Boston Massacre March 5 1770
5 Men Killed; Growing Tensions Erupt; Redcoats Fire at Civilian Mob
Samuel Adams was a political and public relations genius. By 1770, Great Britain’s American colonies had successfully protested, embargoed, boycotted and non-imported enough that Parliament had repealed teh Stamp Act and most of the Townshend Acts. Because of this success, the excitement and the will of Americans to consider Independence began to subside, even though Boston was occupied by Royal troops. Sam Adams was a colossal supporter of independence. His committee, called the Son's of Liberty, wanted the soldiers to leave because they represented the tyranny of the King. When there was a riot outside the Customs House and five men were killed, Adams put his own "spin" on the tragedy. He called it a massacre!
Sam Adams Plot or Inevitable Tragedy
On March 5, 1770 there was a foot of new snow on the ground in Boston. It did not seem like a night for rabble rousing. However, that pure white blanket of snow would not survive the night without being tarnished by the red stain of life’s blood. The occupying army, consisting of the 14th and 29th regiments of Regulars, had been sent to Boston as a police force in October 1768. They were sent after Massachusetts led the protest against the Townshend Acts by sending a kind of petition to each of the cother colonies called the Massachusetts Circular letter. Sam Adams lost no time in making their lives miserable. Whether or not He organized the mob action on that March night is not clear, although many cynical inferences give credit to Adams as the instigator.
Growing Tensions
The fact is that this particular stream of violence had started three days earlier. One of the Regulars, was out looking for extra work. A rope maker named Sam who worked for John Grey asked the Regular soldier if he needed a job. When the soldier humbly replied that he did, the rope maker told him he could “clean my s***house”. Understandably angry, the soldier instigated a fist fight in which he was unceremoniously beaten. He then came back with a few soldier pals and they too were trounced soundly. This precipitated two days of rioting which finally subsided on Sunday, March 4, The Lord’s Day. Then on Monday, trouble began to brew again.
Town Born! Turn Out!
Several unruly mobs roamed the streets on that snowy night; looking for trouble. They found it on King’s Street in front of the Customs House where a small but growing mob of people began to taunt the sentry on duty with various verbal and icy projectiles. Then Church Bells all over Boston began to ring. The ancient East Anglian emergency alarm of “Town born! Turn out!” was heard. Many people thought it must be a fire. It became a firestorm as the crowd grew. The Captain of the guard sent a contingent of seven men to quell the riot. It was a recipe for disaster. As they took their positions the crowd began to pelt them with snow and ice. Finally one soldier fired and the rest followed suit. Eleven people were shot; five were killed. Crispus Attucks, an African/Native American, Samuel Gray, and James Caldwell dropped dead on the spot. Samuel Maverick (17) died the next morning. The fifth, Patrick Carr died two weeks later.
Freedom or Slavery
Adams knew he had a golden political opportunity and he sunk his teeth into it. Paul Revere a local silversmith recreated the scene that night in an engraving that shows a line of British Regulars firing indiscriminately into a peaceful group of Bostonians. Newspaper reports carried Sam Adams horrific tale and Adams had won another PR victory. Now, he was sure, Americans must choose to break the yolk of English servitude or succumb to being their slaves on this continent forever. The publicity was widespread and so vitriolic that the trial was delayed almost a year to let tempers cool. When the Boston Massacre trial finally came the soldiers had a cousin of Samuel Adams as their defense attorney; John Adams. Six soldiers were found not guilty and two were convicted of manslaughter. This was John Adams first wrung on the ladder that would promote him to the highest office in the land.
Sources
Boston Massacre by Zobel ch.16
The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauf, 2005, Oxford University Press
Paul Revere and The World He Lived In by Esther Forbes, 1942, Houghton Mifflin
Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer, 1989, Oxford University Press
