Boston Massacre

In Boston, tensions between colonists and British soldiers were rising, eventually leading to what we know today as the Boston Massacre. This event was quickly thrown around the press as a blood bath, painting the British soldiers as monsters. The questions being asked; who started the massacre and who was at fault? Samual Adams was convinced the British were murderers. He wrote A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre¹, highlighting his hatred towards the soldiers stationed in Boston and his point of view on the so-called massacre. He made sure to include eyewitness accounts which led the story to escalate, with the Essex Gazette² publishing his entire narrative, eventually leading to propaganda used to provoke resentment towards England. In a poster³ well known throughout history books, Paul Revere took inspiration from Adams' narrative and engraved the scene of the so-called “massacre,” on print, indicating the British soldiers fired into a crowd of innocent civilians. This familiar piece of media is not all true and was in fact a piece of propaganda that sparked the anger of colonists, eventually leading to the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775. While the thirteen colonies had different social and political interests, the newspapers and pamphlets were created to unite fellow Americans against England, creating a patriotic and unified country.  

In Paul Revere's decriptive picture portraying his point of view on the Boston Massacre, he was able to bring colonists close together, giving them a common matter to bond over. His engraving inspired the new Americans to become more united than they had ever been, giving them a reason to fight for their country. While most colonists despised the British, there were still divisions between different states. This event and piece of propaganda led them to support a common cause, and strengthened their view on America's freedom. 

So what really happened during the "massacre"? Historians claim that it was a "deadly riot that escalated to a bloody slaughter."⁴ This statement is not all true, as it frames the British soldiers as monsters while swearing the colonists were innocent. Paul Revere was able to sway the minds of the colonists, and historians today. Serena Zabin, author of The Boston Massacre: A Family History⁵, claims that tension and a simple misunderstanding between soldiers and colonists led to a few people dying, and was blown out of proportion by the Americans and Paul Revere. While we will never actually know what occured on March 5, 1770, different accounts of the incident and blatant propaganda during the time can lead us to the understanding that the event was exaggerated.

^{1Boston, James Bowdoin, Joseph Warren, Samuel Pemberton, John Doggett, and Joseph Meredith Toner Collection. A short narrative of the horrid massacre in Boston, perpetrated in the evening of the fifth day of March, by soldiers of the 29th Regiment, which with the 14th Regiment were then quartered there; with some observations on the state of things prior to that catastrophe. New York, J. Doggett, jr, 1849. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/00007234/.}

^{2Hall, Samuel. 1771. Essex Gazette (Salem, VOL. 3 edition), May 7, 1771.} 

^{3Revere, Paul, Engraver. The bloody massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th by a party of the 29th Regt. Massachusetts Boston, 1770. Boston: Engraved Printed & Sold by Paul Revere. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661777/.}

^{4History.com Editors. October 27, 2009. Boston Massacre. N.p.: A&E Television Network.}

^{5Zabin, Serena R. 2020. The Boston Massacre: A Family History. N.p.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.}