The British passed many acts which caused tensions between Britain and the colonists before the Boston Massacre, March 5th, 1770. In the fall of 1768, more British soldiers were sent from England to keep the colonists in line. The Boston Massacre was an eruption of tensions between the colonists and British soldiers. Both sides went kind of crazy! The British were passing acts like the Townsend Act which taxed colonist on imports from the colonies. The colonist protested and eventually a group of colonists surrounded soldiers in Boston.  British soldiers fired into crowd. Crispus Attucks, who was one of the first people to come to America, got killed with four others in the Boston Massacre. People were outraged! There were lots of anti-propaganda and fighting with snowballs, gears and oyster shells. This is one of the many things that caused the American Revolution.