On March 5th, 1770 an event broke out on King’s Street in Boston that would forever shape the course of history. This event is the Boston Massacre, although the term “massacre” is a misnomer, as only five people died at this historic event. It is due to the many depositions, news articles, and other propaganda forms that were released after this event that this misnomer took hold. Propaganda is defined as “information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.” (Dictionary.com). The most famous propaganda that came out of this historic event is Paul Revere’s engraving which he titled “The Bloody Massacre.” The title, even without the engraving, is propaganda in and of itself …show more content…
First, the colonists are not armed in this picture, and it can almost be assumed that the colonists were peaceful before the British attacked. This is a false hood as Preston’s account of the Boston Massacre in Marcus depicts the colonists as “striking their clubs and bludgeons.” The colonists were also armed with snowballs, but snow is not depicted in Revere’s engraving. The engraving also features the colonists reacting to the soldier’s violence, when this is a falsehood as the colonists instigated the violence, as Preston says the colonists “…surrounded the sentry there, and with clubs and other weapons threatened to execute their vengeance on him” (Marcus, pg. 104). The colonists that were involved in this mob would have been young men of the laborer class, as the Boston Gazette and Country Journal points out (Marcus, pg. 110). However, in the engraving they are depicted as gentlemen, shown by the hats they are wearing, and thus elevating their status and effecting the way other colonists perceived the colonists in the mob. In the rear of the crowd, a woman can be seen, especially very clearly in Wheeler’s pg. 98 blown up picture of the engraving. She appears very distressed, which would have affected the emotions of 18th century colonists who would have cared very much about a woman being in this type of horrid scene. There is also no clear depiction of Crispus Attackus, a mulatto man that died at the Boston Massacre. Revere may have chosen to leave this out so that other colonists racist tendencies would not affect their judgement of seeing the British as the “bad guys.” The colonists also appear to be depicted as cowering from the violence, and wanting to take care of the 3 dead that died that day, and the many wounded, and thus were conveyed as the victims of the brutal British. This bloodshed can easily be seen by the 3 men that have blood
“We must all hang together, or we shall hang separately.” This was a famous quote from Benjamin Franklin while signing the Declaration of Independence. Britain and France had conflicting claims at the Ohio River Valley and started the French & Indian War. When Britain won the war, the king imposed taxes because he felt he should be repaid for the expenses of the war. This angered the colonists because they felt they should have had representation in Parliament to be taxed.
Eye witness testimony from a British soldier states that "the colonists were acting with civil unrest and assaulted the troops with snowballs". A colonist described it as "British soldiers showing their true colors". Some stated they didn 't see the colonists
This image tells a tale that the British soldiers premeditatively murdered innocent Boston colonists, unprovoked. In fact, our text defines the Boston Massacre as an “Inflammatory description of a deadly clash between a mob and British soldiers on March 5, 1770, that became a symbol of British oppression for many colonists.” The keyword in this definition is inflammatory. One part of the image I found interesting was the dog in the lower
The anger that the people of Boston had was also because they found out that some of the redcoats were not only Catholic’s, but also Irish. Certain citizens and soldiers started to get out of hand and ended up in a shouting match exchanging threats and other unacceptable words. The tension was already a lot to deal with, but the Bostonians’ had even more hatred against the British soldiers when they killed an innocent little boy by shooting into a crowd that was protesting. One soldier got hit by debris and he started to use his weapon while also telling his comrades to shoot. Crispus Attucks, African-American man was unfortunately the victim of the soldier mistaking debris as the civilians attacking.
and that was how passage two made it seem older instead of saying it was older. In passage one nothing was really explained but in passage two it was explained better. In passage two said how the young men were rude and ended up with multiple people throwing ice and snowballs at the soldiers. Passage two states “The young men, being boston boys, felt as if they had a right to walk their own streets, without being accountable to a british red-coat, even though he challenged them in King George's name.
