BOSTON MASSACRE

BOSTON MASSACRE. As discontent over Britain's taxation policies mounted in the 1760s, violence in the seaport cities escalated. In June 1768, British customs officials in Boston attempting to seize John Hancock's sloop Liberty for tax violations were attacked by a mob and beaten. To subdue the spreading revolt, British regulars arrived to take control of the city on 1 October 1768. Many Bostonians resented the British practice of billeting troops in private homes. Skirmishes between troops and civilians ensued. On the evening of 5 March 1770, a grenadier of the Twenty-ninth Regiment was on duty at the customhouse when he was beset by a taunting crowd of civilians. Captain Thomas Preston, with seven men, marched to the customhouse. Unable to quell the crowd, Preston loudly ordered his men, "Don't fire!" while the mob was shouting, "Fire and be damned!" The soldiers fired, killing three men instantly; two died later. Patriot leaders promptly decried the "massacre" and aroused mass meetings in protest. Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, fearing an even bloodier reprisal, pulled his troops back to an island in the Boston harbor. The repeal of most of the offending import duties further demonstrated the weakness of imperial power when faced with a well-organized local resistance movement.

In October 1770 Preston, defended by John Adams and Robert Auchmuty, assisted by Josiah Quincy Jr., was tried for murder and acquitted by a Boston jury. The soldiers—defended by Adams, Quincy, and Sampson Salter Blowers—won acquittals a month later. Four civilians, accused of firing from the customhouse windows, were tried in December 1770; all were acquitted.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nash, Gary B. The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution. Abridged ed., Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. The original edition was published in 1979.

Zobel, Hiller B. The Boston Massacre. New York: Norton, 1970.

Hiller B.Zobel/a. r.

See alsoBilleting ; Colonial Policy, British ; andvol. 9:Eyewitness Account of the Boston Massacre ; Slave Andrew's Testimony in the Boston Massacre Trial ; andpicture (overleaf).