Tony Williams: The Boston Massacre & Justice | BRI Scholar Talks

0:00 [Music] welcome to another episode of bri scholar talks my name is mary patterson and i work on the content team here at the bill of rights institute and today i’m joined by bri’s very own in-house scholar senior fellow tony williams hello tony

0:20 hi mary good to see you good to see you too so typically on this series tony sits down with a scholar an author that contributed to bri’s new free online us history resource entitled life liberty and the pursuit of happiness tony however is a published author and scholar in his own right and he was also one of our authors on

0:40 this project today the tables have turned he’s in the hot seat i get to ask the questions we will be talking about uh what i think is fair to say a seminal event in american history in memory the boston massacre i want this conversation to remain civil tony so i will not say anything about

1:00 the boston red sox thank you thank you purely in the time period itself so let’s dive in shall we before we get to the event itself can you set the scene for us a little bit what is boston like in the years leading up to 1770 sure and that’s a really important

1:21 question for understanding how uh you know the events that shape the uh you know the boston massacre itself but then also you know the colonists understanding uh of that event um you know boston was kind of a seed bed kind of a hotbed of revolutionary fervor kind of resistance against british

1:43 tyranny uh in 1767 the the british had passed the townsend acts which which were a series of taxes on on various items without the columnist consent and so they were very upset about that and and samuel adams uh you know and and the legislature protested against that this one’s a liberty

2:04 um and and this was true across the colonies as well and there was a colonial-wide boycott of british goods and in addition to that the british sent a couple of regiments up to boston so you know by 1768 69 there’s some 4 000 troops or so up in boston um

2:25 and and both of those those facts are very important because you know the americans feel as if their economic liberties are being taken away the right to govern themselves by their own consent is taken away by the way the governor had suspended the legislature in response to these protests uh and so their political uh rights were

2:47 taken you know what taken away and on top of that the british standing army uh during peacetime really seemed to be the very essence of tyranny and i don’t think we quite can capture that in 2020 but you know the the colonists are really outraged that they were

3:08 they were british troops on american soil and they were being quartered in their buildings and homes uh and uh you know this went all the way back to the english bill of rights in 1689 uh you know this this fear of a standing army and this fear of a loss of liberty because of that

3:28 so practically in the events sort of leading up to the massacre uh there’s just a lot of tension with those troops you know there’s a lot of you know sort of as i said political and economic outrage but even when the town ten acts are repealed they’re just still a lot of popular outrage and uh they’re getting into fist fights

3:49 with the troops insults are being hurled back and forth in taverns and in streets some of the british soldiers get part-time jobs they kind of moonlight and they seem to be competing with americans for jobs and so there’s just a great deal of tension and then in february of 1770 there’s

4:11 this mob action uh that takes place uh with some people who are sort of pro british and sort of tories you might say and they’re not following the boycott and and sort of violence erupts and a young 11 year old boy is killed and samuel adams and the sons of liberty use that as

4:34 propaganda and they really publicize his funeral and make a lot of hash out of it uh to demonstrate for them what seemed like british tyranny this was just yet another example uh and so that all that is very important long term and short short term for setting up the events of

4:55 march i think that so boston in 1770 we’ve seen years of protests and boycotts you have this standing army in the city like you said i think that is something that we’re typically familiar with when we read a textbook but the death of this 11 year old boy in this skirmish month before the boston massacre is something i was not

5:16 familiar with i know that’s something that you you mentioned in the essay that you’ve written for our textbook life liberty pursuit of happiness but i think that’s it’s like a key part of the story to understand just how tense and how fraught the air is in boston leading up to this event so i’d like to and to think about the propaganda associate rather seeing

5:37 and you know there’s a funeral procession through the street sort of thousands of people witness this and and you know everyone’s kind of blood is boiling you know everyone’s kind of you know there’s there’s a lot of anxiety in the city a lot a lot of tension it’s like a powder tag and just would need sort of a match tube to explode

5:58 okay so blood is boiling it’s march 5th 1770 so this is the date of the boston massacre can you walk us through the event itself like who started it what happened like give us the blow by blow sure so so the sons of liberty and sort of this mob if you will come out into the streets uh