In two famous engravings of the Boston Massacre, Engraving of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere and The Fruits of Arbitrary Power by Henry Pelham, viewers are given different views of the same event through the use of various artistic techniques. If one looks closer at these two engravings, it becomes apparent that there are differences between how two groups, American Colonists and British Troops, are presented as good, evil, or morally ambiguous. Through the use of various artistic techniques such as color, shading, facial expressions, and text, Revere and Pelham were able to achieve two different expressions and opinions of the same massacre. While Pelham’s engraving appears more neutral in tone, Revere’s engraving includes much more emotional appeal and
In the picture called “Bloody Massacre,” it shows the events during the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere. In the picture, it shows British redcoats firing their guns at colonist in front of a Customs House in Boston. Colonist was outside the house protesting the British troops that lived in Boston to enforce the laws of Britain. As tension grew the redcoats fixed their bayonets and formed a line in front of the court house. The colonist responded by throwing snowballs at the redcoats, and then the redcoats began to open fire on the colonist killing 5 and wounding much more.
In Document one it shows british warships taking over the harbour. To the colonists eyes this appears as a threat. In Document three it shows a picture of british soldiers shooting into a crowd of innocent people. In Document four it talks about how the soldiers assaulted and beat innocent people in the streets. This was written in the town of Boston which makes sense considering that most of the town was against the british being in boston.
In Amos Doolittle’s 1775 painting of The Battle of Lexington, It shows the colonists running with their backs turned from the British onslaught of musket fire. However, in Henry Sandham 1886 painting of The Battle of Lexington, it shows the colonists putting up a valiant and brave attempt to fend off the British. The difference in these paintings suggests that the people who lived in Lexington wanted to make the minutemen of their town
Rage, discrimination, and the fact that the Colonist male members were taunting them all by throwing snowballs and shouting not necessary statements. Other than seeing it that sort of way, The British Troops stationed in Boston, Jamestown, Virginia. They were NOT wanted. Seeing it to as they were gathering Leaders to form up the Revolutionary War to break away from Great Britain to be more organized and pretty much their entire game plan, But as History has gone; The plans of the American Colonists’ had to surrender at times to either retreat and go to a new and unwatched area, or risk being shot at while doing what they could. It’s not what anybody wanted.
On the night of March 5, 1770, A major conflict between the American Colonists and British soldiers arose on King street. The British were taxing the Colonists, and the Colonists were protesting and boycotting against the taxes creating tension between the two sides. Since this happened, the British soldiers are the ones to blame for the Boston Massacre. The British Soldiers are responsible for the Boston Massacre According to the Committee of Boston, (Sam Adams, John Hancock and more…) “ This is without warning of their intention and killed 3 on the spot.”
In this event, the British soldiers clearly felt threatened and the colonists were instigating trying to pick a fight with them. Another reason that proves that the British are innocent is that Captain Preston was standing in front of his soldiers. In addition, there was a misfire which led to the start of the soldiers to shoot. They also fired because they believed that Captain
he infamous street fight that took place in Boston, Massachusetts is referred to as The Boston Massacre. The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. The riot started when a few young boys began to throw stones and rocks at British soldiers who were guarding the Customs House. The crowd around the boys started to grow larger and larger, and then people from the crowd begun to join the boys, throwing ice at the soldiers and taunting them. The soldiers then fired, killing five colonists.
The Boston Massacre was a street fight that occurred on March 5, 1770, between a “patriot”. They were throwing sticks, snowballs, and trash at a group of British troops. The loyalists got very annoyed with the patriots so they shot into the mob killing five. The riot began when around 50 colonists attacked a British sentinel. A British officer called in for additional troops
The Boston Massacre is an event most Americans and British students learn about over the course of their education. In America, we learn that British soldiers fired upon innocent civilians, although this may not have been the case. British historians have referred to the Boston Massacre as the "Incident on King Street". After looking over the "Captain Thomas Preston 's Account of the Boston Massacre", as well as "Boston Massacre Trial Depositions" I believe that American historians should refer to the "Boston Massacre" as the "Incident on King Street". The definition of a massacre refers to an unnecessary and random killing of a large number of individuals.