Boston Massacre The Boston Massacre , known as the Incident on King Street by the British , was an incident on March 5 , 1770 , in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others . British troops had been stationed in Boston , capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay , since 1768 in order to protect and support crown - appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation . Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers , a mob formed around a British sentry , who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment . He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers , who were subjected to verbal threats and thrown objects . They fired into the crowd , without orders , instantly killing three people and wounding others . Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident . The crowd eventually dispersed after Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson promised an inquiry , but reformed the next day , prompting the withdrawal of the troops to Castle Island . Eight soldiers , one officer , and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder . Defended by the lawyer and future American President , John Adams , six of the soldiers were acquitted , while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences . The sentence that the men guilty of manslaughter received was a branding on their hand . Depictions , reports , and propaganda about the event , notably the colored engraving produced by Paul Revere ( shown at right ) , further heightened tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies . The event is widely viewed as foreshadowing the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later . Background . Boston , the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and an important shipping town , was a major center of resistance to unpopular acts of taxation by the British Parliament in the 1760s . In 1768 , the Townshend Acts were placed upon the colonists , by which a variety of common items that were manufactured in Britain and exported to the colonies were subjected to import tariffs . Colonists objected that the Townshend Acts were a violation of the natural , charter , and constitutional rights of British subjects in the colonies . The Massachusetts House of Representatives began a campaign against the Townshend Acts by sending a petition to King George III asking for the repeal of the Townshend Revenue Act . The House also sent what became known as the Massachusetts Circular Letter to other colonial assemblies , asking them to join the resistance movement , and called for a boycott of merchants importing the affected goods . In Great Britain , Lord Hillsborough , who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary , was alarmed by the actions of the Massachusetts House . In April 1768 he sent a letter to the colonial governors in America , instructing them to dissolve the colonial assemblies if they responded to the Massachusetts Circular Letter . He also ordered Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard to direct the Massachusetts House to rescind the letter . The house refused to comply . Boston ' s chief customs officer , Charles Paxton , wrote to Hillsborough , asking for military support because " the Government is as much in the hands of the people as it was in the time of the Stamp Act . " Commodore Samuel Hood responded by sending the fifty - gun warship , which arrived in Boston Harbor in May 1768 . On June 10 , 1768 , customs officials seized the " Liberty " , a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock , on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling . Bostonians , already angry because the captain of the " Romney " had been impressing local sailors , began to riot . Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection . Given the unstable state of affairs in Massachusetts , Hillsborough instructed General Thomas Gage , Commander - in - Chief , North America , to send " such Force as You shall think necessary to Boston " . On October 1 , 1768 , the first of four British Army regiments began disembarking in Boston . Two regiments were removed from Boston in 1769 , but the 14th and the 29th Regiments of Foot remained . The " Journal of Occurrences " , an anonymously written series of newspaper articles , chronicled clashes between civilians and soldiers while troops were stationed in Boston , feeding tensions with its sometimes exaggerated accounts of the events . Tensions rose markedly after Christopher Seider , " a young lad about eleven Years of Age " , was killed by a customs employee on February 22 , 1770 . Seider ' s death was glorified in the " Boston Gazette " , and his funeral was described as one of the largest of the time in Boston . The killing and subsequent propaganda inflamed tensions , with gangs of colonists looking for soldiers to harass , and soldiers also on occasion looking for confrontation . Incident . On the evening of March 5 , Private Hugh White , a British soldier , stood on guard duty outside the Custom house on King Street , today known as State Street . A young wig maker ' s apprentice named Edward Garrick called out to a British officer , Captain - Lieutenant John Goldfinch , that Goldfinch had not paid a bill due to Garrick ' s master . Goldfinch had in fact settled his account and ignored the insult . Private White called out to Garrick that he should be more respectful of the officer . Garrick exchanged insults with Private White , who left his post , challenged the boy , and struck him on the side of the head with his musket . As Garrick cried in pain , one of his companions , Bartholomew Broaders , began to argue with White . This attracted a larger crowd . Henry Knox , a 19 - year - old bookseller ( who would later serve as a general in the revolution ) , came upon the scene and warned White , " if he fired he must die for it . " As the evening progressed , the crowd around Private White grew larger and more boisterous . Church bells were rung , which usually signified a fire , bringing more people out . Over fifty Bostonians pressed around White , led by a mixed - race runaway slave named Crispus Attucks , throwing objects at the sentry and challenging him to fire his weapon . White , who had taken up a somewhat safer position on the steps of the Custom House , sought assistance . Runners alerted the nearby barracks and Captain Thomas Preston , the officer of the watch . According to his report , Preston dispatched a non - commissioned officer and six privates of the 29th Regiment of Foot , with fixed bayonets , to relieve White . The soldiers Preston sent