6:20 you know it’s sort of a cold night there’s ice on the ground and and so um people start taunting a british century who’s who’s all alone and they’re throwing uh ice at him and snowballs rocks cobblestones uh whatever sort of nearby brickabrack and

6:43 the british guard is roused and and comes out to sort of you know get him to safety and and protect his life um you know you know and a larger and larger mob assembles uh people you know a fire bell rings out and so more and more people spill out into the street because they think

7:04 there’s a fire uh and so there’s some anxiety that way as well uh and people contin the people around the soldiers continue to help them with these objects right and then salt them and call them names call them lobsterbacks and and all sorts of things that goes to their red coats uh and

7:25 the and and there’s a lot of confusion about what actually really happened uh even today we’re still unsure about sort of how things really happen which which is interesting right in in history we don’t always necessarily have all the answers the best we can piece together is that there there’s some actual physical

7:46 violence between the soldiers and and the townspeople a soldier either slips on the ice or or is knocked down gets up uh people in the crowd are supposedly yelling fire fire they’re sort of provoking uh the troops and the firing

8:06 uh and they do they they uh their their lineup and and they do just charge their weapons into the crowd uh and uh five people uh you’re either killed outright or or die you know sort of the next day uh and others are wounded actually um and

8:26 uh and this creates a real explosive situation you know uh because you know there there may be further outbreaks of violence and and people may retaliate from the crowd and you know this fear that the soldiers might fire again uh and so fortunately the troops are are removed from boston and so

8:47 some calm is is restored uh in the next several hours and days it’s interesting that you mentioned the fire bell was ringing that’s something i didn’t know that part of the story so that adds like a different dimension of people yelling out fire of course a fire in 1770s

9:07 so it’s it’s dark it’s cold it’s uh it sounds like really chaotic time so it’s as you said it’s hard to see you know to know exactly what happened so that’s both the interesting part of being a historian and also the frustrating part of being a historian you mentioned that after this event takes place so the troops are

9:29 removed from boston when was this first referred to as a massacre um pretty much right away um the the bostonians uh new englanders uh they seize on the propaganda value uh of this this massacre very very

9:52 quickly and and label it a massacre and then there’s some historical controversy about that which we talked about you know was it a massacre if they were provoked and so forth and sort of maybe even tricked in into firing into the crowd uh would you know do the colonists bear some responsibility too uh or uh you know was it now i mean

10:14 five people were killed and shot by soldiers so so you know they were slain so there was a massacre going on so there’s some some debate about that um but but very quickly uh paul revere uh jumps into the mix says to samuel adams and there’s this famous engraving uh that’s sent out

10:35 and published in the newspapers and then published by other colonial newspapers and so word of this mass curse spreads very quickly and i think we’re going to talk about that that engraving um because you know it certainly has a great deal of propaganda yeah let’s bring up let’s bring up that image and look at it really quickly

10:57 here is the famous print by paul revere so i think this is in probably every u.s history textbook i know this is something that i saw when i was little it’s in our u.s history resource and paul revere publishes this three weeks after the event and it’s titled it’s hard to see at the top but the bloody massacre perpetrated in king street in boston

11:21 and tony you mentioned that this is this is propaganda so what i mean how does this further the cause of the sons of liberty and the idea that the british are tyrannical right well what we see here is that the british soldiers lined up which which they basically were that night but but they’re lined up and

11:41 you see sort of these hapless uh and helpless colonists uh just innocently standing there and being moaned down you know by this volley um with with captain preston in the back you know raising a sword to fire um you know no one obviously had a snowball or or you know a club in

12:04 their hand or or other uh you know missiles that they were throwing uh and so it really seemed at least on the face value for those who saw this a another example of just extreme tyranny that that the british who are now using their standing army of these redcoats to just fire

12:26 in the completely innocent uh civilians now as i said you know this is the you know there’s some truth to this picture so i don’t want to think i don’t think we should just call it propaganda as to mean well it was untrue and gave a completely inaccurate view of the event

