“The Bloody Massacre in King-Street:” Paul Revere, the Boston Massacre, and Crispus Attucks
What does Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre tell us about the beginnings of the American Revolution? In this episode of BRIdge from the Past, Mary explores the Boston Massacre engraving by Paul Revere and the "Crispus Attucks" painting by Herschel Levit. Both sources depict the clash between British soldiers and American colonists in March of 1770 that acted as a catalyst for the start of the Revolutionary War. What additional context can we gain by examining the painting of "Crispus Attucks" alongside the engraving by Paul Revere?
BRIdge Boston Massacre Handout: https://bri-docs.s3.amazonaws.com/BRIdge+Boston+Massacre+Handout.pdf
0:00 Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Bridge from the Past. I’m your host, Mary, and this series is all about using images as a starting point to think about important topics in American history. Today, we’re looking at a very famous image of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere. What does this engraving tell us about the beginnings of the American Revolution? Let’s jump in and see.
0:24 Here is our image. Once again, we’re thinking about what this engraving of the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere can tell us about the beginnings of the American Revolution. Whenever you have an image, it’s important to just make some observations before you can do any analysis. If you’re using the handout that goes with this video, go ahead and pause here and make some observations of your own.
0:46 Here are a few things that I notice. First of all, I can see the image, but I also see text at the top and on the bottom. It’s a little hard to see, but at the top, paul Revere has given this engraving a title. It reads, the bloody massacre perpetuated in King Street, Boston, on March 5, 1770, by a party of the 29th Regiment.
1:08 So I know I’m in Boston. It’s 1770. It’s a few years before the American Revolution. And I’m assuming these guys right here are the 29th Regiment. Now, the Regiment, they’re in a uniform. They have the red coat of a British soldier. It looks very orderly. They’re in a line. They all appear to be firing their weapons
1:28 at the same time because there’s smoke coming out of all the guns. This guy back here has something raised up, as if he’s giving the order to fire. So it’s very orderly. They’re on the street on the left. I’m assuming these are the colonists. It’s sort of chaotic. I can see that there has been bloodshed. There’s people lying on the ground as if they’ve been hurt.
1:49 There’s a random dog in the middle of the street, which is kind of interesting. And over here, I see the word butcher’s hall. And there’s also a label of the Customs house. Down here, again, a little hard to read, but trust me, it’s there. So there’s a lot going on in this image. It looks chaotic on one side, orderly on the other.
2:09 Something violent is happening. I need to step back and have some context before I can really dive further into my analysis. So if we backpedal just a little bit before 1770, in 1767, the Parliament, the British Parliament, passed something called the Townshund Acts, which taxed the colonists on purchases of British goods. The British also headquarters customs
2:32 officials over here in the Customs Hall to make sure that these taxes were being collected and that everybody was following the rules. The Bostonians did not like this, and they protested by gathering in the streets. They assembled at town meetings, and they even threatened those British custom officials. So the British, in response, dispatched soldiers to the city. So here I can see the hated Red Coats,
2:54 the British soldiers that have come to the city of Boston. So a lot of the colonists considered this peacetime presence of the British Army in their city a grave threat to their liberties and a violation of their rights as Englishmen. So even before March 5, 1770, things in Boston are really tense. So on the evening of March 5, 1770, this is when this event takes place.
3:19 So in this picture, interestingly, it doesn’t really look like nighttime, but this event took place during the night. So it was dark, it was chaotic. There was snow on the ground. Again, you don’t see any of this in the picture, and it was unclear as to who started the scuffle. So what you have here is Paul Revere’s
3:40 depiction of what happened on March 5, 1770. One of the casualties. Down here on the ground is Crispus Attucks. So Crispus Attucks, this is him right here in the center of this mural that’s in a building in Washington, DC. Was of American Indian and African American descent. Little is known about him. He was a sailor, and he was one of the casualties of the Boston Massacre.
4:04 Eyewitnesses at the event described him as being at the head of a group of sailors who really didn’t like these taxes in holding a club. So he was supposed to be very tall, and he was brandishing a wooden club. So, again, we don’t know much about him, but we know he was a part of this group of people who are protesting, who are angry about this violation of their rights of Englishmen.
4:27 They’re being taxed. They’re having an army brought into their city without any representation because the Colonial Assembly of Massachusetts had been disbanded. You can also see some of the violence here. It looks a little bit more chaotic. You’ve got people brandishing clubs. This kind of looks like a broken piece of wood, some sort of knife or dagger or something.
4:50 Again, the sky is dark, so a little bit more accurate in what happened here. And you can’t see the soldiers, but you can see their bayonets, the blaze at the ends of their muskets. What’s interesting to me about this, if we’re thinking about the beginnings of the American Revolution, is that these images are from very different points in time, right? The first one is from roughly three weeks after the event.
5:13 And the one on the right is a more modern depiction of what had happened. So Crispus Attucks in Paul Revere’s drawing, he’s kind of hard to see, and sometimes he’s not even depicted with any coloring to his face. Again. He was of American Indian and African American heritage. On the right, he’s depicted much more front and center. Raises interesting questions about how we think about events in the past and how
5:36 their meanings can mean different things and change over time. We started by asking what Paul Revere’s engraving could tell us about the beginnings of the American Revolution. We learned a little bit about the complicated context leading up to the events of the Boston Massacre in 1770. And we also compared Paul Revere’s depiction of what is now known as the Boston Massacre with a more modern artist’s representation.
6:00 But as always, there’s so much more to this story. So now I want to turn it over to you. What questions do you still have? What do you want to know more about? Let me know in the comments below. If you learned something. Be sure to like this video and subscribe to our channel to be in the know about other Bill of Rights Institute resources to help you through the school year. I’ll be back soon with another primary
6:20 source image to help us think about important topics in American history. Until then, everybody look closely at those pictures and take care. Oh no. The video is over. Oh, come on, don’t be so sad. Don’t you know that the Bill of Rights Institute has tons of videos on American history, government and civics. From primary source document breakdowns to historical image analysis,
6:42 whether you’re studying for a test or just interested in learning more, they’ve got something for you. Oh, well, in that case, I better check out this video. And don’t forget to subscribe so you aren’t so sad again.
