Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre happened when five civilians (people who were not in the military) were shot and killed by 9 British soldiers on March 5, 1770.^[1] It was in Boston, Massachusetts, which was a British colony at the time.

The Massacre happened at night when a large mob gathered outside of the Custom House. A British soldier named Hugh White hit a boy who had insulted White's commanding officer. The boy ran away and came back with a large mob of angry people.

More British soldiers came to help protect Hugh White from the people. The mob threw snowballs with clams inside them and hit them with wooden clubs.

As the mob got larger and larger, the scene became more and more chaotic. Someone in the crowd yelled "fire". In the confusion, some of the soldiers fired into the crowd. Crispus Attucks, an African-American man, was one of the first people killed.^[2]

Eight British soldiers were tried in court after the Boston Massacre. They were defended by John Adams, who was both a patriot and a lawyer. He knew that many people would be upset with him for defending the soldiers, but he believed that everybody deserved a fair trial.^[3] (Adams would later become the President of the United States).

Because of John Adams' efforts, six of the eight soldiers were found not guilty. The other two, Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy, were convicted of manslaughter in court. As punishment, they had the palms of their hands marked with a burn.

Paul Revere, a man who worked with metals in Boston, made an engraving of the British soldiers shooting into the crowd. He depicted the scene as violent. Many people saw the engraving and became angry.

A few years later, the American Revolution started, and the colonies would become an independent country, the United States of America.

• Hover over each photo to view label detail
• Portrait of what Crispus Attucks may have looked like
• Obituary of Massacre victim Patrick Carr, published on March 19, 1770, with an engraving of his coffin by Paul Revere
• Robert Treat Paine, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, prosecuted the British soldiers
• John Adams defended the accused British soldiers
• Lithograph from 1856 focusing on Crispus Attucks, who had by then become an important symbol for abolitionists.^[4]
• A gray brick circle now marks the site of the Massacre, in front of the Old State House