12:47 you know the british soldiers did fire into the crowd they did kill five people uh and they were provoked yes uh we understand that uh but it i i think it does to some degree accurately represent what happened uh and also represents very very clearly the colonists feelings

13:10 about the tyranny right wrapped up in all this is the fear of standing armies is the the townsend acts and and shutting down their legislatures you know sort of all of british tyranny is sort of encompassed in the colonial view uh in this engraving so it’s propaganda yes but but i think we need to be very careful because i think in today’s

13:31 world when we teach young students about propaganda we we mean that it’s just completely untrue um so i i think this image so i think it’s striking you very clearly have the colonists on one side and the the soldiers on the other so i think even though there are some discrepancies like this it doesn’t look like

13:53 night time in this print but it looks more like daytime but it’s this us versus them so i think the colonists as you said they were appealing to their idea you know the the rights of english men to you know represent themselves and these rights are being are being taken away by the englishmen who are quartered in their in their very city so and this is not just a matter of uh

14:15 you know taxing them without their consent or or maybe a couple soldiers you know strolling around the streets or even dissolving their legislature i mean this is this is actually murdering um you know five five people this is slaying by people um and and the colonists saw it in cold blood and so you know this really represented kind of

14:37 the apex of british tyranny um but but what’s interesting and and we can talk about this as we look at the effects of it it it doesn’t really lead in the same way that some other events prior to it you know led to kind of colonial ira people were outraged for a short time but then you sort of have

14:57 this calm this lull over the next few years until we get you know the boston tea party and so forth and so ironically although it seems the apex of british tyranny there’s also this calm sort of in the wake of it we mentioned before that the events of the boston massacre in even paul revere’s print something that

15:18 most americans have seen or familiar with speaking anecdotally as for myself and when i was a classroom teacher the trial that follows the massacre i think is less well-known and i think a very interesting part of the story so can you talk a little bit about about that it’s a really important part

15:39 of the story um you know this was several months later they’re tried as i said the troops had been removed at least for a time to let calm be restored uh eventually they were tried uh and uh john adams actually took the case uh of you know he was a

15:59 pretty well-known attorney uh and sort of involved you know with the patriot movement but didn’t have the fame that he would have later on and he actually takes the case because he really believed that the the british soldiers were entitled to a fair trial that they were entitled to justice they

16:21 were accused of a crime and they had rights of the accused under the rights of englishmen you know it goes back to magna carta this idea of a trial by jury is the right of every englishman or a colonist and in fact the colonists were often tried in british

16:41 vice admiralty courts for violating the various taxes and for smuggling and so forth uh and so they didn’t receive a fair trial of their peers but but adams and some others this is a pretty unpopular cause but but adams wants to prove that they can get a fair trial in america even if even if the colonists are not

17:03 getting a fair trial under the british um so he takes the case uh and he does something very interesting uh he takes captain preston who is in charge he was a guy in back holding the sword and the soldiers and he splits their case and he actually argues and this is from

17:23 what i understand not allowed today but he argues contrary conflicting uh arguments for their innocence on one hand he says captain preston uh you know did not give the order to fire and then when he defended the soldiers he said no they were just following orders so you can’t really do that uh but um

17:46 but he was able to do that and and despite some of these you know legal uh shenanigans if you will um you know he really did actually prove that that the british soldiers hated right killed five americans right sort of seemingly in cold blood

18:06 yet they could receive a fair trial that that the evidence could be looked at that jurors could be impaneled and that they could hear the evidence hear the witnesses try to reconcile the the confusing events from that night and come to a decision about their guilt or innocence and in fact most were found innocent

18:27 except for uh two soldiers who were who were found guilty actually of manslaughter but they were received a very painful thumb branding uh with an m and it basically told the world forever that they had been convicted of manslaughter uh and that if they ever were

18:48 you know accused of it again and convicted uh they would be hanged as murderers so they actually got a flight considering the alternative was hanging yeah i think two two things strike me about your description of the trial the first is that this was an unpopular cause from the point of view of the american so i wonder

19:08 if john adams were there any you know threats against him or did this cause a rift with with sam adams over his decision to defend the british soldiers you know both those are true um you know this is a very unpopular cause you know um but you know some of the important founders are no stranger to standing up for right principles

