justin pretends to be soldiers: try to break up Ryan’s fight with the little boy

 

*when fight breaks up, civilians form snowballs and throws them at the soldiers*

 

Ryan: “ OI, Stop it you bloody scrubs !”

 

Jordan: Throw it harder! Make sure they BLEED. WE HAVE PLENTY OF SNOW AND ICICLES TO THROW”

 

*People start to freak out and ryan shoots Jordan and Justin*

 

Ryan: I told you not to mess with me, bugger.

 

(Justin) Narrator: “Later on that day, the people of boston saw a newspaper released about the boston massacre. It was heavily exaggerated, which caused the people of America to see this event as an atrocity committed against the people of boston.

(Ryan) Narrator: After the “murders”, the soldiers were put on trial, and as their defendant, they hired John Adams, who was a well respected gentleman that was very anti-stamp act, but he also would enforce the law. Adams was the perfect defendant for the soldiers who shot the innocent civilians. They moved to a court and it was packed top to bottom.

 

 

Core Competencies:

Creative Thinking/Communication

Communication:

-I give, receive, and act on feedback.

When we were creating this project, we asked Mr. Chaffee for feedback and reviewing. He told us that 30 seconds of a skit would be too short, and we should shoot for around 3 minutes. Our group decided that the Boston massacre is a short event, so we decided to add narration of what is going on in the scene, and add the court case alongside the Boston Massacre. Without Mr. Chaffee’s feedback and advice, we would have a dull, boring 30 second skit, but we managed to edit and act on his advice to create a fully-baked, 3 minute presentation. To add, Jordan and Ryan both had great ideas for the project, such as adding a whole new scene of a courtroom and adding Sam Adams to the skit and assigning our roles. I we all gave each other feedback on how we should put them into the skit without making things awkward such as merging 2 scenes in one, and acted upon that feedback to each other.

-I can take on roles and responsibilities in a group.

Furthermore, I took the role of researching and narrating the story. My group members would type out the information on the google docs and do some research, while I looked up information and came up with script ideas such as adding narration to fill the plot and add time to the overall product. I can admit, when we took this project home, I didn’t do as much as my group members, but I put my part into the project by coming up with ideas and making sure it is historically correct. For the presentation, Our group had some trouble on memorizing the lines for the characters, so we all helped each other along with giving them signs to start saying their line, and took our responsibility to make sure the skit was moving smoothly.

-I get ideas when I play. My ideas are fun for me and make me happy.

When we were thinking of props for the skit, I was thinking specifically of the snowballs being thrown at the officers (which is pretty hilarious) and I thought, “We’re not throwing ice in the class, what can we use as a substitute?” and I thought if we crunch up paper balls, we can throw them with some distance. Best part is, paper is white just like snowballs, so it would be a crafty and fun alternative to actual snow or ice. To add, Jordan had an idea to use papers as a prop for the court scene, so we can get away with writing the script on a piece of paper without anyone knowing. That gave me an idea to use small queue cards for writing notes about the script, and looking at them when help is needed.

Things to improve on:

This project is a 3 man group, and i’ll admit, I didn’t put as much work as I could’ve. At school, I did my part and did the research and made ideas, but when it was sent home as homework, I only wrote 1 or 2 lines for the characters. A way I can make sure this doesn’t happen again, and to add more work to the group is to contact my group members and stay in touch so I don’t run out of ideas on how to support my fellow peers and add to the project in general.