Photo: “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Reg.

Photographer: Engraving by Paul Revere (CC0 1.0) Public Domain
Taken: 1770
Caption: “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King-Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Reg.
Additional Description: Printed below the engraving is this poem and postscript.

Unhappy Boston! see thy sons deplore,
Thy hallow’d Walks besmear’d with guiltless Gore:
While faithless P---n and his savage Bands,
With murd’rous Rancour stretch their bloody Hands;
Like fierce Barbarians grinning o’er their Prey,
Approve the Carnage and enjoy the Day.

If scalding drops from Rage from Anguish Wrung
If speechless Sorrows lab’ring for a Tongue,
Or if a weeping World can ought appease
The plaintive Ghosts of Victims such as these;
The patriot’s copious Tears for each are shed,
A glorious Tribute which embalms the Dead.

But know Fate summons to that awful Goal,
Where Justice strips the Murd’rer of his Soul:
Should venal C---ts the scandal of the Land,
Snatch the relentless Villain from her Hand,
Keen Execrations on this Plate inscrib’d,
Shall reach a Judge who never can be brib’d.

The unhappy Sufferers were Messrs. Saml. Gray, Saml. Maverick, Jams. Caldwell, Crispus Attucks & Patk. Carr killed. Six wounded; two of them (Christr. Monk & John Clark) Mortally.

The dashed words are “Preston” and “Courts.” This image originated from the [New York] Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, via Wikimedia Commons, and has been color adjusted and cropped to three of the edges of the engraving itself. Click on image to enlarge. —Ed.
Submitted: May 23, 2009, by Bill Coughlin of Woodland Park, New Jersey.
Database Locator Identification Number: p638781
File Size: 3.127 Megabytes

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