“Damn you, Fire, be the consequence what it will” These infamous words were attributed by eyewitnesses to Captain Thomas Preston of the British Army 29th Regiment of Foot just before the slaughter in Boston.[i] Whether or not historically correct, these words accurately reflected the anger, fear and loathing felt by the inhabitants of Boston in the spring of 1770. The Townshend Acts and increasingly violent tensions leading up to that fateful day in March are familiar to us all who have studied our Revolutionary ancestors. Washington himself, when reflecting on the Boston Massacre in a letter to Lt. Col. Joseph Reed some six years later, wrote that the people of Boston were fully expecting to engage the British troops; “It was the 5th of March which I recalled to their remembrance as a day never to be forgotten—an Ingagement was fully expected—& I never saw spirits higher, or more ardour prevailing”.[ii] Emotions in Boston were running hot on March 5, 1770. Just that very morning, local newspapers had reported on the funeral of 11-year old Christopher Snider (Seider), a boy shot dead by a British customs officer, Ebenezer Richardson, in his efforts to disperse a crowd which was demonstrating in front of a Loyalist’s shop in the North End of the city. The Remains of young Snider, the unfortunate Boy who was barbarously Murdered the 22d of February last, were decently interred on the Monday following – His tragical Death & the peculiar Circumstances attending it had touch'd the Breasts of all with the tenderest Sympathy, a few only excepted, who have long shewn themselves to be void of the Feelings of Humanity.[iii] The funeral procession, some 2000 strong, began at the Liberty Tree, where the Sons of Liberty had “ordered a Board to be affix'd to Libery Tree, inscrib'd with the following Quotations from the sacred Writings, which perhaps can not easily be misapply'd;Thou shall take no Satisfaction for the Life of a MURDERER; -- He shall surely be put to Death. Though Hand join in Hand, the Wicked shall not pass unpunish'd. The Memory of the Just is Blessed.”[iv] What can sometimes be lost, through the polished lens of history, is the brutality of the military occupation and the important yet tragic role which young people played in opposing the British army. Before the day was out 11 people would be shot, four of them teenagers. In retelling of the story of the Boston Massacre, too little can be read about the role that young apprentices, angry and willing to fight, played in the resistance. History books, especially those written for students, often whitewash the violence and refer to the massacre as a “brawl” or “skirmish”, “where workers and sailors clashed with British soldiers who were enforcing British Parliament’s laws in the town”.[v] Such educational materials simply do not do justice to the truth, nor honor those who risked everything to protest the military occupation of Boston. Neither of the two men who were shot in the back by cowardly soldiers, nor family of Samuel Gray, who was “killed on the spot, the ball entering his head and beating off a large portion of his skull” would consider this turning point in the American Revolution to have been just a brawl.[vi] The Zeitgeist of March 5th, 1770 can best be captured and retold, vividly and as experienced firsthand by the inhabitants of Boston, through the graphic, eyewitness accounts of the murders published in the Boston-Gazette directly after the incident.[vii] “On the Evening of Monday, being the 5th Current, several Soldiers of the 29th Regiment were seen parading the Streets with their drawn Cutlasses and Bayonets, abusing and wounding Numbers of the Inhabitants. A few minutes after nine o’clock, four youths, named Edward Archbald, William Merchant, Francis Archbald, and John Leech, jun. came down Cornhill together, and separating at Doctor Loring’s corner, the two former were passing the narrow alley leading to Murray’s barrack, in which was a soldier brandishing a broad sword of uncommon size against the walls, out of which he struck fire plentifully. A person of mean countenance, armed with a large cudgel bore him company. Edward Archbald admonished Mr. Merchant to take care of the sword, on which the soldier turned round and struck Archbald on the arm, then pushed at Merchant and pierced thro’ his cloaths inside the arm close to the arm-pit and grazed the skin. Merchant than struck the solider with a short stick he had, & the other Person ran to the barrack & bro’t with him two soldiers, one armed with a pair of tongs the other with a shovel: he with the tongs pursued Archbald back thro’ the alley, collar’s and laid him over the head with the tongs. The noise bro’t people together, and John Hicks, a young lad, coming