FIVE COLONISTS KILLED BY BRITISH SOLDIERS AT CUSTOMS HOUSE
Boston, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd of American colonists gathered in front of the Customs House here in Boston. Five individuals were killed and others wounded in an event dubbed 'The Boston Massacre'*.
The soldiers involved were tried and defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two of the six were found guilty of manslaughter, branded on their thumbs and released. John Adams, a future President of the United States, described the event as...
"a mob (of colonists)...that attacked a party of soldiers."
The victims, Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwell, were given a city-wide funeral and laid to rest in the Old Granary Burying Ground.
The Boston Massacre is considered by historians to be one of the most significant events leading to the American Revolutionary War.
Paul's Revere's sketch of the event, "The Bloody Massacre," inaccurately depicts the British soldiers firing into the crowd under orders and without provocation. Below the engraving of Revere's sketch are these words...
"Unhappy BOSTON! see thy Sons deplore,
Thy hallow'd walks besmear'd with guiltless Gore."
*Massacre is defined as the unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of a large number of people.
JFK+50 NOTE
By 1770, there were more than 2000 Redcoats stationed in Boston for the purpose of enforcing British tax laws such as the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts.
