4 An THE FIRST SHOTS In the eighteenth century the people who lived in Great Britain's thirteen colonies in North America were frustrated They had grown tired of British rule and taxes BUTCHERS HALL illustration showing British soldiers right and colonists left during the Boston Massacre
1783 Everything changed during the Boston Massacre in Massachusetts on March 5 1770. That day angry colonists confronted a British soldier on the streets The colonists yelled and threw snowballs at him After more British soldiers were called in to handle the colonists reports claimed that someone yelled fire Shots rang out and five colonists were killed Local sailor Crispus Attucks a Black and Indigenous man was the first of those colonists making him the first casualty of the American Revolution The Boston Massacre and other events led to the Revolutionary War 1775 Loyalists or Tories were colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain They fought alongside the redcoats or the British soldiers Patriots formed the Continental army and fought for American independence from Great Britain Attucks became a martyr for the patriots and a symbol for abolitionists There were many heroes soldiers spies and supporters during the Revolutionary War But many of their stories slipped through the cracks when history was retold 5 Crispus Attucks Crispus Attucks
6 history well is A RIDE OF WARNING paul Revere's famous horseback ride warning that the British were coming known in Two years after Revere's ride a sixteen year old girl performed another important ride On August 18 1775 Paul Revere rides along the streets of Massachusetts to warn people that British troops are coming
SYBIL LUDINGTON Sybil Ludington was the daughter of a local colonel On April 26 1777 her father learned that the British were going to attack Danbury Connecticut but he was too busy preparing for the battle to warn soldiers Danbury was a key location because it held supplies for patriot troops Sybil volunteered to make the rainy night ride on her horse She rode as many as 40 miles or 64 km about three times longer than Revere's ride waking soldiers from their sleep to join the fight The British did capture Danbury but Sybil's alarm helped the patriots push back the redcoats at nearby Ridgefield In 1961 a statue was built to honor Sybil It stands in Carmel New York 7 Statue of Sybil Ludington
