On this episode of Our American Stories, on March 5, 1770, tensions in colonial Boston erupted when British soldiers fired into a crowd, killing five men in what would soon be known as the Boston Massacre. The event became one of the most significant moments in the timeline of early American history. Then John Adams made a decision that stunned many of his fellow colonists.

Though he believed British policy toward the colonies was unjust, Adams agreed to defend the soldiers in court. He understood that if the American cause stood for liberty and justice, it could not abandon those principles when they were inconvenient. Our own Greg Hengler shares the story.

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