Birthplace of a Nation

Boston is often referred to as the "Birthplace of Our Nation."  Below is a picture of the old state house and right about where the group of people is standing is where on March 5, 1770 a group of about nine British Soldiers fired on a group of rowdy colonists, killing five and injuring several more in what will be remembered historically as "The Boston Massacre."  Many historians consider this to be the beginning of the Revolution and these the first casualties of the Revolution, but that actually isn't quite true.  Why were the colonists so rowdy?  Well, as it turns out, eleven days prior to the "Boston Massacre" or "The Incident on King Street" as the British referred to it, a poor German immigrant boy, Christopher Seider (10-11 years of age) was killed when Ebenezer Richardson, a customs official who, after being struck by a rock thrown by an angry mob of schoolboys protesting the selling of British goods outside of a store, climbed to the second story window of his home and fired into the group (near the intersection of Richmond and Hanover Street.)  Young Christopher was mortally wounded, sitting off a firestorm in the city.  His funeral was financed by none other than Samuel Adams and was attended by over 2000 people, one of the largest funerals ever for that period in Boston when the population was only 16,000.