were Corporal William Wemms , Hugh Montgomery , John Carroll , William McCauley , William Warren and Matthew Kilroy . Accompanied by Preston , they pushed their way through the crowd . En route , Henry Knox , again trying to reduce tensions , warned Preston , " For God ' s sake , take care of your men . If they fire , you must die . " Captain Preston responded " I am aware of it . " When they reached Private White on the custom house stairs , the soldiers loaded their muskets , and arrayed themselves in a semicircular formation . Preston shouted at the crowd , estimated to number between three and four hundred , to disperse . The crowd continued to press around the soldiers , taunting them by yelling , " Fire ! " , by spitting at and throwing snowballs and other small objects at them . Richard Palmes , a local innkeeper who was carrying a cudgel ( i . e . , club ) , came up to Preston and asked if the soldiers ' weapons were loaded . Preston assured him they were , but that they would not fire unless he ordered it , and ( according to his own deposition ) that he was unlikely to do so , since he was standing in front of them . A thrown object then struck Private Montgomery , knocking him down and causing him to drop his musket . He recovered his weapon , and was thought to angrily shout " Damn you , fire ! " , then discharged it into the crowd though no command was actually given . Palmes swung his cudgel first at Montgomery , hitting his arm , and then at Preston . He narrowly missed Preston ' s head , striking him on the arm instead . There was a pause of uncertain length ( eyewitness estimates ranged from several seconds to two minutes ) , after which the soldiers fired into the crowd . Rather than a disciplined volley ( Preston gave no orders to fire ) , a ragged series of shots was fired , which hit eleven men . Three Americans — ropemaker Samuel Gray , mariner James Caldwell , and Crispus Attucks — died instantly . Samuel Maverick , an apprentice ivory turner of seventeen , was struck by a ricocheting musket ball at the back of the crowd , and died a few hours later , in the early morning of the next day . Irish immigrant Patrick Carr died two weeks later . Christopher Monk , another apprentice , was one of those seriously wounded in the attack . Although he recovered to some extent , he was crippled and eventually died in 1780 , supposedly due to the wounds suffered in the attack . The crowd moved away from the immediate area of the custom house , but continued to grow in nearby streets . Captain Preston immediately called out most of the 29th Regiment , which adopted defensive positions in front of the state house . Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson was summoned to the scene , and was forced by the movement of the crowd into the council chamber of the state house . From its balcony he was able to minimally restore order , promising that there would be a fair inquiry into the shootings if the crowd dispersed . Aftermath . Investigation . Hutchinson immediately began investigating the affair , and by morning , Preston and the eight soldiers had been arrested . In a meeting of the governor ' s council held late the morning after the shootings , Boston ' s selectmen asked Hutchinson to order the removal of troops from the city to Castle William on Castle Island , while a town meeting at Faneuil Hall met to discuss the affair . The governor ' s council was at first opposed to ordering the troop withdrawal , with Hutchinson correctly claiming he did not have the authority to " order " the troops to move . Lieutenant Colonel William Dalrymple , commander of the troops , did not offer to move them . The town meeting , however , became more restive when it learned of this . Under an imminent threat of further violence , the council changed its position , and unanimously ( " under duress " , according to Hutchinson ' s report ) agreed to request the troops ' removal . Secretary of State Andrew Oliver reported that , had the troops not been removed , " that they would probably be destroyed by the people — should it be called rebellion , should it incur the loss of our charter , or be the consequence what it would . " This decision left the governor without effective means to police the town . The 14th was transferred to Castle Island without incident about a week later , with the 29th following shortly after . The first four victims were buried amid great ceremony on March 8 ; Patrick Carr , the fifth and final victim , died on March 14 and was buried with them on March 17 . On March 27 the eight soldiers , Captain Preston , and four civilians who were in the Customs House and were alleged to have fired shots , were all indicted for murder . Bostonians continued to be hostile to the troops and their dependents . General Gage , convinced the troops were doing more harm than good , ordered the 29th Regiment out of the province in May . Governor Hutchinson took advantage of the ongoing high tensions to orchestrate delays of the trials until later in the year . Propaganda battle . In the days and weeks following the incident , a propaganda battle was waged between Boston ' s radicals and supporters of the government . Both sides published pamphlets that told strikingly different stories , which were principally published in London in a bid to influence opinion there . The " Boston Gazette " version of events , for example , characterized the massacre as part of an ongoing scheme to " quell a Spirit of Liberty " , and harped on the negative consequences of quartering troops in the city . A young Boston artist , Henry Pelham , half - brother of the celebrated portrait painter John Singleton Copley , depicted the event . Silversmith and engraver Paul Revere closely copied Pelham ' s image , and is often credited as its originator . In order to further public outrage , the engraving contained several inflammatory details . Captain Preston is shown ordering his men to fire , and a musket is seen shooting out of the window of the customs office , which is labeled " Butcher ' s Hall . " Artist Christian Remick hand - colored some prints . Some copies of the print show a man with two chest wounds and a somewhat darker face , matching descriptions of attacks ; others show no victim as a person of color . The image was published in the " Boston Gazette " , circulating widely , and became an effective piece of anti - British propaganda . The image of bright red " lobster backs " and wounded men with red blood was hung in farmhouses across New England . Anonymous pamphlets were published describing the event from significantly different perspectives . " A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre " , published under the auspices of the Boston town meeting , was principally written by James Bowdoin , a member of the governor ' s council and a vocal opponent of British colonial policy , along with Samuel Pemberton , and Joseph Warren . It described the shooting and other lesser incidents that took place in the days before as unprovoked attacks on peaceful , law - abiding inhabitants , and was , according to historian Neal Langley York , probably the most influential description of the event . The account it provided was drawn from more than 90 depositions taken after the event , and it included accusations that the soldiers sent by Captain Preston had been deployed with the intention of causing harm . In the interest of minimizing impact on the jury pool , city leaders held back local distribution of the pamphlet , but sent copies to other colonies and to London , where they knew depositions collected by Governor Hutchinson were en route . A second pamphlet , " Additional Observations " on the " Short Narrative " , furthered the attack on crown officials by complaining that customs officials ( one of whom had left Boston to carry Hutchinson ' s gathered depositions to London ) were abandoning their posts under the pretense that it was too dangerous for them to do their duties . The depositions that Hutchinson collected and sent to London were eventually published in a pamphlet entitled " A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance in Boston " . Drawn mainly from depositions by soldiers , its account of affairs sought to blame selfish Bostonians for denying the validity of Parliamentary laws . It also blamed the city ' s hoodlums and gangs for the lawlessness preceding the event , and claimed that they set up an ambush of the soldiers . However , because it was not published until well after the first pamphlet had arrived in London , it ended up having a much smaller impact on the public debate there . Trials . The government was determined to give the soldiers a fair trial so there could be no grounds for retaliation from the British and so that moderates would not be alienated from the Patriot cause . After several lawyers with Loyalist leanings refused to defend Preston , he sent a request to John Adams , pleading for him to work on the case . Adams , who was already a leading Patriot and who was contemplating a run for public office , agreed to help , in the interest of ensuring a fair trial . Adams was joined by Josiah Quincy II after the latter was assured that the Sons of Liberty would not oppose his appointment , and by Robert Auchmuty , a Loyalist . They were assisted by Sampson Salter Blowers , whose chief duty was to investigate the jury pool , and Paul Revere , who drew a detailed map of the bodies to be used in the trial of the British soldiers held responsible . Massachusetts Solicitor General Samuel Quincy and private attorney Robert Treat Paine , hired by the town of Boston , handled the prosecution . Preston was tried separately in late October 1770 . He was acquitted after the jury was convinced that he had not ordered the troops to fire . The trial of the eight soldiers opened on November 27 , 1770 . Adams told the jury to look beyond the fact the soldiers were British . He argued that if the soldiers were endangered by the mob , which he called " a motley rabble of saucy boys , negro es , and molattoes , Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs [ i . e . sailors ] " , they had the legal right to fight back , and so were innocent . If they were provoked but not endangered , he argued , they were at most guilty of manslaughter . The jury agreed with Adams and acquitted six of the soldiers after two and one - half hours deliberation . Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they fired directly into the crowd . The jury ' s decisions suggest that they believed the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd , but should have delayed firing . Patrick Carr , the fifth victim , corroborated this with a deathbed testimony delivered to his doctor . The convicted soldiers were granted reduced sentences by invoking " Benefit of clergy " , which reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court . The four civilians were tried on December 13 . The principal prosecution witness , a servant of one of the accused , made claims that were easily rebutted by defense witnesses . In the face of this weak testimony , as well as waning public interest , the prosecution did not press its case very hard . The civilians were all acquitted , and the servant was eventually convicted of perjury , whipped , and banished from the province . Legacy . Contribution to American Revolution . The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most important events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority . John Adams wrote that the " foundation of American independence was laid " on March 5 , 1770 , and Samuel Adams and other Patriots used annual commemorations ( Massacre Day ) of the event to fulminate against British rule . Christopher Monk , the boy who was wounded in the attack and died in 1780 , was paraded before the crowds as a reminder of British hostility . Later events such as the Boston Tea Party further illustrated the crumbling relationship between Britain and its colonies . Although five years passed between the massacre and outright revolution , and direct connections between the massacre and the later war are ( according to historian Neil Langley York ) somewhat tenuous , it is widely perceived as a significant event leading to the violent rebellion that followed . Commemorations . The massacre was remembered in 1858 in a celebration organized by William Cooper Nell , an African American abolitionist who saw the death of Crispus Attucks as an opportunity to demonstrate the role of African Americans in the Revolutionary War . In part of because of this activism , artwork commemorating the massacre was produced that changed the color of a victim ' s skin to black ( which in Revere ' s original engraving was white ) to emphasize Attucks ' claimed martyrdom . In 1888 , a monument was erected on the Boston Common to the men killed in the massacre , and the five victims , along with Christopher Seider , were reinterred in a prominent grave in the Granary Burying Ground . The massacre is reenacted annually on March 5 under the auspices of the Bostonian Society . The Old State House , the massacre site , and the Granary Burying Ground are all part of Boston ' s Freedom Trail , connecting sites important in the city ' s revolutionary - era history .