Of all the old newspapers that have recently come to my attention, by\u00a0far the most important historically is an old copy of the Boston Gazette,\u00a0discovered and shown to me by a friend of long standing, Waterville carpenter\u00a0Charles Rhodes. Although itself a facsimile copy of the original, it\u00a0was obviously made many years ago, and was carefully preserved under glass.<\/p>\n
There is reason for that careful preservation, for it is an original source\u00a0document of outstanding historical importance. What important historical\u00a0event do you think this paper records? It is none other than the Boston\u00a0Massacre of March 5, 1770.<\/p>\n
Every schoolboy knows the story of the incident which caused the marker\u00a0to be placed in the pavement of the square back of the old State House, between\u00a0WaShington Street and Faneuil Hall — the marker where one may still\u00a0read that here BritiSh troops fired on Boston citizens, killing five of them,\u00a0one a colored man named Crispus Attucks.<\/p>\n
Many a historian has treated the incident in the 180 years since its\u00a0occurrence. That faithful old historian whose books many a man and woman now\u00a0in middle life read in”their schooldays — David S. Muzzey — says about the\u00a0Boston Massacre: “Two British regiments were sent to Boston to awe the inhabitants\u00a0into obedience. Roughs baited the redcoats in the streets, pelting\u00a0them with brickbats and calling them “lobsters” and “bloody-backs”. In the\u00a0riot that followed in MarCh, 1770, five men were killed. The funeral of these\u00a0victims was made the occasion for a popular demonstration engineered by Samuel<\/p>\n
Adams.”<\/p>\n
Not so well known, because the old history books were silent about it,\u00a0was the fact that the lawyer who defended and won acquittal of Captain Preston,\u00a0commander of the British troops involved, was John Adams, the Boston\u00a0attorney who was to become the second President of the united States.<\/p>\n
In the cooling process of 180 years most historians no longer call it\u00a0a massacre, but an unfortunate incident of heated times when tempers were\u00a0getting short and passions ran high. That a Boston crowd of not too respectable\u00a0persons continuously baited the British troops is certainly true,\u00a0but the wisdom of bringing the two regiments to Boston in the first place\u00a0can be seriously questioned.<\/p>\n
Now , within the past month, has come to my hands, not the erudite research\u00a0of modern historians, but contemporary information about that Boston\u00a0incident, printed in the Boston Gazette of March 12, 1770, exactly one week\u00a0after the massacre occurred.<\/p>\n
The Gazette was a small, four-page paper. The inside pages, 2 and 3,\u00a0of this issue of March 12, 1770, have deep, black mourning borders around all\u00a0six columns, and five of those columns are devoted to the troublesome times\u00a0which culminated in the massacre and the burial of four of the victims. The\u00a0fifth did not die of his wounds until a week later.<\/p>\n
The first column of page 3 contains a drawing of four coffins, decorated\u00a0with skull and crossbones, and bearing respectively the initials S.G., S.M.,\u00a0J.C., and C.D., standing for Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell and\u00a0Crispus Attucks. This is the Gazette’s account of the funeral:<\/p>\n
“Last Thursday, agreeable to a general request of parents and friends,\u00a0were carried to their graves in succession the bodies of Samuel Gray, Samuel\u00a0Maverick, James Caldwell and Crispus Attucks, the unhappy victims who fell in\u00a0the bloody massacre of the preceding Monday evening.\u00a0“On this occasion most of the shops in town were shut, all the bells\u00a0were ordered to toll a solemn peal. The procession began to move between the\u00a0hours of 4 and 5 in the afternoon. Two of the unfortunate sufferers, James\u00a0Caldwell and Crispus Attucks, who were strangers, were borne from Faneuil\u00a0Hall, attended by a numerous train of persons of all ranks. The other two,\u00a0Samuel Gray and Samuel Maverick, were taken respectively from the houses of\u00a0Mr. Benjamin Gray and Mrs. Mary Maverick, each followed by relations and\u00a0friends. The several hearses, forming a junction at King Street, the theatre\u00a0of that inhuman tragedy, proceeded from thence through the Main Street,\u00a0lengthened by an immence concourse of people, so numerous as to be obliged\u00a0to follow in ranks of six, and brought up by a long train of carriages belonging\u00a0to the principal gentry of the town. The bodies were deposited in one\u00a0vault in the Middle Burying-ground. The aggravated circumstances of their\u00a0death, the distress and sorrow visible in every countenance, together with\u00a0the peculiar solemnity with Which the Whole funeral was conducted, surpass\u00a0description.”<\/p>\n
