Today in History

March 5 , 1770

The Boston Massacre

Tensions were running high between the colonists and the British soldiers in Boston. King George, fearing war with France, had imposed a series of taxes on the Americans. The colonists, having no representation in London, resented the imposition of the taxes on their business activities and purchases. Boston, the intellectual and cultural center of the Americas, was also the center of the resistance against British tyranny and the George III sent troops to protect their interests.

On March 5, 1770 a local shop boy taunted a British soldier on guard at the Customs House. A crowd grew to listen to the taunts and began to join in when the soldier struck the boy. The crowd grew angry. Some were intoxicated. Church bells began to ring and the crowd grew and became more threatening. Stones and snowballs were thrown at the soldiers. Someone struck one of the sentries to the ground with a club. The soldier rose to his feet and yelled at his companions to fire on the crowd that now numbered some 300 - 400 colonials.

The soldiers fired into the crowd, hitting eleven people including freed slave Crispus Attucks who died instantly. In all, 5 colonists were killed. The next day, to keep peace, the royal authorities moved the troops from the city to Castle Island in Boston Harbor. Four of the soldiers were indicted for murder. But the deed was done and symbolized the burden of British Rule. Paul Revere etched the famous lithograph below to illustrate the incident known as the Boston Massacre.

Exactly six years later to the day, British troops in Boston woke to find that overnight American rebels had built a fortification armed with a cannon at the top of Dorchester Heights. The British troops, surrounded agreed to leave the city without burning it, and Boston was freed of British rule at the outset of the American Revolution.