19:32 right for constitutional principles for natural right principles um and you know alexander hamilton will later after the revolutionary war is over he will defend a number of tories who had been pro-british but had had their property stolen uh by by other new yorkers or even allowed to

19:52 do so by the new york legislature but but hamilton took up their college right and in both cases and and in other cases from from the founding period we have examples where people stood up for the right principles even if it was unpopular even if you know people criticized them which which happened in both cases

20:13 but they wanted to prove um you know some of these these rights to a fair trial the idea of a natural right to justice uh equality under the law uh both uh you know adams and also hamilton show that in america there’s a rule of law you know that we would be governed

20:33 by by laws not just capricious men not just the will of people who sort of took the law into their own hands and did whatever they wanted and violated other people’s rights um so and then those are really important lessons uh to draw away from from this trial and from other incidents and in the founding period that’s the that’s

20:55 the second and more meaningful i think takeaway from your description of the trial is that you know this too it’s one thing to pay lip service to rule of law and innocence until proven guilty and a trial of your peers that it’s another thing to live it and um i think i i almost think we need a retelling of the boston massacre that it’s not so

21:15 much the event i mean not to downplay the event the actual event of march 5th 1770. but the trial that follows i think says much more about these principles that founders like john adams and alexander hamilton that you mentioned that this country is built on like this is uh i’m sure

21:35 john adams well i’m speculating so let me not say that but to to take up that cause which was very unpopular but because of the principle i think is is incredibly brave i don’t think that any any person would be able to do that so i think to just really just pause for a moment and wrap

21:57 your head around what that means and what it how difficult it is then how difficult it is now i think is really really important no i agree i i think it’s a great example of of courage and bravery as you said you know the moral courage to do what is right uh you know we talked about that in our other bri curricula uh certainly

22:18 in life liberty and pursuit of happiness we do it in heroes and villains we do it in our american portrait series we do it a lot because we want to praise those men and women who have taken courageous stance uh and did what was right and stood up for basic principles uh and and rights of the accused or

22:39 or the rights of various minorities um and so uh you know bri has has a lot of curricula um you know built around this very idea um that that provides very very good lessons i think for for not only young people uh but maybe even a lot of adult

23:00 citizens uh in today’s world and in our contentious times and and all that um i i think it’s really important to get back to these uh constitutional principles natural principles but also civic virtues as well paul revere’s print of this event definitely captures the drama

23:20 of the actual the massacre itself and your essay and life liberty pursuit of happiness bri’s new online resource captures that drama and the drama of everything leading up to it like you said before in our talk you know it was really a powder keg and blood is boiling and the drop the courtroom drama the drama of you know john adams taking this case so i think that maybe one of the reasons

23:43 this event is so it stands out so much in our history and our memory is because of the drama and the you know uh just the the narrative the story is so compelling and i know that’s something that we really strive to capture in the stories in life liberty and the pursuit of happiness right now i think i did i i tried to uh

24:05 and and you know uh all of the members of our team tried to uh try to draw that out um and as well as the 100 plus scholars that we worked with uh we tried to really capture you know the the drama and excitement of history you know we try to appeal the students intellects as well with all of our

24:26 analytical materials um but but there’s there’s a great deal of inherent drama in american history and and we really try to draw that out as well as the constitutional principles the civic virtues uh and and really try to appeal to the students souls as well um with good storytelling and i think

24:46 that’s really what separates this textbook from from any other textbook that i’ve ever seen you know uh in my my 15-year teaching career uh so so that’s why i’m really excited about it and was really excited to be a part of creating this this wonderful textbook for for teachers and students absolutely it’s a wonderful balance of

25:08 the passion the drama right these moments in the past that that we didn’t know the outcome at the time and also thinking critically and asking questions and being curious so definitely if you’re watching you know check out life liberty the pursuit of happiness we’ll put a link to it in the comments of our conversation today tony thank you so much for taking

25:30 the time to talk us through the boston massacre and the trial that followed and thank you guys for watching and we hope that you will come back and check us out with another scholar talk talk in the near future