Victims of the Boston Massacre

Photographed By Bill Coughlin, April 14, 2009

1. Victims of the Boston Massacre Marker

Photographed By J. Makali Bruton, June 17, 2021

2. Victims of the Boston Massacre Marker

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The mob taunted the soldiers, daring them to fire, while remaining somewhat secure in the widely held knowledge that the soldiers could not discharge their weapons within the city without prior authorization from a civil magistrate. At this juncture, someone in the crowd hurled a wooden club at the redcoats. Private Hugh Montgomery was struck and fell to the ground. As he regained his footing, someone — Montgomery, another soldier, or someone in the jeering mob — yelled, “Fire!” The redcoats did so. [Captain Thomas] Preston, who clearly had not given the order, ended the firing and tried to restore order. By that time, however, three colonists lay dead and two others mortally wounded; six others would later recover from their wounds.

The Boston Massacre was, of course, not a “massacre,” in the classic sense. Samuel Adams and other propagandists, however, immediately capitalized on this incident, using it to fan colonial passions.

Photographed By Bill Coughlin, April 14, 2009

3. Marker in Granary Burying Ground

On February 22, 1770, a mob surrounded the home of a Loyalist informer, and threw stones that shattered his windows and struck his wife. He eventually fired a weapon from his window into the crowd, and 10-year old Christopher Snider was killed. Tensions in Boston were high preceding the Revolution, and after Snider's murder, the situation further erupted into violence on March 5th with the Boston Massacre event.

Ebenezer Richardson, the Loyalist, was eventually convicted of murder, but was pardoned by the King only two years later.

Photographed By Bill Coughlin, April 14, 2009

4. Victims of the Boston Massacre Marker

The grave of patriot Samuel Adams is located next to that of the Victims of the Boston Massacre.

Photographed By Bill Coughlin, April 14, 2009

5. Site of the Boston Massacre

This circle of cobblestones, located in front of the Old State House, marks the location of the Boston Massacre.

Engraving first published by John Cassell (Public Domain), 1865

6. Tea Riots at Boston: Death of the boy Snider

Engraving published in Cassell’s Illustrated History of England, Volume 5. It can be found on page 78.

Engraving by Paul Revere (CC0 1.0) Public Domain, 1770

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

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.