The Bloody Massacre
The Boston Massacre through
American Eyes
Why?
• Protests against the Townshend Duties,
waterfront jobs being scarce due to
non importation of good, poor pay,
British troops competing for jobs, all
caused the American workers to resent
the British soldiers.
Finally
• In 1770 there was a
confrontation which left five
Boston workers dead so Paul
Revere issued this print three
weeks after the incident. His
engraving is done from the
Patriot view.
Townshend Duties
• The acts are named for Charles
Townshend, the Chancellor, who started
the program. The purpose of the
Townshend Acts was to raise revenue in
the colonies to pay for governors and
judges who would be independent of
colonial control,
Townshend Duties
• to create a more effective means of
enforcing with trade regulations,
• to punish the province of New York for
failing to comply with the 1765
Quartering Act,
• to establish the precedent that the
British Parliament had the right to tax
the colonies
Townshend Duties Cont.
• The Townshend Acts met with resistance
in the colonies, prompting the occupation
of Boston by British troops in 1768,
which eventually resulted in the Boston
Massacre of 1770.
The Bloody Massacre
• This piece of art was
known as The Bloody
Massacre.
• It was created by Paul
Revere.
• It was an engraving
with colors so it could
be mass produced and
made cheaper so as to
help make more profit.
When and Why
• The Boston Massacre
occurred on March 5,
1770.
• It started because 21
days earlier, 5 men
were shot to death in a
Boston town by
British soldiers.
As a Result…
• So on March 5, a group of
men and boys were
taunting a sentry (guard)
at the city’s custom
house.
• When other soldiers
showed to help, a free for
all started.
• 4 died on the spot, and the
5th died 4 days later. 6
others were wounded
The People of Boston
• They had been upset for quite a while because of
the presence of British troops.
• They considered this British tyranny (complete
control by one ruler.)
• So Paul Revere decided to use political
propaganda (using exaggerated or misleading
information to try to convince others of your view)
to capitalize on this and help stir up anti-British
sentiment.
What This Meant for
Americans…
• The Boston Massacre proved to be
a milestone in America's road to
independence.
The Bloody Massacre Engraving
Foreground and Propaganda
• Foreground (front of
the picture) includes
the man closest to us.
He is suppose to be
Crispus Attacks, an
African American who
was killed, yet he is
done white.
Crispus Attucks was the same man who in 1750
was advertised as a runaway slave from
Framingham, Ma.
A stranger to Boston, he was leading a march
against the Townshend Acts when the killing
occurred.
Crispus Attucks was the first man to fall in the
American Revolution.
Crispus Attucks is identified as the first person
killed in the name of freedom during what has
come to be known as the Boston Massacre so he
should have been recognized as an African
American, but Revere felt the picture would not
cause as much sympathy then
Symbolism in Foreground
• The dog in the
foreground symbolizes
that the British treated
the Americans lower
than dogs because they
are allowing the dog to
live, and they are
killing Americans.
Political Propaganda
The print does not show the snow and ice
on the ground which should have been
there.
The propaganda errors were undoubtedly
deliberate, in order to present the
Americans in the most sympathetic light
possible, and the British in the most
tyrannous.
Political Propaganda Continued
The print shows the British standing in a straight
line firing at a peaceful crowd. In fact there was
nothing organized about the episode, and when
the shots were fired, both sides were involved in
the free-for-all.
When the disturbance actually erupted, both
sides were belligerent and riotous
Symbolism
The inflammatory, bright red, "lobster backs"
and glowing red blood are the exact same shade
to emphasize that the British were indeed the
ones who were responsible.
The dog in the foreground was used to say that
Americans were treated like they were lower
than dogs.
Church used to show that Americans were good
Christian people (all of them?)
Middle ground Political Propaganda
Revere changed the sign on the building,
which was actually the Custom’s House
where the British soldiers stayed, to read
“Butcher's Hall” instead of Custom’s
House. What effect might this alteration
have had on viewers?
This was in order to portray the British as
butchering the Americans.
Background Political Propaganda
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.
In the background you see a bell tower that
bears a clock that seems to read 3:50 p.m., but
most accounts say that this battle occurred at
night. So if the incident took place at night, it
was not during the day as the print suggests.
Rest of Background Political Propaganda
There is a church in the distance that seems
to be a witness of the execution taking
place like the good church going
Americans would do no wrong.