On the night of March 15, 1770, a group of Boston colonists were readily armed with snowballs and threw them at British soldiers. What appeared to be a minor altercation ended with death of five colonists, but more importantly leaving a permanent mark on the road towards the American Revolution. A time of liberation was soon to come for colonies, freedom came as one stepping stone at a time.
The Boston Massacre is one of the most early riots recognized in early United States' history. Prior to the event, the British had just defeated the Indians in the Seven year's War and debts from the war began to pile up. What was a victory, now sent Great Britain into a great worry on ways to pay for the war. Eric Foner, of Give Me Liberty states, "To fight the Seven year's War, Britain had borrowed from banks and individual investors over £150 million (the equivalent of tens of trillions of dollars in today's money)", there was definitely a lot at stake for the British empire as far as its strength and prosperity. This debt lead to the Townshed Acts, which were passed by Parliament in order to raise revenue through the colonies in America. However, these unfair taxes targeted only in America, only lead to the turmoil between colonies and Great Britain.
"The emerging rift between Britain and America eventually superimposed its on conflicts within the colonies". Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty
As continuous animosity steadily grew stronger, colonists' boycotts and rebellions against the British were their way of being heard. This is ultimately what led to the Boston Massacre. Now today, not only is the name widely recognized, but so is the picture depicted of the massacre.The engraving of the picture was done by Paul Revere, which was created in less than a month after the massacre happened. Although the picture depicts the British army standing in a straight line, while blatantly firing at what appears to be innocent helpless colonists, further research of the actual event turns out to be the complete opposite. Further research found online states, "Notice how the British Grenadiers are shown standing in a straight line shooting their rifles in a regular volley, whereas when the disturbance actually erupted both sides were belligerent and riotous.
Notice also that Revere's engraving shows a blue sky. Only a wisp of a moon suggests that the riot occurred after nine o'clock on a cold winter night. Notice too the absence of snow and ice on the street, while Crispus Attucks— a black man lying on the ground closest to the British soldiers — is shown to be white."
Even with the success of a single picture pertaining to the portrayal of the Boston Massacre, the question of why it was depicted in such a way instead of holding true to what actually happened was more than just a simple answer.
"...deliberately transforming what was in fact a chaotic free-for-all into a means of inflaming public opinion against British tyranny." Casper Scott, The Boston Massacre
The picture was purposely made this way because Paul Revere had wanted it to make turn colonists against British soldiers in order to break away from the crown's ruling. After the release and circulation of the engraving, colonists without a doubt had been influenced by the picture's powerful message of the the British rule asserting their power over the colonies. A further analysis of the photo states,"Revere had accomplished his goal of widely circulating an effective piece of anti-British propaganda." This helped keep the hopes of many intact of one day being able to self-govern apart from the British rule and become a separate entity from Great Britain. With stirred up feelings of anger and frustration, the animosity had only become stronger after the picture was developed.
Although the confrontation was and equal amount of fault on both parties, it only took an engraved, over-exaggerated picture to have colonists choose a side. Events leading up to the Boston Massacre, particularly the Townsend Acts that were put in motion by Parliament to make money off of the colonies to pay for debts, only lead to more uprisings after the "massacre". This was just the beginning to a road of freedom and uniting the colonies to become one. Liberation and freedom was a far cry, but they were beginning realize that injustice was being served to them and there needed to be change.
Works Cited
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York: Norton & Company Inc., 2009. Print.
"Archiving Early America". Boston Massacre. Early America Online, 2010. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.<http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/massacre.html>
Casper, Scott. "The Boston Massacre". American History August 2008. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.
"Boston Massacre". Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 23 Sept. 2010.
