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“Unhappy Boston! see thy Sons deplore, Thy hallow’d Walks besmear’d with guiltless Gore...The unhappy Sufferers were Mess[ieur]s Saml Gray, Saml Maverick, Jams Caldwell, Crispus Attucks & Pat[ric]k Carr Killed. Six wounded; two of them (Christr Monk & John Clark) Mortally.”
On March 2, 1770, a scuffle broke out between workers at a rope walk and a number of soldiers who supplemented their wages with occasional work. The incident was repeated the following day. On the night of March 5th, the riot known as the Boston Massacre began when a group of apprentices, teenagers for the most part, heckled and harassed a lone sentry at the customs house. As the crowd continued to gather, a small relief arrived at the scene. Epithets, and snowballs and ice were hurled at them. A thrown club struck a soldier; when he rose to his feet, he fired his musket. Enraged, the crowd advanced en masse. They were met by a volley of bullets. Three men were killed outright, two more died of their wounds, and several more were severely injured.
Rushed into print less than a month after the event, Revere’s print quickly became one of the most successful examples of political propaganda of all time. The depiction, and the poem printed below, vilify the British Army and list the first casualties of the American Revolution, including Crispus Attucks, of Native and African descent, considered the first African American casualty of the Revolution.
Casting the British as aggressive oppressors—rather than showing a true picture of a confused riot—made the rebellion easier to justify. Boston’s population was outraged, and anti-British sentiment surged throughout the colonies as news of the “massacre” spread.
★ PAUL REVERE. (1735-1818). Engraving: “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Reg.” Printed by Edes & Gill, Boston, Mass., 1770. First edition, second state (clock showing 10:20), original hand coloring, with additional color added on a removable mylar overlay. #25697