Notes on the Boston Massacre: Conflicting Accounts and Historical Interpretation

Paul Revere's 1770 Political Print: "The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street, Boston on March 5th, 1770"

• Purpose and Impact: This print, created by Paul Revere (famous for his ride), is largely responsible for the event being known as the "Boston Massacre." Its title immediately frames the event as a "bloody massacre," shaping perception.
• Implied Meaning of "Massacre": The term "massacre" suggests:
  • High Death Toll: An expectation that many people died, contrasting with the actual $5$ deaths.
  • Unjustified Killing: The implication that the killing was without mercy, one-sided, and not provoked.
  • Association: Historically, the term can also be associated with killings of Native Americans.
• Elements in the Cartoon (Depicting Patriot Bias):
  • British Soldiers: Depicted in a rigid military "formation," an exaggeration suggesting they were prepared for a full battle against another army, not just a civilian crowd. Their rifles are directly aimed at civilians.
  • Bayonets Fixed: Soldiers are shown with bayonets (sharp blades on rifle ends) fixed, signifying preparation for "close combat." This suggests an intention for brutal, personal violence, as bayonets are unnecessary for distant shooting.
  • Captain's Order: The captain (identified by his sword lifted) is clearly depicted giving the order to fire. This refutes any notion of rogue soldiers and places blame squarely on the military leadership.
  • "Butcher's Hall" Sign: A sign above the soldiers' heads explicitly reads "Butcher's Hall," a blatant, unsubtle indictment of the British soldiers as murderers.
  • Patriot Civilians: Portrayed as unarmed, scrambling to escape, or tending to the wounded and dead, emphasizing their victimhood and lack of aggression. They have "no weapons" and are "not fighting back."
  • Crispus Attucks: One of the deceased is depicted, identified as Crispus Attucks, an African American man. He is noted as the first African American to die for American liberty, highlighting the diverse group of victims.
  • The Dog: A dog is present in the cartoon, a common motif in artwork of the era. Its specific symbolic meaning (e.g., naivety) is debated by historians, unlike dogs in other cartoons (e.g., Eatonton Ladies) where they serve an active narrative purpose.

Thomas Preston's Account (March 12, 1770)

• Document Type and Timing: This is an official report written by Captain Thomas Preston to his commanding officer, approximately one week after the Boston Massacre (March $5$, $1770$).
• Trustworthiness Debate:
  • Argument for Trust: Proximity to the event means memories are fresh and intact.
  • Argument Against Trust: Too recent; details might be uncertain, or there could be a deliberate shading of truth due to personal motivations.
• Potential Bias ("CYA"): As an officer reporting on a significant incident involving his men, Preston has a strong motivation to "Cover Your Ass" (CYA), presenting the events in a way that minimizes his and his men's culpability.
• Preston's Narrative:
  • Harassment by Crowds: Preston claims his soldiers were extensively harassed by the Boston crowds, particularly with "rocks and snowballs," for a long period leading up to the event.
  • No Order to Fire: He adamantly denies giving the order to fire, claiming he told his men "not to fire."
  • Panic and Mishearing: Preston states his men panicked amidst the chaos and commotion, mishearing crowd yells (possibly taunts like "Fire! You won't fire on me!") as an order from him to fire. This led to a chain reaction of firing.
• Analysis of Preston's Account: While plausible that soldiers in a high-stress situation could panic and mishear, this explanation conveniently absolves both Preston and his men of blame, portraying the shooting as an unfortunate "mistake" or "big oopsie." It could be entirely true or merely a self-serving narrative.

The Boston Gazette Report (March 12, 1770)

• Document Type and Timing: A newspaper account published about a week after the event, concurrent with Preston's report.
• Inherent Bias: The Stamp Act of $1765$, which taxed colonial newspapers, solidified most colonial newspapers as "pro-Patriot." The Boston Gazette was a prominent example of this bias, openly supporting the Patriot cause.
• Narrative of Aggression:
  • Soldier Provocation: The Gazette argues that quartering troops in Boston during peacetime inevitably leads to conflict. It asserts that "soldiers are harassing the citizens," particularly young people, escalating tensions.
  • "Assholes": It describes soldiers "parading the streets with their drawn cutlasses and bayonets, abusing and wounding numbers of the inhabitants" – implying they were wantonly attacking people before the main incident.
  • Preston's Order: Directly contradicts Preston's account, stating, "On this, the captain commanded them to fire." It leaves no doubt that Captain Preston gave the word to fire.
  • Cruelty: Describes the act of firing upon and bayoneting those attempting to aid the slain as "a degree of cruelty unknown to British troops."
• Portrayal of Victims: The Gazette lists the dead and wounded, emphasizing common characteristics:
  • Youth: They were primarily "young," described as teenagers or young adults.
  • Working Class: They were "working people," "good, solid, young men working for a living," rather than elites or "scum of the earth." This portrayal aims to evoke sympathy, similar to Bartolome de las Casas's descriptions of indigenous people, making the British actions seem more heinous by highlighting the innocence and value of the victims.

George Robert Twelfth Hughes's Memoir (1834)

• Document Type and Timing: A memoir published in $1834$, a full $64$ years after the Boston Massacre. Hughes was $26$ at the time of the massacre, making him around $86$ when his account was recorded.
• Trustworthiness (Long-Term Memory vs. Bias):
  • Argument Against Trust: Significant time lapse raises concerns about memory accuracy due to old age. The account was told to someone else, not self-written.
  • Argument for Trust: While short-term memory deteriorates with age, long-term memory can remain vivid. More importantly, the significant time lapse means his account is less susceptible to immediate political or self-preservation bias, allowing for a potentially more balanced perspective.
• Hughes's Narrative:
  • Mutual Harassment: Hughes, a Patriot himself, openly acknowledges that "both sides were harassing one another," a more nuanced view than contemporary partisan accounts.
  • Trivial Origin: He recounts that the episode began with a dispute over a haircut: a British officer refused to pay an apprentice barber, leading to a crowd gathering and the subsequent escalation. This highlights how easily tense situations could erupt from minor incidents.
  • Historical Parallel: The instructor draws a parallel to more recent events, like the George Floyd incident, which also started from a seemingly minor transactional dispute, to emphasize how such small triggers can ignite major historical events in an already tense environment. Hughes himself was a character in the documentary on the Boston Tea Party, attesting to his historical participation and storytelling ability.