Boston Massacre

Prelude to a Revolution

What was it?

• An attack on colonist civilians by British troops and its legal aftermath

• Led to Revolutionary War

• A tense situation due to a heavy British military presence in Boston that boiled over to incite brawls between soldiers and civilians

• Troops fired into a rioting crowd

What started it all?

• A wigmaker apprentice Edward Garrick called to British Captain John Goldfinch that he was late in paying his barber’s bill

• Goldfinch had paid his bill and ignored the boy

• Hour later Garrick remained vocal

• Private Hugh White clubbed Garrick over the head

• His friend yelled and ran away, returning with more locals and began throwing snowballs and litter

• Mob got bigger

• British presence got bigger

• Everyone got more angry

• Very tense situation

Who fired the first shot?

• Private Hugh Montgomery was knocked down by a huge piece of ice

• As he fell, he thought he heard someone yell, “Fire!”

• He fired along with all of the other soldiers except for one

• Fired into crowd

• 11 people hit

Killed Instantly

• Crispus Attucks – A former slave believed to be the very first killed. He worked as a sailor

• Samuel Gray – rope maker

• James Caldwell - mariner

Died the Next Day

• Samuel Maverick

• Was at the back of the crowd

• Hit by a ricocheting musket ball

Died Two Weeks Later

• Patrick Carr

• 30 years old

• Irish Immigrant

Yellow Journalism

• Paul Revere dashed off an engraving entitled The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street, Boston.

• Was an unfortunate event not a massacre.

The Trial

• 8 British soldiers were charged

• John Adams was defense attorney

• 6 acquitted

• 2 found guilty of manslaughter

• Branded thumbs

Outcome

• Samuel Adams, one of Boston’s radical leaders, insisted that Thomas Hutchinson, the British Royal Governor, withdrawal troops from Boston.