up, knock’d the soldier down, but let him get up again; and more lads gathering drove them back to the barrack, where the boys stood some time as it were to keep them in. In less than a minute 10 or 12 of them came out with drawn cutlasses, clubs and bayonets, and set upon the unarmed boys and young folks, who stood them a little while, but finding the inequality of their equipment dispersed. On hearing the noise, one Samuel Atwood, came up to see what was the matter, and entering the alley from dock-square, heard the latter part of the combat, and when the boys had dispersed he met the 10 or 12 soldiers aforesaid rushing down the alley towards the square, and asked them if they intended to murder people? They answered Yes, by G-d, root and branch! With that one of them struck Mr. Atwood with a club, which was repeated by another, and being unarmed he turned to go off, and received a wound on the left shoulder which reached the bone and gave him much pain. Retreating a few steps, Mr. Atwood met two officers and said, Gentlemen, what is the matter? They answered, you’ll see by and by. Immediately after, those heroes appeared in the square, asking where were the boogers ? where were the cowards? But notwithstanding their fierceness to naked men, one of them advanced towards a youth who had a split of raw stave in his hand, and said damn them here is one of them; but the young man seeing a person near him with a drawn sword and good cane reads to support him, help up his stave in defiance, and they quietly passed by him up the little alley by Mr. Silsby’s to Kingstreet, where they attacked single and unarmed persons till they raised much clamor, and them turned down Cornhill street, insulting all they met in like manner, and pursuing some to their very doors. Thirty or forty person, mostly lads, being by this means gathered in Kingstreet, Capt. Preston, with a party of men with charged bayonets, crying, Make way! They took place by the custom-house, and continuing to push to drive people off, pricked some in several places; on which they were clamorous, and, it is said, threw snow-balls. On this, the Captain commanded them to fire, and more snow-balls coming, he again said, Damn you, Fire, be the consequence what it will! One soldier then fired, and a townsman with a cudgel struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his firelock; and rushing forward aimed a blow at the Captain’s head, which graz’d his hat and fell pretty heavy upon his arm: However, the soldiers continued the fire, successively, till 7 or 8, or as some say 11 guns were discharged. By this fatal manœuvre, three men were laid dead on the spot, and two more struggling for life; but what shewed a degree of cruelty unknown to British troops, at least since the house of Hanover had directed their operations, was an attempt to fire upon or push with their bayonets the persons who undertook to remove the slain and wounded! Mr. Benjamin Leigh, now undertaker in the Delph Manufactory, came up, and after some conversation with Capt. Preston, relative to his conduct in this affair, advised him to draw off his men, with which he complied. The dead are Samuel Gray, killed on the spot, the ball entering his head and beating off a large portion of his skull. A mulatto man, name Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New Providence and was here in order to go for North Carolina, also killed instantly; two balls entering his breast, one of them in special goring the right lobe of the lung, and a great part of the liver most horribly. Mr. James Caldwell, mate of Capt. Morton’s vessel, in like manner killed by two balls entering his back. Mr. Samuel Maverick, a promising youth of 17 years of age, son of the widow Maverick, and an apprentice to Mr. Greenwood, Ivory-Turner, mortally wounded, a ball went through his belly, & was cut out at his back: He died the next morning. A lad named Christopher Monk, about 17 years of age, an apprentice to Mr. Walker, Shipwright; wounded, a ball entered his back about 4 inches above his left kidney, near the spine, and was cut out of the breast on the same side; apprehended he will die. A lad named John Clark, about 17 years of age, whose parents live at Medford, and an apprentice to Capt. Samuel Howard of this town; wounded, a ball entered just about his groin and came out at his hip, on the opposite side, apprehended he will die. Mr. Edward Payne, of this town, Merchant, standing at his entry-door, received a ball in his arm which shattered some of the bones. Mr. John Green, Taylor, coming up Leveretts’s Lane, received a ball just under his hip, and lodged in the under part of his thigh, which was extracted. Mr. Robert Patterson, a seafaring man, who was the person that had his trowsers