Boston Massacre Site

Corner of State and, Congress St, Boston, MA 02109

On March 5, 1770 at this busy intersection a deadly skirmish erupted between nine British “redcoats” and a large crowd of Boston residents. Angry over the town’s occupation by British forces, locals threw snowballs, rocks, and bricks as well as insults at the lone sentry outside the nearby Custom House. The sentry was reinforced by 8 soldiers including Captain Thomas Preston who was trying to diffuse the crowd which only grew into a mob. At one-point bells rang throughout the city which usually signaled a fire, further confusing and crowding the scene. Stories conflict but generally agree that at one point a soldier was struck and whether in fear or by accident fired his musket into the crowd, causing the others to fire as well. This left 9 wounded, three dead, with two others dying of their wounds later. Rebels dubbed it the Boston Massacre in a propaganda effort to get Virginia and other colonies to join the rebellion. The British referred to it as the riot on King Street. Originally the other colonies simply viewed Boston as being defiant and troublemakers, but Paul Revere used this as propaganda to convert other colonies to support independence thinking Bostonians were actually being abused.

On the walkway in front of the Old State House is the monument for the five victims killed on March 5, 1770 9pm, during the Boston Massacre which took place in the middle of what is now called State Street (formerly known as King Street). In the center of the monument is a five-pointed star signifying the 5 deaths enclosed by six cobblestones, signifying the six wounded that night, and stretching from the center are 13 cobblestone spokes representing the original 13 colonies.

There was accusation that Paul Revere stole the image of the Boston Massacre from Henry Pelham’s unfinished drawing as Paul Revere was a skilled engraver but not an artist. According to Pelham, P.R shamelessly copied Pelham’s Boston Massacre drawing which he was still working on and used the image in the engraving. In fact the young painter was so outraged that he published a letter accusing him of “the most dishonorable act” of plagiarism as he knew that his opponent “was not capable of doing it unless you copied it from mine”. There are no accounts of Paul Revere’s reaction to the accusation however in those days copying somebody’s work may have been considered more a recognition of talent of the original creator than we see it as today.

-Source Links-

Map of soldiers to patriot actual positions https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2013/03/charles-bahne-on-boston-massacre-site.html

Art Link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/365208 Printed just weeks after British troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd of rabble-rousing Bostonians, Revere’s one-sided depiction of the Boston Massacre lit a flame under the Patriot cause and stoked anti-British sentiment throughout the restless colonies.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/boston-massacre

https://www.history.com/news/paul-revere-engraving-boston-massacre

http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/paul-revere-copied-boston-massacre-image.html