Incident In Boston: The Boston Massacre

Tempers were running high in Boston as British troops struggled to deal with increasingly belligerent American colonists unhappy with British taxes and policies.

Those tempers boiled over on March 5, 1770 — 255 years ago Wednesday — when a mob of 300 to 400 colonists hurled insults, sticks and rocks at British troops and then surrounded them.

The Redcoats eventually opened fire on the mob, hitting 11 colonists, killing three and mortally wounding two more. The incident would become known as the Boston Massacre.

'Taxation Without Representation'

We all learned in grade school how American colonists pushing for independence from Britain used that phrase. What you might not know: In 1689, the British Parliament passed a Bill of Rights for British colonists around the world, promising they wouldn’t be taxed unless Parliament signed off on the taxes.

Other provisions included the freedom to petition the King, the freedom to bear arms for self-defense and a guarantee that armies would not be raised during peacetime.

But then Parliament broke those promises a number of times over the next eight decades ...

1733, Molasses Act

Strapped for cash, Parliament placed a tax on molasses. Colonists particularly disliked the new tax because it made rum more expensive.

1754-63, French and Indian War

Britain's effort to push France out of the New World increased Britain’s need for revenue. Between 1760 to 1768, customs taxes in the colonies increased 1,400%.

1764, Sugar Act

Parliament increased duties on non-British goods shipped to the colonies. Colonists began organizing boycotts.

1764, Currency Act

Colonies dealt with some of the new taxes by simply printing more paper money. Parliament stopped this by prohibiting the colonies from issuing their own currency. Colonists see this as an attack on the power of their assemblies.

1765, Stamp Act

Required a duty to be paid on newspapers, books, broadsides (posters), legal documents ... even on dice and playing cards. American protests grow into violent mobs that threaten Tory officials.

1765, Quartering Act

Required colonists to provide room and board to British troops. Redcoats in the colonies tended to be poorly educated teenage boys who liked to drink, carouse and chase young women.

1766, Declaratory Act

Facing stiff resistance from America, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act but then stated it could make laws binding the American colonies “inall cases whatsoever.”

1767, Townshend Acts

Placed new taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea and gave Britain more control over the colonial justice system. Colonists in New York and Boston protested, which resulted in even more British troops sent to their cities.

Resentment Bubbles Over Into Bloodshed

Resentment of Parliament’s increasing number of taxes was particularly high in Boston, where political leader Sam Adams organized a series of boycotts and protests that, in turn, resulted in more British troops sent there.

By 1770, more than 4,000 British soldiers were garrisoned in a town populated by 16,000 people.

On Feb. 22, 1770, a group of young colonists protested a local merchant who declined to participate in a boycott of British goods. A neighbor tore down their signs and broke up their protest, but the boys followed him home, surrounded his house and taunted him.

He felt threatened and opened fire on the boys. One was injured and another — who was 11 years old — was killed. The shooter was arrested and later convicted but then would be pardoned by the king.

Less than two weeks later — on the evening of March 5, 1770 — the 29th Regiment was standing guard outside the customs house on Boston’s King Street when a young man began yelling insults at them. One soldier took it on himself to discipline the man with a blow tothe head.

The print at the top of this page by Paul Revere was created not long after the incident in Boston, but it’s propaganda, aimed at stirring up emotions to the shootings. This 1868 print is a bit more accurate, historians think. Source: New York Public Library

Word of the confrontation spread quickly. Within 20 minutes, a crowd of angry Bostonians had surrounded the solder and the rest of his regiment, hurling more insults at first, and then snowballs and chunks of ice. The bells of a nearby church began ringing, which was usually a summons for help putting out a fire. This only added to the mob.

The commander of the brigade ordered his men into a circle as the crowd moved up to throwing sticks and rocks and daring them to open fire.

One British private slipped on the ice and discharged his musket, which then caused the other soldiers to open fire. Eleven members of the mob were hit. Three were killed immediately, including Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Native American descent.

A 17-year-old colonist died of his wounds the next morning. A fifth man suffered from a wound in his abdomen before dying two weeks later.

The Redcoats Are Prosecuted

The mob scattered after the gunfire but reformed within hours, looking to take revenge on British Redcoats.

In hopes of restoring peace, British officials arrested the nine soldiers involved in the incident and indicted them for murder. In hopes of de-escalating the situation further, court officials put their trials off until that fall.

John Adams in 1784. Source: National Park Service

Boston lawyer John Adams — who’d later become the second president of the United States — agreed to defend the soldiers. He told others that even British soldiers were entitled to a fair trial. When politicking took place outside the courthouse, Adams remarked, “The law is deaf — deaf as an adder — to the clamors of the populace.”

The captain of the regiment was tried first, in October 1770, but testimony from various witnesses was contradictory. Adams argued that the soldiers had been accosted by a violent mob and had only opened fire in self-defense.

The captain was acquitted, as were six of the eight soldiers tried the next month. Two soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter. The soldiers pled benefit of clergy, the right to a lesser sentence for first offenders. This reduced their sentences from death to having their thumbs branded in open court.

Four civilians who had attacked the soldiers were tried in December 1770. They were all acquitted and the primary witness for the prosecution — a slave — was convicted of perjury, whipped and banished from Massachusetts.

While the soldiers and civilians had their days in court, American colonists were left uneasy by the entire Boston Massacre incident. They began to consider the British the enemy and the king with great distrust.

This would be yet another step on the road to further bloodshed and the colonies’ eventual declaration of independence from Britain.