Investigating Multiple Perspectives on the Boston Massacre
Inquiry Question 1: Although we don't know exactly what happened the night of March 5, 1770, what does the existing evidence from the Boston Massacre teach us about pre-Revolutionary America?
Inquiry Question 2: In what ways did people's political beliefs, social networks, and lived experience shape their understanding of the Boston Massacre?
- Background Reading for Students
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The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770
In 1768, British soldiers arrived in Boston, and lived alongside the colonists, sometimes paying to rent rooms in the colonists' houses. As British citizens, many colonists were angry to have armed regiments of the British military stationed in their city, but some colonists became friends with, and even married, soldiers.
The situation with the colonists and the soldiers grew tense and fights sometimes broke out between the two groups. One of the worst skirmishes took place in Boston on March 5, 1770. A crowd of angry colonists, some of them teenagers, gathered near several soldiers at the Custom House, where taxes on imported goods were paid. The colonists shouted insults at the soldiers and began throwing rocks and snowballs at them.
As the crowd moved forward, the soldiers opened fire. Three colonists were killed on the spot, and two others died later.
Among the dead was a Black and Indigenous sailor from Massachusetts named Crispus Attucks. Many people consider Crispus Attucks to be the first person killed in the fight for the colonies’ freedom.
Paul Revere, a Boston silversmith who was also a member of the Sons of Liberty, made a picture of the shooting and titled it The Bloody Massacre. A massacre is the killing of many people who cannot defend themselves. This event soon became known as the Boston Massacre, and gave energy to the colonists’ desire for independence from British rule.
The soldiers who were involved in the event were put on trial in Boston. They were defended by the lawyer John Adams, a future president of the United States. The British soldiers were acquitted of murder by a jury who determined that the soldiers had acted in self-defense.
- Comparing Images
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Use our Image Comparison Tool to compare visual representations of the Boston Massacre side-by-side. The tool contains a total of seven engravings, along with an 1801 painting that depicts the setting of the Boston Massacre, which took place in front of the old State House on State Street (then known as King Street).
Source Set
British General Thomas Gage sent regimentsa group of soldiers commanded by a colonel, who has supporting officers each in charge of smaller sub-groups of soldiers called companies. At this time, a standard British regiment had between 500-800 soldiers in it. of British troops to Boston following protests during which Bostonians destroyed government property and threatened the British-appointed Governor Francis Bernard with physical violence. The influx of 4,000 soldiers (plus families and support staff) into a city of 16,000 was seen by some Bostonians as a punishment, interpreting the British ships of war moored off Boston’s Long Wharf as a symbolic siegea military operation where an army tries to capture an area or town by surrounding it and stopping the movement of people / food / supplies., and the parades of British regimentsa group of soldiers commanded by a colonel, who has supporting officers each in charge of smaller sub-groups of soldiers called companies. At this time, a standard British regiment had between 500-800 soldiers in it. through city streets as a show of force. Others took pride in the display of British strength. At first, troops stayed on their ships. Then, they moved into tents on Boston Common. Finally, they were quartered in Faneuil Hall, or paid Bostonians to rent out space in their warehouses, spare rooms, or homes.
Citation: A View of Part of the Town of Boston in New England and Brittish [sic] Ships of War Landing Their Troops 1768 (Original engraving by Paul Revere, 1768) Facsimile print issued by Alfred L. Sewell (Chicago, 1868), Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/3051.
John Rowe was a politically active Boston merchant who maintained friendships with many patriots and loyalists. In his diary, Rowe recorded the years leading up to the Revolution, revealing frustration with perceived British overreach and skepticism about the violence the Sons of Liberty used to advance their cause. Rowe did not witness the Boston Massacre, but recorded what he heard and thought that night, and the next day.
Citation: John Rowe diary 7, 5-6 March 1770, pages 1073, 1076-1077, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/552.
Before the end of March 1770, Paul Revere created and published this engraving of the Boston Massacre based on the original drawing by Henry Pelham. This piece was printed throughout the colonies and remains one of the most famous images of the American Revolutionary Era. The scene is generally considered by historians to be historically inaccurate and instead a piece of propagandafalse, misleading, or biased ideas presented to an audience to gain support for a particular cause or leader. Propaganda can exist in many different forms: written, visual, verbal, etc. against the British military. For example, Revere changed the sign for the “Customsthe government department that collects taxes on goods bought, sold, imported and exported. The “Customs House” was the building in Boston where the British government did this work, which also had a military protective presence. House” where the British government housed officials and conducted much of their business to read “Butcher’s Hall.”
Citation: The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment, Hand-colored engraving by Paul Revere, Boston, 1770, Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/151.
James Bowdoin, Samuel Pemberton, and Joseph Warren (all of whom were then Boston selectmen at the time and active members of the Sons of Liberty) collected ninety-six depositionsa formal recorded statement typically taken to be used in court. “Deponents” are individuals who have given this type of testimony under oath. within two weeks of the Boston Massacre. They published this pamphlet as a narrative, followed by the first-hand accounts. Copies were sent to England and distributed throughout the colonies to share their perspective on the events of March 5, 1770.
Citation: A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston..., Edes and Gill (Boston, 1770), Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/337.
Led by Lieutenant Colonel William Dalrymple of the 29th Regimenta group of soldiers commanded by a colonel, who has supporting officers each in charge of smaller sub-groups of soldiers called companies. At this time, a standard British regiment had between 500-800 soldiers in it. , British officers collected thirty-one witness testimoniesa formal recorded statement typically taken to be used in court. after the Boston Massacre and shipped them to England. London lawyer Francis Maseres used those testimoniesa formal recorded statement typically taken to be used in court. to write the narrative of events featured in this pamphlet, providing King George III and the British people with their first perspectives of the event.
Citation: A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance at Boston in New England, printed for B. White (London, 1770), Massachusetts Historical Society, https://www.masshist.org/database/386.
These two pages from the marriage register of Christ Church, also known as Old North Church, record the marriage of Jane Crothers, a witness to the Boston Massacre, to Joseph Whitehouse, a British soldier of the 14th regimenta group of soldiers commanded by a colonel, who has supporting officers each in charge of smaller sub-groups of soldiers called companies. At this time, a standard British regiment had between 500-800 soldiers in it., on March 27, 1770. Crothers was one of only three women who testified in the trials of Captain Thomas Preston and his soldiers. Her testimonya formal recorded statement typically taken to be used in court. , which was supported by others, assisted in clearing Capt. Preston of the charge of ordering his soldiers to fire into the crowd. Crothers said, “I am positive the man was not the Captain.” Instead, she said an unknown man had made the order. Her marriage to a British soldier was not mentioned during the trial.
In addition to showing the social connections between British soldiers and Bostonians, this marriage register also documents the membership and marriages of free and enslaved Black people at Old North Church.