WEBVTT NOTE 45. The Boston Massacre 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.600 Volume 3, Chapter 45 The Boston Massacre 2 00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:12.120 The Boston non-import movement, however, still faced grave problems. The original Boston 3 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:19.120 agreement was scheduled to expire at the beginning of 1770, but in mid-October the merchants 4 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:25.040 had joined their brethren in other colonies by continuing the agreement until repeal of 5 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:32.360 Many of the reluctant merchants grew restive at this turn of events, and at the turn of 6 00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:38.720 the year, eight began to bolt the agreement. A mass meeting of non-importing merchants 7 00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:46.320 began in mid-January to sit in continuing session, the better to put pressure on truants. 8 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:52.280 The eight offenders were unanimously condemned by the more than a thousand persons present, 9 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:58.980 as having forfeited all confidence of their fellow men. The whole crowd then quietly visited 10 00:00:58.980 --> 00:01:07.440 each delinquent in turn, but four still refused to yield. By January 23, the merchants voted 11 00:01:07.440 --> 00:01:13.840 to withhold from the stubborn four not only all commercial dealings, but every act and 12 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:21.300 office of common civility. George Hudson seized the occasion of the meeting to precipitate 13 00:01:21.300 --> 00:01:26.340 a Test of Strength with the Merchants. He sent a message to the meeting denouncing it 14 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:33.340 as illegal and its actions as terroristic. He ordered them to disperse and ban all such 15 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:40.860 unlawful assemblies for the future. Later, Hutchinson was able to induce the council 16 00:01:40.860 --> 00:01:47.860 to approve his actions by a slim majority. The merchants, however, continued undaunted 17 00:01:47.860 --> 00:02:17.860 It is important here to distinguish between two types of violence. Violence committed by the people against their oppressors or the allies of their oppressors. For example, the Stamp Act riots against Hutchinson, the intimidation of John Mein, and the violence used by the oppressors. 18 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:24.860 The difference is not simply a question of which side one may favor. The former is the eruption of the people in indignation or rebellion against that minority that has arms of the state apparatus concentrated in its hands. 19 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:57.820 This use of violence is a casting off of the unwanted rule by violence of a ruling clique. 20 00:02:57.820 --> 00:03:06.460 On the other hand, violence against the people by the invariably better armed ruling clique 21 00:03:06.460 --> 00:03:12.940 is a panicky attempt to stem the rising tide of indignation by the people and to use the 22 00:03:12.940 --> 00:03:21.940 The State's means of violence to yoke its unwanted rule even more burdensomely to the neck of society. 23 00:03:21.940 --> 00:03:32.940 Violence by rebellious populace is an attempt to overthrow the camouflaged everyday violence of rule by the State over the people. 24 00:03:32.940 --> 00:03:39.940 Open violence by the State is an attempt to use extra measures to sit on the shaky lid. 25 00:03:39.940 --> 00:03:50.940 The former violence is therefore in essence defensive, whereas the latter is offensive or aggressive beyond the everyday norm. 26 00:03:50.940 --> 00:03:56.940 Violence against individuals is also very different in the two cases. 27 00:03:56.940 --> 00:04:03.940 Violence against state officials is an attempt by rebellious people to cast off their rule. 28 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:25.940 Violence against individual leaders of the people, Otis for instance, reveals the unending tendency of oppressors to think of a revolutionary movement as being not a genuine mass movement based on real grievances, but a frenzied mob whipped up by a few radical and obstreperous demagogues. 29 00:04:25.940 --> 00:04:33.000 Violence against customs officials was an inherent part of the revolt against tyranny. 30 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:41.000 The assault on Otis not only was purely vindictive, but also reflected the tyrannical Tory error 31 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:47.500 of shifting blame from mass grievances to supposedly diabolical leaders who were seducing 32 00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:53.460 a people otherwise happy and content with their rulers and their lot. 33 00:04:53.460 --> 00:04:58.900 This error, of course, is a highly convenient one for the rulers to make, for it allows 34 00:04:58.900 --> 00:05:08.420 them to state that the hearts of a seemingly rebellious people really belong to their masters. 