Boston+Massacre

For more, see United States History I.4 and AP United States History 4

**Event Summary**
For a summary of the event, see [|The Boston Massacre] from America' Story, Library of Congress

[|The Boston Massacre] from the Massachusetts Historical Society.

See also 1770: Violence--Pause from America in Class, National Humanities Center
 * Explains The Battle of Golden Hill, New York City, the occasion of the first bloodshed of the American Revolution

Paul Revere's engraving to the right is not an accurate depiction of the event (it did not occur in close quarters, nor with the British commander behind his troops) and is thought to be plagiarized from a drawing by artist Henry Pelham.There was one Black man, named Crispus Attucks, and 4 other laborers who died that day.

For more see [|Paul Revere's Engraving of the Boston Massacre], 1770

Click here for background on [|Crispus Attucks], a Black man who became the first casualty of the American Revolution.


 * Here is an article about the Boston Massacre: [|Massacre in the Newspaper]
 * [|Captain Preston's Account of the Boston Massacre], March 5, 1770

[|Boston Massacre Trial, 1770] from Famous American Trials, University of Missouri Kansas City

Reviewing the Boston Massacre, Historian Richard Archer ( //As If an Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution//, Oxford University Press, 2010) concludes "the evidence strongly suggests that the massacre was a legitimate murder case. The event was not premeditated, since none of the soldiers could have planned on being ordered to quell a crowd that evening. But it gave them an opportunity, and once that first shot had exploded, it is highly likely that at least some of the grenadiers aimed and fired at specific people in the crowd"
 * The lessons for modern times is clear, according to Archer, "an occupying force in a strange land, asked to police a suspicious and resentful population can themselves become enraged. Faced with enough indignities and violence, they too can become the agents of mayhem."
 * Source: "The Charge is Murder," Boston Sunday Globe, April 18, 2010, p. C3.

[|Boston Massacre]from YouTube

**[[image:Screen Shot 2016-10-28 at 12.13.15 PM.png width="91" height="98"]]Lesson Plans**
[|Boston Massacre Lesson Plan] from Colonial Williamsburg.

[|Boston Massacre: You Be the Judge!] from George Mason University

[|Boston Massacre] from Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History