In 1630 Boston was founded by Puritan colonist who had arrived from England. Throughout the 17^th century Boston was the largest town in British North America. By the middle of the 18^th century, however, Philadelphia’s population surpassed that of Boston’s.

Because of increased taxation imposed by the British on what were at the time the thirteen colonies, rebellion against the British was aroused, leading to the American Revolutionary War.  One of the first acts of rebellion was the infamous ‘Boston Tea Party’, which took place on December 16, 1773, in which Boston citizens, dressed as Indians, snuck on to a British merchant vessel bringing tea to the colonies. The tea, which was heavily taxed, was thrown overboard by the rebels, making it quite undrinkable and caused a great cry of anger towards the colonists by the British.

Preceding the ‘Tea Party’ was a more gruesome event, known as the Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired upon a crowd of colonists who were becoming increasingly more unruly and threatening to the British soldiers. The crowd, which had grown to a mob, was throwing snowballs and other objects at the soldiers while also taunting them verbally. Finally one of the citizens, Richard Holmes a tavern keeper, knocked one of the soldiers down with a club. As the soldier recovered and stood up, he fired into the crowd and yelled, “Damn you, fire!” At that moment the soldiers fired into the crowd, hitting eleven men. Three men died immediately, and one more died the next morning and a fifth died two weeks hence.