The Boston Massacre (the killing of five men by British soldiers on March 5, 1770) was the culmination of civilian-military tensions that had been growing since royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768.  The soldiers were in Boston to keep order, but townspeople viewed them as potential oppressors, competitors for jobs, and threats to social mores. Brawls became common.

~ Background ~ In 1768, the Commissioners of Customs, who acquired their jobs in Britain and drew their pay from what they collected in America, were so intimidated by the resistance they met in Boston that they demanded military protection.  Boston's fifteen thousand or so residents were clearly the worst malcontents on the North American continent.  It was imperative that they be put in their place. General Thomas Gage (Commander In Chief of the British Army in America) agreed and ordered the regiments (under the command of British Lt. Colonel William Dalrymple), the "14th West Yorkshire Fuseliers," and the "29th Worcestershire," to Boston, which would arrive from Halifax in September.  Six weeks later the "64th" and "65th" Regiments, with an addition of a detachment of the "59th" Regiment and a train of artillery with two cannon -- in all about 700 men -- arrived from Ireland to protect the men who collected customs duties for the King of England.  To the people of Boston the coming of the troops was outrageous.  They had been fighting for years against infringement by Britain of their right to tax themselves. In one of the most famous and elaborate of Paul Revere's engravings (below), it shows the arrival of the red-coated British troops.  Revere wrote that the troops "formed and marched with insolent parade, drums beating, fifes playing, and colours flying, up King Street.  Each soldier having received 16 rounds of powder and ball."  Troops of the 29th, unable to secure lodgings in town, pitched tents on the common. The stench from their latrines wafted through the little city on every breeze.

British Troops Land At Long Wharf, Boston Harbor - 1768

When Colonel Dalrymple requested that all of his men be assigned to the homes of citizens, the Boston council took a firm stand.  It declared that citizens were not required to furnish quarters until all the barracks space was filled, and Castle William, in the harbor, had plenty of empty berths.  Besides, British Redcoats had already made a deep impression upon Americans during the French and Indian War.   These career soldiers were widely regarded as being surly, brutal, and greedy; and no man of any sense was ready to see even one of them put into the house with his wife and daughters. Governor Bernard, however, had counted upon dispersing the troops into the homes of malcontents as a way of putting pressure upon them.  He declared that concentrating soldiers at Castle William would thwart the decisions made in London.  The Boston councilmen held firm and refused to budge.  Desperate, the governor designated empty factory buildings and small, empty buildings throughout the city to the troops. Even under normal circumstances the presence of General Thomas Gage's troops (nearly one for every four inhabitants) would have led to trouble. Now, the imposition of an occupation force on a city already torn with strife, made bloodshed a foregone conclusion.

~ The Riot in King Street ~ By 1770 Boston was an occupied town.  It had been compelled to accept the presence of four regiments of British regulars.  For eighteen months they had treated the inhabitants with insolence, posted sentries in front of public offices, engaged in street fights with the town boys, and used the Boston Common for flogging unruly soldiers and exercising troops (then acting governor, Lt. Governor Thomas Hutchinson of Massachusetts, refuted these allegations). It began when a young barber's apprentice by the name of Edward Garrick shouted an insult at Hugh White, a soldier of the 29th Regiment on sentry duty in front of the Customs House (a symbol of royal authority). White gave the apprentice a knock on the ear with the butt of his rifle. The boy howled for help, and returned with a sizable and unruly crowd, cheifly boys and youths, and, pointing at White, said, "There's the son of a bitch that knocked me down!" Someone rang the bells in a nearby church. This action drew more people into the street. The sentry found himself confronting an angry mob. He stood his ground and called for the main guard. Six men, led by a corporal, responded. They were soon joined by the officer on duty, Captain John Preston of the "29th," with guns unloaded but with fixed bayonets, to White's relief. The crowd soon swelled to almost 400 men. They began pelting the soldiers with snowballs and chunks of ice. Led by a huge mulatto, Crispus Attucks, they surged to within inches of the fixed bayonets and dared the soldiers to fire. The soldiers loaded their guns, but the crowd, far from drawing back, came close, calling out, "Come on you rascals, you bloody backs, you lobster scoundrels, fire if you dare, God damn you, fire and be damned, we know you dare not," and striking at the soldiers with clubs and a cutlass.

Whereupon the soldiers fired, killing three men outright and mortally wounding two others. The mob fled. As the gunsmoke cleared, Crispus Attucks (left) and four others lay dead or dying. Six more men were wounded but survived.

Captain Preston, the soldiers, and four men in the Customs House alleged to have fired shots from it were promptly arrested, indicted for murder, and held in prison pending trial for murder in the Massachusetts Superior Court, which prudently postponed the trial until the fall, thus giving the people of Boston and vicinity from whom the jury would be drawn, time to cool off.

All troops were immediately withdrawn from town. John Adams defended the soldiers at their trials (Oct. 24-30 and Nov. 27-Dec. 5, 1770); Preston and four men were acquitted, while two soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and released after being branded on the hand. The calm with which the outcome of the trials was accepted doubtless was attributable in large measure to the evidence at the trials that the soldiers had not fired until they were attacked.  But another important factor was the withdrawl of the troops from Boston immediately after the "Massacre."  The sending of British warships and troops to Boston for the protection of the American Customs Board and the "Massacre" resulting from the prescence of troops there were, however, ultimately of great significance in the movement toward the revolution. The "Massacre" served as anti-British propaganda for Boston radicals and elsewhere heightened American fears of standing armies.

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Authors: Larry R. Gerlach; Harry Hansen; Ronald W. McGranahan (contributing).
Picture Credits: The Granger Collection (top); Crispus Attucks - Archive Photos (bottom).
Bibliography: Zobel, Hiller B., The Boston Massacre (1970); Fleming, Thomas, Liberty! The American Revolution (1997); Hansen, Harry, The Boston Massacre (1970); Garrison, Webb, Great Stories of the American Revolution (1990); Knollenberg, Bernhard, Growth of the American Revolution 1766-1775 (1975).