35 00:05:08.420 --> 00:05:13.380 Violence had been building up in Boston since the arrival of the British troops in late 36 00:05:13.380 --> 00:05:20.700 1768. Boston had to contend with troops and customs commissioners as well as with reluctant 37 00:05:20.700 --> 00:05:26.040 Merchants. The liberals had not succeeded in mounting resistance to the landing of the 38 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:34.040 troops, but once there they waged an unremitting campaign for the liberation of Boston. Sam 39 00:05:34.040 --> 00:05:43.040 Adams and James Otis led a campaign of persistent and indefatigable agitation and struggle. 40 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:46.940 Particularly significant was the widening of the campaign beyond the weekly readership 41 00:05:46.940 --> 00:05:53.940 of the Boston Gazette. The campaign was superbly planned. An inner group of radical leaders 42 00:05:54.440 --> 00:06:00.820 wrote a daily account of the pettiness and brutality committed by the troops upon the 43 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:07.820 people of Boston. And each week a record was sent to New York City to John Holt, libertarian 44 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:15.300 editor of the New York Journal. Holt published these items as the Journal of Occurrences 45 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:22.060 or Journal of the Times. He then distributed the journal widely throughout the colonies. 46 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:28.100 It was reprinted in numerous newspapers from Massachusetts to Georgia. Authors of the journal 47 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:35.100 included Sam Adams, William Cooper, Boston town clerk and brother of the libertarian clergyman 48 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:41.360 the Reverend Samuel Cooper and the radical counselor James Bowden, a wealthy merchant 49 00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:48.360 of Boston. During the summer of 1769, two of the four British regiments were removed, 50 00:06:49.440 --> 00:06:55.720 and Thomas Hutchinson replaced Bernard as governor. But the lessened power of the troops 51 00:06:55.720 --> 00:07:01.280 did not endear them more. Furthermore, the rumor spread that England planned to alter 52 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:07.200 the precious Massachusetts Constitution. The Boston town meeting again insisted on the 53 00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:13.000 The repeal of the Townsend and other duties, as well as the recall of the Customs Commissioners 54 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:14.960 and troops. 55 00:07:14.960 --> 00:07:18.960 The popular radical leaders continued their pressure. 56 00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:24.760 Numerous festivals, such as on the anniversary of the Great Stamp Act riots, were promoted 57 00:07:24.760 --> 00:07:32.340 by Adams, Otis and the Sons of Liberty to rally the people for liberty against its enemies. 58 00:07:32.340 --> 00:07:39.340 At such gala events, toasts were drunk to commemorate the hallowed numbers 45 and 92, 59 00:07:40.020 --> 00:07:47.020 and calls were issued for strong halters, firm blocks and sharp axes to all such as 60 00:07:47.860 --> 00:07:52.580 deserve them. Agitation against the troops was supplemented 61 00:07:52.580 --> 00:07:58.580 by sterner measures. The people of Boston made it clear to the troops that they were 62 00:07:58.580 --> 00:08:04.820 are unwelcome there. Occasionally, isolated soldiers were beaten up on the streets by 63 00:08:04.820 --> 00:08:10.700 groups of Bostonians. Soldiers, aggressing against citizens, were promptly hauled into 64 00:08:10.700 --> 00:08:17.860 court. As a result of the persistence and fortitude of the Bostonians, the British troops 65 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:25.360 began to grow ineffectual in enforcing the trade acts. For fear of popular upheaval, 66 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:31.340 The civil authorities grew wary in calling on troops for their support. Thus, in late 67 00:08:31.340 --> 00:08:38.760 October 1769, Governor Hutchinson wanted to use troops against a mob that had seized 68 00:08:38.760 --> 00:08:44.980 a hated customs informer but was warned off by the advice of the council, sheriff and 69 00:08:44.980 --> 00:08:51.280 justices of the peace. Also in late October, a crowd attacked a British troop with sticks 70 00:08:51.280 --> 00:09:07.280 The Agitated Colonel William Dallyrimple, Commander of the Troops, blustered that this incident was but a prelude and that never was the popular insolence at such a pitch. 71 00:09:07.280 --> 00:09:26.280 Non-importation, British troops, liberal agitation, mounting climate of violence, increasing edginess and ineffectuality of the soldiers all culminated and came fatefully to a head in early 1770. 72 00:09:26.280 --> 00:09:34.000 The culminating crisis unsurprisingly arose from the pressuring of the four mercantile 73 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:43.240 holdouts against non-importation, John Taylor, Theophilus Lilly, William Jackson and Nathaniel 74 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:47.060 Rogers, nephew of Governor Hutchinson. 