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Nov 8, 2023 · Illustration. by Paul Revere. published on 08 November 2023. Download Full Size Image. The Bloody Massacre, depicting the Boston Massacre that occurred on 5 March 1770, engraving by Paul Revere, 1770. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
On the evening of 5 March 1770, a confrontation between British soldiers and a boisterous crowd in front of the Custom House on King Street in Boston, Massachusetts had deadly results and the event quickly became known as the "Boston Massacre." In its aftermath, the commander of the 29th Regiment, Captain Thomas Preston, as well as the eight ...
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Mar 4, 2020 · The Boston Massacre occurred during an era of escalating tensions in the American colonies, after British troops were stationed in Boston to enforce unpopular laws and taxes. On the evening of March 5, a crowd harassed a British sentry, who was soon supported eight more soldiers.
- Overview
- Boston, cradle of revolution
- The Boston Massacre
- What do you think?
On March 5, 1770 an angry altercation between British soldiers and American colonists inflamed passions that would eventually lead to revolution.
Even before the event that went down in history as the Boston Massacre, Boston, Massachusetts was a center of radical revolutionary ideas and sentiment. The colonists had endured years of conflict with British officials, and the number of people living in poverty and/or unemployed was growing in the city. With so many idle young men competing for work, there was bound to be trouble as British rule became more onerous.
After the Seven Years’ War had drained Britain’s coffers, the royal government imposed tighter controls over its North American colonies in order to raise revenues. When customs officials complained about the difficulties of collecting from disobedient colonists, Britain sent troops to impose order. The arrival of British soldiers in October 1768 heightened tensions in a city already on the edge of an uprising.
In March 1770, British officials ordered the removal of all occupants of the Boston Manufactory House—a halfway house for people living in poverty, those who were ill, and those who were homeless—so that a regiment of British soldiers could be garrisoned there. The Manufactory House’s homeless occupants put up a resistance, and the British backed down, but other confrontations ensued.
On March 5th, one such confrontation turned violent. As a mob of angry townspeople encircled a British sentry shouting insults and throwing rocks and sticks, nervous Redcoats opened fire into the crowd, killing five Bostonians and wounding several others. One of the victims was Crispus Attucks, a free sailor of African and Native American descent who has gone down in history as the first casualty of the American Revolution.2
Local newspapers eulogized Attucks and the others as martyrs to British tyranny. Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, two of Boston’s most influential revolutionaries, proved adept propagandists. Revere is known for producing the most famous depiction of the incident—though in reality he merely copied the original engraving by young Boston-area artist Henry Pelham. The image was published in the Boston Gazette and circulated widely, stoking the flames of anti-British anger and revolutionary righteousness. Pro-British Loyalists promoted an alternate narrative, accusing agitators in the crowd of deliberately provoking the incident. Nevertheless, the radical narrative proved far more influential.3
The colonists did not want to give the British a pretext for retaliation, and so preparations were made to ensure a fair trial. A young lawyer named John Adams, despite his commitment to the revolutionary cause, agreed to defend the Redcoats, all but two of whom were acquitted.
Why do you think the incident in March 1770 happened in Boston and not somewhere else?
In your opinion, was the Boston Massacre truly a massacre? Who do you think was at fault for the incident?
How important was the Boston Massacre in the events leading up to the American Revolution?
[Notes and attributions]
May 29, 2017 · On March 5, 1770, British soldiers on Boston’s King Street (now State Street) fired on a raucous mob of screaming, taunting civilians, killing five. Within days of the shooting, Henry Pelham made a sketch of the event, which became known as the Boston Massacre. Pelham was half-brother of painter John Singleton Copley, who by this time had ...
Comparison. Assembled here are seven engravings depicting the Boston Massacre, along with a painting from 1801 of the State House (known in 1770 as the Town House) and King Street where the events of 5 March 1770 took place. By comparing the differences and similarities, perhaps you too will be drawn into the heated discussion of the time as to ...
The Boston Massacre. 1770-03-05 Boston Massacre (Incident on King Street): British soldiers kill 5 men in a crowd throwing snowballs, stones and sticks at them. African American Crispus Attucks 1st to die; later held up as early black martyr. Massacre galvanizes anti-British feelings. The Boston Massacre with related historic events, famous ...
