by James C. Fulmer | Past President, NMLRA
When my wife and I received a wedding invitation for my cousin’s son Eddie, who was to get married in downtown Boston, MA, I was excited for more than one reason. I have traveled to the historic sites of Bunker Hill, Lexington and Concord, and seen the USS Constitution, but have never traveled to downtown Boston.
March 5, 1770 Boston Massacre Marker in front of the State House Boston.
Arriving early, I walked part of the Boston Freedom trail. The trail went by where the wedding was going to be at 60 State St. The building is called the State Room, but right across the street was the historic State House. When I walked over, there it was—the large crest in the ground marking the site of the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, almost 245 years ago. I was standing at a site that played an important part in the run up to the American Revolution.
I have read a lot about the American Revolution and about the numerous citizens of Boston who fanned the spark of rebellion, but many people don’t know what led to the shooting of civilians that night by British troops. Its roots began almost five years before with the passage of the Stamp Act.
The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first internal tax levied directly on colonists by the British government. The act was imposed on all paper documents in the colonies—wills, deeds, newspapers, playing cards, and even dice were taxed. The resistance to this tax was so fierce the British government repealed it by 1766.
The year 1767 brought another series of measures that stirred a new element of discord. Charles Townshend, a British chancellor was called upon to draft a new fiscal program. Intent upon reducing British taxes by making more efficient the collection of duties levied on American trade, he tightened customs administration, at the same time sponsoring duties on colonial imports of paper, glass, lead, and tea exported from Britain to the colonies. The so-called Townshend Acts were based on the premise that taxes imposed on goods imported by the colonies were legal while internal taxes (like the Stamp Act) were not. The Townshend Acts were designed to raise revenue to be used in part to support colonial governors, judges, customs officers, and the British army in America.
These acts stirred up more hatred and resistance. This divided the col-onies more than ever and people started choosing sides for an upcoming fight. It started off with passive acts of civil disobedience. Boston was the hot bed for a lot of the makings of the revolution, but it didn’t happen overnight.
The merchants in Boston got together and signed the Boston Non-Importation Agreement which boycotted British goods. The following is an excerpt from the agreement:
“Boston Non-Importation Agreement, August 1, 1768
“That we will not send or import from Great Britain this fall, either on our own account, or on commission, any other goods than what are already ordered for the fall supply.
“That we will not send for or import any kind of goods or merchandise from Great Britain, either on our own account, or on commissions, or any otherwise, from January 1, 1769, to January 1, 1770, except salt, coals, fish-hooks and lines, hemp, duck, bar lead and shot, wool-cards, and card-wire.
“That we will not purchase of any factors, or others, any kind of goods imported from Great Britain from January 1, 1769, to January 1, 1770. That we will not import on our own account, or on commission, or Purchase from any Who shall import from any other colony in America, from January 1, 1769, to January 1, 1770, any tea, glass, paper, or other goods commonly imported from Great Britain.
“That we will not, from and after January 1, 1769, import into the province any tea, paper, glass, or painters’ colours, until the Acts imposing duties on these articles have been repealed.”
Not all the merchants signed this agreement. The few that didn’t continued to do business as usual and as the year wore on so did the anger. The merchants whose shops were still importing from England were getting harassed, windows were broken in their shops, and customers were harassed by crowds of protesters. More British soldiers were sent to Boston to protect the customs commissioners as they tried to enforce the recent and highly unpopular Townshend Acts.
Sam Adams statue in front of Faneuil Hall, Boston. Legend on base reads:
“He organized the revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence.”
March 5, 1770, at night almost 245 years ago, a crowd of about 50 citizens gathered outside the Boston State House to protest the large presence of soldiers in the city. What happened next was to be known forever as the Boston Massacre.
State House in Boston—the site of the Boston Massacre.
It all began when the mob began to hassle a lone sentry standing guard outside the State House. The sentry couldn’t contain himself with all of the insults. He left his sentry box and struck one of the men in the mob with his musket, enraging the crowed even further. British Captain Thomas Preston arrived with more soldiers, but he could not control the crowd that was growing or talk them into leaving.
The citizens began to throw snowballs, rocks, and sticks at the soldiers. Witnesses say a British soldier fired a shot into the crowd when he was struck in the face with a stick. More objects were thrown and more shots were fired. When the shooting ended, three people lay dead on the ground: Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave who worked on a whaling ship; a rope maker named Samuel Grey, and a sailor named James Caldwell. Two others were wounded and would later die—Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr.
The British officer and all the men involved were jailed within a few hours. Gov. Thomas Hutchison delayed the trial to the fall to let the citizens of Boston calm down. The trial started on Oct. 24. Eyewitnesses had different accounts of what happened that night. Some said Captain Preston gave the orders to fire; some said it was shouts from the crowd yelling, “Fire!” By Oct. 30, Captain Preston was acquitted when evidence did not prove he gave the orders to fire that night.
Author in front of the new Green Dragon that keeps the original tavern’s name alive.
The remaining soldiers’ trial began Nov. 27. The British soldiers’ lawyer, John Adams, would portray the soldiers as peacekeepers and the victims of a mob of violent troublemakers who were solely to blame for the shootings that night.
Six of the soldiers were found not guilty; two were found guilty of man-slaughter because they were the only two who all the witnesses agreed they saw firing that night. Both men were branded on their thumbs with a letter M with a red hot iron for manslaughter.
John Adams successfully campaigned and turned March 5 into a day of mourning marked with fiery commemorative speeches each year. The tradition was kept all the way to 1784. Sam and John Adams’ names are attached to almost every part of the American Revolution that grew largely out of Boston. Samuel was a very popular leader who, along with John, spent a great deal of time in the public eye agitating for resistance to British rule. March 5, 1770, was one of the many acts of civil disobedience that shook Boston before the Revolutionary War began. It would not be until 5 years later on April 19, 1775, that the shot heard around the world at Lexington, would be fired and war would breakout.
Boston, Massachusetts is a must see for everybody. It has some of the oldest restaurants, taverns, and houses in the country and is the birthplace of the American Revolution.
This March 5 remember the Boston Massacre and the road to revolution.
