Hidden Corners of History- The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre

Jarrod E. Stephens

For The Ashland Beacon

The date was March 5, 1770. In the snowy streets of Boston, Massachusetts an event occurred that would become yet another piece of kindling for what would become the most important rebellion in American history.

At the time, Boston had only about 16,000 residents and King George III sent nearly 2,000 British troops to the city to keep and enforce the law. Unfair taxes on everyday goods such as tea, glass and paper items and no representation in Parliament enraged the colonists and hence the British felt the need to squash the uprisings, so they thought.

Many of the colonists had witnessed the exponential economic growth in the colonies first-hand and were not willing to allow England to rip them off with unjust taxes that were ultimately paying English debts. These same colonists had built the buildings, harbors and establishments. They had farmed the land and reaped the natural resources and watched as their goods were used and exported. All the while they were unfairly taxed on imports. There are few topics any more volatile than one’s money. Mess with somebody’s money and there’s likely going to be a conflict.

Boycotts of English goods and stores that sold them were common. Patrons of the stores would become targets of harassment and sometimes the stores would be vandalized. On the night of the massacre there was a single soldier guarding the King’s money which was housed on King Street, and he was confronted by a colonist.

The soldier, Private Hugh White, felt threatened and called for other soldiers who quickly came to his aide. Captain Thomas Preston and his soldiers stood between White and the colonists and things went downhill quickly.

Agitators began heckling the soldiers in the cold and snowy streets. As the shouting continued, a crowd began to grow. Neither the soldiers nor the colonists intended to back down in the argument. Snowballs and other objects began to be thrown at the unwanted occupiers. As the moment escalated, the soldiers sent a volley of shots into the rowdy crowd. After the smoke cleared there were five dead and six more wounded civilians. Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr lost their lives that night, but a revolution was born.

The blood that stained the snow in that Boston street lit a fire in the minds and hearts of thousands of Patriots who read about it in newspapers all across the colonies. The famous silversmith and engraver, Paul Revere, created his famous work, The Boston Massacre, which depicted the scene quite clearly. It shows the soldiers firing into the crowd of unarmed civilians.

While it is impossible to name one single event as the spark that began the revolution, there is no doubt that the Boston Massacre added a keg of explosives to the fire. Voices on both sides of the conflict blamed the other side for their agitation and involvement, but minds were already made up. Other notable events such as the creation of the Sons of Liberty, the Boston Tea Party, and the First Continental Congress were born from that cold March night in Boston.

In this year where we’ll be celebrating the 250^th birthday of the greatest nation on earth, it is important that we take the time to count our blessings and recognize that our forefathers didn’t back down to the hand of oppression. Instead, they send them packing.