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Learn about the Boston Massacre where five colonies were killed by the British. Major event in the American Revolutionary War.

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"The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a Party of the 29th Regt." by Paul Revere, 1770

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The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, [engraved by Henry Pelham, Boston, 1770

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Seeds of Revolution

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The Boston Massacre was one of the events that led to the American Revolution. In 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a group of British soldiers shot their muskets into a crowd. Five colonists were killed.

The massacre happened at a time of tension between the American colonies and Great Britain. In 1767 the British Parliament passed the Townshend Acts. These acts placed taxes on goods such as tea, paper, and glass. The taxes angered many colonists. They felt that the Townshend Acts were unfair because the colonies were not represented in Parliament.

British soldiers arrived in Boston in 1768 to keep order. On the night of March 5, 1770, a group of British soldiers were trying to quiet an angry mob. Colonists were shouting and throwing things at the soldiers. Captain Thomas Preston, the leader of the soldiers, did not order his men to shoot. But in the confusion the soldiers began firing into the crowd. One of the five men killed was a former slave named Crispus Attucks. He is remembered as one of the first people to die for American independence.

Only two of the British soldiers were found guilty of the killings, and they were not punished harshly. The massacre caused many colonists to speak out against rule by Britain.

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The Boston Massacre was one of the events that led to the American Revolution. In 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts, a group of British soldiers shot their muskets into a crowd....

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Which eyewitness accounts are trusted in moments of chaos? How do historians recapture the different viewpoints days, months, years, and even centuries later? How do historians grapple with the ways memories and depictions change over time?

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Which eyewitness accounts are trusted in moments of chaos? How do historians recapture the different viewpoints days, months, years, and even centuries later? How do historians grapple with the ways memories and depictions change over time?

Depictions of the Boston Massacre, a chaotic melee on March 5, 1770 that left five Bostonians dead, offer a glimpse into the blurred lines between reality and propaganda. For example, if in 1770 you only saw Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston Massacre, you may have come away with a much different impression of the event than if you witnessed it firsthand.

Revere engraved his depiction, courtesy of Yale University Art Gallery, of the Boston Massacre, titled "The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a Party of the 29th Reg.," three weeks after the event. Revere copied most of his more famous image from that of another engraver, Henry Pelham. The engraving distorts the scene by showing the Boston crowds as innocent and defenseless, while the British soldiers are depicted as deliberate murderers. Additional details were also distorted, including the blue sky (the event occurred at night), a sign reading "Butcher's Hall" on the Customs House (no such sign was present), among others.

Another detail was also distorted, a detail that differed slightly from engraver to engraver. In creating black-and-white engravings and leaving it up to other artists to color in the scenes, they avoided highlighting a key detail of the events: the race of one of the five victims. Crispus Attucks, a dock worker of African and Native American descent, is considered by many historians to have been the first casualty of the Boston Massacre.

More than 80 years later in the 1850s, abolitionists pushed Attucks into the forefront of depictions of the Boston Massacre. They sponsored new art, like John H. Bufford's "Boston Massacre, March 5th, 1770," courtesy of Boston Athenæum, that placed Attucks as a hero and martyr at the center of the Massacre. Attucks' name has continued to be used in historical, current, and cultural events through to the current day to signify heroism and martyrdom.

Both the 1770 and 1850s depictions of the Boston Massacre and Crispus Attucks were used as propaganda to sway the public towards a particular conclusion, first towards the side of independence from Britain and then later towards abolishing slavery. Neither depiction is a particularly faithful account, although both elicit strong reaction. Do the different depictions of the Boston Massacre change how you view the event?

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Boston Massacre and Propaganda: Changing Depictions of Crispus Attucks

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Which eyewitness accounts are trusted in moments of chaos? How do historians recapture the different viewpoints days, months, years, and even centuries later? How do historians grapple with the ways memories and depictions change over time? Depictions of the Boston Massacre, a chaotic melee on March 5, 1770 that left five Bostonians dead, offer a glimpse into the blurred lines between reality and propaganda.

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What does it look like now?

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The Freedom Trail Foundation's most popular tour highlights the revolutionary history that took place at 11 of the 16 official Freedom Trail historic sites.

North End Tours highlight official Freedom Trail historic sites such as Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground, and other historic places in Boston's oldest neighborhood.

Tour Schedule

Saturdays through December 30, 1:30 pm

All Freedom Trail tours led by 18 th-century costumed guides are excellent for families, school field trips, corporate team building, incentives, and convention activities. These tours can be customized to fit your group's schedule and are available year round.

Freedom Trail Preservation

Boston's iconic 2.5 mile-Freedom Trail connects 16 nationally significant historic sites, each one an authentic treasure. Thanks to preservation efforts, these cultural assets are still intact, which makes Boston truly unique as one of the few places in America to experience the actual sites and learn the history they tell while walking through modern city streets.

Preservation

Freedom Trail Sites

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The Freedom Trail Foundation's most popular tour highlights the revolutionary history that took place at 11 of the 16 official Freedom Trail historic sites. North End Tours highlight official Freedom Trail historic sites such as Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, and Copp's Hill Burying Ground, and other historic places in Boston's oldest neighborhood.

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This timeline provides a brief overview of events that occurred before and during the American Revolution.

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Townshend Acts Cut Back. Because of the reduced profits resulting from the colonial boycott of imported British goods, Parliament withdrew all of the Townshend Act (1767) taxes except for the tax on tea.

An End to Nonimportation. In response to Parliament's relaxation of its taxation laws, the colonies relaxed their boycott of British imported goods (1767).

Conflict between Citizens and British Troops in New York. After a leading New York Son of Liberty issued a broadside attacking the New York Assembly for complying with the Quartering Act (1765), a riot erupted between citizens and soldiers, resulting in serious wounds but no fatalities.

Boston Massacre. The arrival of troops in Boston provoked conflict between citizens and soldiers. On March 5, a group of soldiers surrounded by an unfriendly crowd opened fire, killing three Americans and fatally wounding two more. A violent uprising was avoided only with the withdrawal of the troops to islands in the harbor. The soldiers were tried for murder, but convicted only of lesser crimes; noted patriot John Adams was their principal lawyer.

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1770 to 1772 | Timeline | Articles and Essays | Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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Timeline 1770 Townshend Acts Cut Back. Because of the reduced profits resulting from the colonial boycott of imported British goods, Parliament withdrew all of the Townshend Act (1767) taxes except for the tax on tea. An End to Nonimportation. In response to Parliament's relaxation of its taxation laws, the colonies relaxed their boycott of British imported goods (1767).

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The Boston Massacre | Road to the Revolution

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