75 00:09:47.060 --> 00:09:53.960 On February 22, some schoolboys led a crowd in placing an effigy of the four importers 76 00:09:53.960 --> 00:10:01.620 at the door of Theophilus Lillie. Seeing this, the infamous informer, Ebenezer Richardson, 77 00:10:01.620 --> 00:10:08.180 denounced the boys and tried to destroy the effigy. The appearance of the reviled customs 78 00:10:08.180 --> 00:10:14.200 informer was just what was needed to inflame the crowd which pursued him to his house, 79 00:10:14.200 --> 00:10:21.540 crying, Informer! Informer! There the boys threw rocks at his house, whereupon the paniquatory 80 00:10:21.540 --> 00:10:29.580 Richardson fired repeatedly into the crowd, killing 11-year-old Christopher Snyder and 81 00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:35.120 wounding the 11-year-old son of Captain John Gore. 82 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:42.980 The effect of this massacre of the children on Boston public opinion can readily be imagined. 83 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:47.080 Richardson himself barely escaped being hanged on the spot. 84 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:55.000 The four miscreant importers either left town or mounted an armed guard. The funeral procession 85 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:02.600 for little Christopher Snyder, organized by the Sons of Liberty, was two miles long, perhaps 86 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:08.960 the largest ever gathered in America. The huge funeral, significantly enough, was patterned 87 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:15.320 after the Wilkite funeral in England for the innocent victim of the massacre of St. George's 88 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:22.720 To the Boston Liberals, the murder of young Snyder recalled the tragic assault upon Otis, 89 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:30.840 the object of the fury of the cursed cabal. But Snyder was the first whose life has been 90 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:38.540 a victim to the cruelty and rage of oppressors. The Boston Gazette thundered that the blood 91 00:11:38.540 --> 00:11:45.100 The blood of young Allen, the victim at St. George's Fields, may be covered in Britain, 92 00:11:45.100 --> 00:11:51.820 but a thorough inquisition would be made in America for that of young Snyder, which cryeth 93 00:11:51.820 --> 00:11:57.340 for vengeance like the blood of the righteous Abel. 94 00:11:57.340 --> 00:12:03.500 The killing of young Snyder would not be the final incident. In less than two weeks, on 95 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:10.920 In March 2nd and 3rd clashes occurred between Bostonians and the troops. British complaints 96 00:12:10.920 --> 00:12:16.220 were to draw retorts by the Massachusetts Council that the evidence solution was to 97 00:12:16.220 --> 00:12:23.460 withdraw the troops. For their part, the populace believed the Customs Commissioners, the bosses 98 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:29.740 of Richardson, to be implicated in the child murder and were indignant at the soldiers 99 00:12:29.740 --> 00:12:59.740 The final crisis arrived on the night of March 5. The troops began the day by printing an insulting hand-bill. A small riot was then precipitated by a fistfight between a soldier and a rope-walk worker. There had been bad blood between rope-walk laborers and the troops before. As night fell, a soldier struck with his machete. 100 00:12:59.740 --> 00:13:06.740 A young apprentice who had been denouncing British officers and rousing ugly memories 101 00:13:06.900 --> 00:13:13.020 of the child killing of two weeks before. A crowd now gathered before the barracks of 102 00:13:13.020 --> 00:13:20.020 the Fourteenth Regiment and pelted the sentries with snowballs. Meanwhile, the meeting bell 103 00:13:20.420 --> 00:13:25.800 was rung and a crowd gathered at the Custom House on King Street, where the main body 104 00:13:25.800 --> 00:13:41.920 at the Custom House, and the crowd attacked him with sticks of broken ice and snowballs. 105 00:13:41.920 --> 00:13:47.840 At this critical juncture, the Customs officials at the Custom House called for the main guard 106 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:53.920 headed by a Captain Thomas Preston to come to the rescue of the honor of the sentry, 107 00:13:53.920 --> 00:14:00.340 The Army and the Commissioners who had brought the troops to Boston in the first place. Captain 108 00:14:00.340 --> 00:14:06.120 Preston and his guard of seven men stalked through the crowd, pricking the people with 109 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:13.120 fixed bayonets. The crowd pressed in courageously on the bayonets, and when the gun of one soldier 110 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:22.480 was knocked to the ground, the soldiers emptied their muskets into the crowd. Joining in the 111 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:31.480 Joining in the shooting were customs officials who fired upon the crowd from the privileged sanctuary of the upper floor of the custom house. 