It was a sunny and cold winter day in Boston Massachusetts on March 4, 1770 The Richardson Family was just doing their daily chores. In this family, there was Father Richardson, Mother Richardson, seven year old Mary Richardson, four year old Mark Richardson and last but not least thirteen year old Johnny Richardson. Father Richardson was a merchant who sold goods in the city square. Mother just stayed home and did the chores with Mary. Mark and Johnny went to the dame school six days a week, Monday through Saturday. This family was a very loving family that cared for all people. Johnny really looked up to his father and wants to become like his Father when he grew up.
That night, Father Richardson went to the meetinghouse with a group of about twenty other men to complain about the British soldiers controlling their lives with all the acts. It had ruined many colonists’ lives because they could not afford anything or they were losing all their possessions from the Writs of Assistance and the Quartering act. The soldiers were eating all of the colonists’ food and taking a lot of their possessions.


It was Sunday morning and Mother made corn meal and bread for breakfast. After breakfast, Father Richardson was getting ready to head out for the town square without his goods to sell. Mother yelled to him to not do anything dangerous as father was walking out the door. This really made Johnny scared and curious about what his father was doing especially because he had gone to the meetinghouse the night before with a group of men to argue about the acts and all of the soldiers around Boston. Johnny secretly followed his father to the town square. When Johnny turned the corner into the square, he saw his father and about twenty other men throwing ice chunks and icy cobbles at a group of seven or eight soldiers. Out of nowhere, the fire bells started ringing and everybody was yelling “Fire!” This was terrible because the soldiers thought their commander was telling them to fire, so they shot into the group of men and Johnny’s Father was in the front of the group. Johnny stood still and then saw a bullet go right through his Father’s head and saw him fell to the ground, dead. Johnny sprinted to his dad and looked at the bullet wound in his father’s forehead and just lay down on his father and cried. Mother Richardson heard the shooting so she ran to the city square and saw Johnny lying on top of his father and then she broke into tears. Johnny ran into her arms, sobbing. A lot of people were crying from fright or crying because they had just lost a loved one. This Massacre on March 5, 1770 was the Boston Massacre. After around ten minutes of crying, Mother and Johnny walked home, still crying and then told the two little ones the terrible news. The whole family cried for hours and could not think about life without their dear Father Richardson.


March 6, 1770. The Richardson Family and many close friends went to a special cemetery that they made for the people who had lost their lives in the Boston Massacre. Joe Smith Richardson was the first one to be buried in this cemetery. Everyone was crying with sadness that they had lost someone so close to him or her and would never see this special person ever again. Later that day, many friends and family walked over to the Richardson Household with food like donkers and pie. The people who came were mostly paying attention to the children because they were the ones that really need the moral support to get through this tragedy. They had just lost one of their two favorite persons in the world.

March 7, 1770
The lives of the Richardson family had changed forever. There would be no father to teach the boys’ obedience or how to become men. Johnny Elliot Richardson had to become the man of the house. He got a job as an apprentice blacksmith for Mr. Smithies, which paid a little bit of money each week. Mother had to sell all of her vegetables from her garden in the backyard to people around the village because they needed the money more than the vegetables for later on in life. Mother and Johnny had to teach the children how to do things around the house and in the garden because there would be no more father to do the dirty work around the house like fixing the roof and fixing up the chimney. Johnny knew how to do this stuff well because he had watched everything that his father did so that he could do these things when he grew up.

Two weeks later…
Everything was running smoothly but the family was still trying to get through their loss. Johnny’s job was going great as an apprentice blacksmith. Every day after school, Johnny worked at the Blacksmith shop for four hours. Mom then sold all her vegetables and grew a new batch every month. Johnny was like the father of the house now. He gave all the orders to the little ones, like telling them to go get water from the well or to clean up the kitchen. Even though he was in a kid’s body, he acted like a grown man with all the responsibilities. Life would never be the same in the Richardson family.