shot through in Richardson’s affair, wounded,: a ball went through his right arms, and he suffered great loss of blood. Mr. Patrick Carr, about 30 years of age, who work’d with Mr. Field, Leather Breeches-maker in Queen-street, wounded, a ball enter’d near his hip and went out at his side. (Author’s note, Patrick Carr later died of his wounds) A lad named David Parker, an apprentice to Mr. Eddy the Wheelwright, wounded, a ball entered in his thigh. The people were immediately alarmed with the Report of this horrid Massacre, the Bells were set a Ringing, and great numbers soon assembled at the Place where this tragical Scene had been acted; their Feeling may be better conceived than express’d; and while some were taking Care of the Dead and Wounded, the Rest were in Consultation what to do in those dreadful Circumstances. But so little intimidated were they, notwithstanding their being within a few Yards of the Main-Guard, and seeing the 29th Regiment under Arms, and drawn up in King-Street; that they kept their Station and appear’d as an Officer of Rank express’d it, ready to run upon the very Muzzles of their Muskets.” Those immediately killed on King Street were buried in succession on Thursday, March 8, 1770.[viii] Samuel Adams organized a public funeral and portrayed those killed as martyrs. In the aftermath of the massacre, Patrick Carr would succumb to his wounds on the 14th; Christopher Monk, who was only 17 at the time of the shooting, would survive only another 10 years, his life surely shortened by his disabling wounds received at Boston on that fateful evening. In subsequent days the leading men of Boston met at Faneuil Hall to discuss their course of action. A committee selected by the council presented Lt. Governor Thomas Hutchinson with their demand for nothing less than a total and immediate removal of all the troops from the city. Although the soldiers had returned to their barracks on Castle Island, and Capt. Preston and seven of his men had been arrested (he would later be tried and found not-guilty), Hutchinson answered that those in command had their orders from the General at New York and that he was not in a position to countermand those orders. This tepid response was highly unsatisfactory to the people of Boston. British troops remained in the city, and pamphleteers continued to call for Revolution. Copied and republished by Paul Revere, Boston-born Henry Pelham engraved and published his Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston, on March 5th, 1770, helping to fan the flames Revolution.[ix] When Paul Reveve published his engraving of the Boston Massacre, he included a poem; being both a tribute to those who died and a warning of what was yet to come.[x] While Britons view this scene with conscious dread, And pay the last sad tribute to the dead; What through the shafts of justice faintly gleam, And ermin’d miscreants ridicule the scene; Ne’er let one breast the generous sigh disclaim, Or cease to bow at FREEDOM’s hallow’d sane; Still with the thought let Fame’s loud Clarion swell, And Fate to distant time the MURDER tell. The events that occurred in that spring of 1770 would in fact be a turning point in public sentiment, rousing many who had been tolerant of British rule to support the call for independence. In the words of George Washington, "It was the 5th of March, which I recalled to their remembrance as a day never to be forgotten..." [i] The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, March 12, 1770, (Boston, Printed by Edes & Gill, 1770), p2 [ii] From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Reed, 26 February–9 March 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0274 [iii] The Boston-Gazette, and Country Journal, March 5, 1770 (Boston, Printed by Edes & Gill, 1770), p2 [iv] IBID [v] Britannica Kids, Boston Massacre, (Chicago, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2020), kids.britannica.com/students/article/Boston-Massacre/317845, last accessed February 2020. [vi] The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, March 12, 1770, (Boston, Printed by Edes & Gill, 1770), p2 [vii] IBID [viii] The Boston Gazette, and Country Journal, March 12, 1770, (Boston, Printed by Edes & Gill, 1770), p3 [ix] Clarence S. Brigham, Paul Revere's Engravings, (American Antiquarian Society, Massachusetts, 1954) pp 52-78 [x] Paul Revere, "The Boston Massacre Perpetrated on March 5, 1770", The Massachusetts Calendar, or an almanac for the Year of our Lord, 1772. (Boston: Printed and Sold by Isaiah Thomas, et al, 1771).
0 Comments
|
Michael WoodHistorical milestones in our fight for liberty 1765-1783 Archives
February 2022
CategoriesCover image courtesy of
Jnn13 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] |