112 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:39.480 Five men fell dead or dying from that murderous volley, and six other Bostonians were wounded. 113 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:46.480 The incident swiftly became known far and wide as the Boston Massacre. 114 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:57.480 The first to fall dead was Crispus Adhox, a tall Negro sailor who had been one of the most zealous front fighters in the Sons of Liberty. 115 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:03.480 The others killed were a sailor, a rope maker, and two young apprentices. 116 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:11.480 At the sound of firing, the townsmen fell back, but soon advanced again to take away their dead and wounded. 117 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:17.160 The panicky soldiers got ready to fire again, but Captain Preston struck their guns out 118 00:15:17.160 --> 00:15:22.840 of position. Soon the Boston crowd began to form in earnest and the streets rang with 119 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:31.400 the cry of, to arms, to arms, turn out with your guns. Nearly 500 people assembled, swearing 120 00:15:31.400 --> 00:15:37.800 to kill every British soldier who had fired upon the people. Preston and his men thereupon 121 00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:44.240 Boston retreated rapidly to the safety of the guardhouse. This was it. The people of 122 00:15:44.240 --> 00:15:52.240 Boston and of Massachusetts had had enough. The Boston Massacre was the final straw that 123 00:15:52.240 --> 00:16:01.040 sent this most sensitive spot in the American colonies once again to the brink of revolution. 124 00:16:01.040 --> 00:16:07.840 The next day, an extraordinarily large town meeting was held in Boston. Challenged by 125 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:14.740 the rousing speech of Sam Adams, the meeting unanimously demanded the immediate withdrawal 126 00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:21.160 of British troops from Boston. Adams and Hancock were selected to head a town committee to 127 00:16:21.160 --> 00:16:26.960 present the demands before Hutchinson and the Council. The governor's offer to withdraw 128 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.320 All one of the two regiments was scornfully spurned. 129 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:36.320 Unless there was total evacuation, warned Adams, the troops would be destroyed. 130 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:44.720 Fifteen thousand armed citizens, thundered Adams, were ready and eager to pour into Boston 131 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:48.600 to eliminate the hated soldiery. 132 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:54.560 When Adams made these threats, he noticed that Hutchinson trembled and grew pale, and 133 00:16:54.560 --> 00:17:12.560 The Council unanimously advised surrender and warned Hutchinson that all New England would soon rise in arms against the troops and that the night which was coming on would be the most terrible that was ever seen in America. 134 00:17:12.560 --> 00:17:20.560 Before night fell, Hutchinson yielded and promised speedy and complete evacuation of the troops. 135 00:17:20.560 --> 00:17:28.880 Groups. Soon the soldiery left to the hooting of the crowd for the safety of Castle William. 136 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:35.920 Sam Adams' threats were not idle ones. Forty thousand New Englanders were ready to march 137 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:41.760 for the liberation of Boston. Ten thousand were set to march from Portsmouth, New Hampshire 138 00:17:41.760 --> 00:17:48.560 alone, led by the Portsmouth Sons of Liberty, who proclaimed that the bloody work in Boston 139 00:17:48.560 --> 00:18:01.560 The Liberty Boys of Salem, Massachusetts promised thousands of yeoman from Essex County to destroy a licentious and bloodthirsty soldiery. 140 00:18:01.560 --> 00:18:12.560 Indeed, armed men had already begun to march on Boston until stopped by Bostonians with the words that the crisis was over. 141 00:18:12.560 --> 00:18:19.800 Expulsion of the troops accomplished the first objective of the popular forces. The next 142 00:18:19.800 --> 00:18:26.720 goal was to bring those responsible for the massacre to the bar of justice. As early as 143 00:18:26.720 --> 00:18:32.800 March 6, Captain Preston and his men were arrested by the civil authorities of Boston 144 00:18:32.800 --> 00:18:40.400 and indicted for murder. The Crown authorities dragged their feet, however. The royally appointed 145 00:18:40.400 --> 00:19:10.400 The prosecution was deliberately weak and permitted a jury of which no member came from the town of Boston. Preston and most of the soldiers were acquitted. Two of the soldiers were convicted of manslaughter, but their punishment was absurdly limited to being branded on the hand. The historian, Oliver Dickerson, had been charged with manslaughter. 