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Victims of the Boston Massacre
On October 1, 1768, British redcoats arrived in Boston, sent
by King George III to restore order after several Royal customs
officials were beaten following the seizure of John Hancock's
ship, Liberty, for smuggling to avoid paying the required duties.
For the next 18 months the town’s people and the soldiers lived in
an increasingly charged atmosphere as taunts, name-calling and
scuffles marked the daily life of the town.
To make
matters worse the local economy was in a deep recession and local
unemployed workers found themselves in competition with off-duty
soldiers for jobs in Boston's tight labor market.
After 12 year-old Christopher Snider was killed by a loyalist in
an anti-customs riot eleven days earlier, the climax came on the
cold, snowy evening of March 5, 1770. There had been several
skirmishes with soldiers that day and the word on the street was
that that night there would be more trouble.
Around nine p.m. an angry crowd of townspeople cornered a lone
sentry outside the Custom House within the shadow of the Old State
House. When someone rang a nearby church bell - normally used to
warn of a fire - several hundred more arrived, many armed with
clubs and sticks. When the cornered sentry's cry for help brought
Captain William Preston and a file of eight armed soldiers to the
rescue, the crowd surrounded them and prevented their return to
the guardhouse.
For the next fifteen minutes the crowd grew
uglier, daring the soldiers to fire, cursing them, pressing closer
and closer. Snowballs and rocks flew through the air. The fuse was
finally lit when a thrown club hit one of the soldiers knocking
him to the ground. The injured soldier stood up and fired at
point-blank range. The other soldiers, confused and in fear of
their lives, followed suit.
Captain Preston frantically ordered his men to cease-fire, but the
damage was done. Three died immediately. One died the next
morning. The fifth victim would die several days later.
The slain men were a cross-section of Boston. The first to fall,
Crispus Attucks, was black; another, Patrick Carr, was Irish.
Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwell were all
apprentices to local craftsmen.
Samuel Adams labeled the incident the "Bloody Massacre" and used
it to force the removal of the troops to Castle Island in the
harbor ending a two-year occupation.
Paul Revere made a famous
engraving of the episode that, although factually inaccurate, was
great propaganda. Copies of it were sold throughout the town and
carried all over the colonies as well as back to England.
A few
days later an elaborate funeral organized by Samuel Adams drew
thousands of angry mourners here to the Old Granary Burying
Ground.
Future president John Adams and Josiah Quincy bravely risked their
patriot reputations by defending Captain Preston and the eight
soldiers in the subsequent trials. They won acquittals for all but
two of the soldiers.
Found guilty of manslaughter the two
soldiers pleaded benefit of clergy that allowed them to read or
write a verse of Scripture and forego prison. To ensure that
benefit of clergy could only be used once the two guilty soldiers
each had a thumb branded with the letter M for manslaughter.
Jimmy’s Tangents:
The famous engraving that Revere made was a copy of one done by
a younger Henry Pelham; Revere was simply faster at getting his
copy to press to the chagrin of Pelham (all eventually forgiven)
Edward Palmer built the first town stocks in Boston on the
future site of the Boston Massacre and became the first placed in
them.
His offense? Overcharging for his services!
On July 11, 1976, Queen Elizabeth made a tour of all the major
revolutionary sites including the Old State House and the site of
the Boston Massacre
The Queen noted that since she was the great-great-great-great
granddaughter of King George III, Paul Revere, Sam Adams and other
Revolutionaries of the time might be surprised at her Royal
presence. Then, with a grin, added, "But perhaps they would have
been pleased."
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