Adams continued to work on getting the troops withdrawn and keeping the boycott going until the Townshend duties were repealed . Two regiments were removed from Boston in 1769 , but the other two remained . Tensions between soldiers and civilians eventually resulted in the killing of five civilians in the Boston Massacre of March 1770 . According to the " propagandist interpretation " of Adams popularized by historian John Miller , Adams deliberately provoked the incident to promote his secret agenda of American independence . According to Pauline Maier , however , " There is no evidence that he prompted the Boston Massacre riot "
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Samuel Adams