146 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:16.340 has brought out that one of the reasons for acquittal of the soldiers was the angle of 147 00:19:16.340 --> 00:19:22.940 the bullets killing attics and others, indicating a firing from the upper story of the Custom 148 00:19:22.940 --> 00:19:31.940 House, that is, by customs officials. The people were understandably resentful of the 149 00:19:31.940 --> 00:19:39.240 acquittal, and the light sentences was a slight brand on the hand to be the full payment made 150 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:46.240 for Five Murders? The judges were bitterly reviled and one eager young radical, the son 151 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:54.200 of a chancellor, posted a notice urging assassination of the judges. Sam Adams, as Vindex in the 152 00:19:54.200 --> 00:20:01.200 Gazette, attacked the verdict and spread the liberal account of the massacre far and wide. 153 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:06.840 Adams made March 5 an annual observance to keep fresh in the minds of the people the 154 00:20:06.840 --> 00:20:10.800 The Bloody Work of the Butchers of King Street 155 00:20:10.800 --> 00:20:16.360 The obstruction by the judges were used by Adams to show that it was futile for the people 156 00:20:16.360 --> 00:20:22.260 to look to the royally appointed courts for redress of their grievances. Even the juries 157 00:20:22.260 --> 00:20:28.600 were unreliable. Only an armed people's militia could be relied upon to deal successfully 158 00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:35.520 with the enemy, the British Redcoats. With rumors flying of new British landings to punish 159 00:20:35.520 --> 00:20:41.320 Boston's Uprising. The Sons of Liberty trained a militia and resolved to fight and resist 160 00:20:41.320 --> 00:20:48.360 any future landing. Innocence is no longer safe, declared Adams in the Boston Gazette. 161 00:20:48.360 --> 00:20:54.840 We are now obliged to appeal to God and to our arms for defense. 162 00:20:54.840 --> 00:21:00.260 Despite the dereliction of the judges in the massacre case, popular pressure did force 163 00:21:00.260 --> 00:21:07.380 Ask them to proceed with the trial of the child-killer Ebenezer Richardson. Richardson 164 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:14.260 was tried and convicted of murder, but pardoned by the Crown and allowed by the authorities 165 00:21:14.260 --> 00:21:20.860 to flee the country. Though they did not manage to bring the soldiers to justice, the popular 166 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:26.500 forces were able to drive the hated customs commissioners as well as the troops out of 167 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:33.420 of Boston. John Robinson, the assaulter of Otis, fled to England and secured the pardon 168 00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:39.180 of Richardson, as well as a handsome reward by the Crown for the patriotic work of the 169 00:21:39.180 --> 00:21:45.940 judges in seeing that the soldiers and customs officials escaped punishment. The Boston liberals 170 00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:52.460 still faced the task of enforcing non-importation, and increased pressure was now put on the 171 00:21:52.460 --> 00:21:59.380 and a few recalcitrant merchants. The mob finally forced Nathaniel Rogers to flee Boston. 172 00:21:59.380 --> 00:22:04.220 The Sons of Liberty sent a message to their brethren in New York to be ready for him, 173 00:22:04.220 --> 00:22:09.500 and the New York Sons prepared a tarring and feathering party for Rogers. Driven from New 174 00:22:09.500 --> 00:22:17.180 York too, and having learned a rough lesson, Rogers returned to Boston in May to sue fruitlessly 175 00:22:17.180 --> 00:22:20.160 for restoration to good standing. 176 00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:25.320 The Boston town meeting also redoubled its efforts to help the merchants agitate for 177 00:22:25.320 --> 00:22:27.920 compliance with the agreement. 178 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:33.800 The result of the merchants' non-importation campaign was to lower imports from Britain 179 00:22:33.800 --> 00:22:46.800 into Boston from 430,000 pounds in 1768 to less than 225,000 pounds the following year. 180 00:22:46.800 --> 00:22:53.800 The revolutionary temper of the people of Boston in the months after the Boston Massacre may be gauged by the instructions given on May 15 by the Boston town meeting to its representatives. 181 00:23:16.800 --> 00:23:30.800 The town attacked Britain's deep-laid and desperate plan of imperial despotism for the extinction of all civil liberty in America. 182 00:23:30.800 --> 00:23:43.800 The town meeting also challenged any pretended right or power of any exterior authority to limit any American constitutional or natural rights or liberties. 183 00:23:43.800 --> 00:23:50.620 To an earlier Boston challenge to the right of parliament to regulate any colony by statue, 184 00:23:50.620 --> 00:23:57.380 it now added the far-reaching rejection of the power of the crown to instruct the colonial 185 00:23:57.380 --> 00:24:04.880 governors. To these, Hutchinson reacted in horror, believing they were designs to bring 186 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:11.880 about a revolution and to attain to independency.