By: Joseph Nmashie

French Indian War  I am a British soldier who has witnessed this event. We needed more land to win. At first we clashed in the Americas. I went marching along with the other soldiers. When the French came it started. I was a gunner. I was able to shoot down 5 soldiers and lost my musket in the battle. I hated the uniform s because it made us easy targets. One of the French tried to shoot me, but he missed. So I used my short sword to slice off his ear and leg. We were able to capture the Ohio river valley Along with the French capturing part of it. At first our numbers were decreasing because of our losses. But that all changed when we captured Canada. After that capture we gained so much land that it left us with huge bills to pay.

Sugar Act The sugar act is when the king taxed 3 cents on sugar and other things like wine, cloth, tropical food and silk. Even when I went to go buy sugar for my tea, they taxed me on it. Extra money for things like that is outrageous. The economy started going bad since this act. There were debts for people who could not pay. My post was near the town guarding it were I bought my sugar. But the bad thing was that people was smuggling goods so they can not pay for it. We dealt with people like that for a while.

Stamp Act The stamp act was when we came back from war, the British government taxed paper and legal papers like documents, marriage papers,and even playing cards. This made the colonist so mad that they wouldn’t even buy no more British goods. I thought the return of us from war would make them pay the stamp to raise money for our troops but it just makes them furious. When I heard of the news, I was happy about the citizens paying for us. No wonder when I was patrolling the town there was a lot of fuss going on. Even me and my squad had to break a protest. That was difficult because some tried to fight back. And that didn’t go pretty well.

Townsend Act The Townsend act was when goods from outside the colonies were taxed like paint, tea, coffee, and cocoa. This was a problem for colonist since they already had to pay taxes for other materials. Until 1770 they dropped all taxes for that act except the tea taxes since a lot of people loved the tea.

Boston Massacre The Boston massacre was a bad time for colonist and soldiers. When the soldiers stayed at peoples house, they became lazy. Instead I treated the people who I lived with me respect since they already took me in. But walking in the streets was annoying especially when they made fun of your red coats which I hated. On a cold night of march 5, 1770, I was guarding the custom house with Captain Thomas Preston and seven guards in total including me. A crowd of people began to gather and throw chunks of ice and snowballs. I thought they were idiots to do this if they saw we had muskets. Then someone behind me shot his gun. After that shot we all panicked and shot into the crowd. Then five people lay dead on the floor. Six people wounded.

Boston Tea Party This event was when a group of people dressed up as American Indians and boycotted a ship. I didn’t understand why these people would do that if the government lowered the price and gave them one company to rely on. I would have been happy if the government gave that to us. The colonist should be happy for what they at least have. Any way, the Indians opened 342 cheats of tea and dumped it out in the water. Can you believe it. All that tea gone. After that incident the king was so furious about the act those people did.

Coercive Acts This act was when British wanted to force colonist to obey Great Britain. Then the Boston port act closed the Boston harbor. That means ships and trade ships could not come until Boston paid for the lost tea. Many people lost there jobs. I guess what the Indians did didn’t help at all. And the citizens thought that Boston would go hungry.

Continental Congress In men gathered in Philadelphia to discuss the fate of their nation. These men were delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies. They discussed how to boycott the British empire. I don’t find that idea very happy. I think that we should all be equal. And once the continental congress heard about the coercive acts, they weren’t happy. One of the congress first act was to create a continental army led by George Washington. The second act was to sign a petition to offer Britain peace with colonies. But king George rejected it.

Battle Of Lexington/Concord The battle of Lexington was about the British looking for weapons and supplies that the militia hid. The sun rose over Lexington and then someone fired a gun. I didn’t know what happened next. It was a blur of fighting. The militia had canons and took down some of our men. After the fight we went to go look for the weapons. When we reached there the weapons were gone. I don’t know why the colonist won’t make it easy for us. The king should of sighed the peace papers. But after a few loses we were out numbered. We had to retreat and regroup in the city.

Battle Of Bunker Hill This intense battle was the last straw. There was a lot of enemies coming through the land. Our first assault was kind of weak to me because we were already losing men. Our plan was to capture the hill and go to the rail fence. I was confident about winning,but not the other troops. After we won the remaining colonist retreated northward toward Cambridge. Although we won, the colonist had won small victories.