In a riot like that Which came to be called the Boston Massacre it is\u00a0very difficult to tell exactly What happened, especially 180 years after the\u00a0event. The Gazette was clearly prejudiced against the British troops and reluctant to believe ill of the townsmen, even the town toughs. Yet as one\u00a0reads the Gazette’s account written When the tragedy was only a week old, he\u00a0can see that the mere presence of armed soldiers of the king in Boston was\u00a0bound to make trouble.<\/p>\n
Indeed trouble had been fomenting for many weeks. As the Gazette puts it:\u00a0“Many have been the squabbles between our youth and the soldiery, and the latter\u00a0being so often worsted in these encounters has served to irritate them\u00a0to worse behavior. Citizens have been picked with bayonets, even our magistrates\u00a0have been assaulted, and now four of our inhabitants lie dead from the\u00a0fire of soldiers’ muskets.”<\/p>\n
The Gazette points out that the events which led up to the massacre had\u00a0culminated in the riot at Gray’s Rope-walk, about which historians have since\u00a0written much. There on Saturday, February 24, 1770 fist-fights broke out between\u00a0half a dozen young men of the town and an equal number of soldiers. In\u00a0a few minutes these numbers were swollen to several hundred. In the end the\u00a0soldiers got the worst of it and dispersed to their barracks. No shot was\u00a0fired. Says the Gazette: “That defeat was humiliating. Divers stories were\u00a0circulated among the soldiery that served to inflame them further. One rumor\u00a0was that a certain Sergeant Chambers, represented as a sober man, had been\u00a0missing since the event and must therefore have been murdered by the townsmen.<\/p>\n
An officer of distinction so far credited this report that he insisted on\u00a0searching Mr. Gray’s Rope-walk for the body. On Monday this so-called sober\u00a0sergeant was found unhurt in a house of pleasure.”<\/p>\n
At this point the Gazette editor throws his opinion into the news account.<\/p>\n
He writes: “We do not pretend to say that there was any preconcerted\u00a0plan to kill our citizens, but we venture to declare, as appears probable\u00a0from their conduct, that some of the soldiery aimed to draw and provoke the\u00a0townmen into squabbles, and that they intended to make use of other weapons\u00a0than canes and clubs.”<\/p>\n
Now what actually happened on the evening of March 5, 1770? Here is the\u00a0way this Boston newspaper told the story one week after the event.<\/p>\n
itA few minutes after 9 o’clock, four youths named Edward Archbald, William\u00a0Merchant, Francis Archbald and John Leech, Jr. came down Cornhill together,\u00a0and separating at Dr. Loring’s corner, Edward and William were passing\u00a0the narrow alley leading to Murray’s barracks, in which a soldier was\u00a0brandishing a broadsword of an uncommon size against the walls, out of which\u00a0e struck fire plentifully. A person of mean countenance armed with a large\u00a0cudgel bore the soldier company. Edward warned~William to look out for the\u00a0sword, on which the soldier turned around and struck Archbald on the arm,\u00a0then puShed at Merchant and pierced through his clothes inside the arm close\u00a0to the arm-pit, and grazed the skin. Merchant then struck the soldier with\u00a0a short stick he had. Meanwhile the other person who was with the soldier\u00a0ran to the barracks and brought out two more soldiers, one armed with a pair\u00a0of tongs, the other with a shovel. He with the tongs pursued Archbald back\u00a0through the alley and laid him over the head with the tongs. The noise\u00a0brought people together, and John Hicks, a young lad, coming up, knocked the\u00a0soldier down, but let him up again. More lads, gathering, drove the soldiers\u00a0back into barracks, where the boys stood for some time, as it were to keep\u00a0them in. Then ten or twelve soldiers came out with drawn cutlasses, clubs and\u00a0bayonets, and set upon the unarmed boys and young folks, who stood them a\u00a0little while, but finding the inequality of their equipment, dispersed.<\/p>\n
“On hearing the noise, one Samuel Atwood came up to see what was the\u00a0matter, and entering the alley from Dock Square, heard the latter part of the\u00a0combat. Meeting the dozen soldiers rushing down the alley toward the square,\u00a0he asked them if they intended to murder people. “Yes”, they shouted, “root\u00a0and branch”. Whereupon one of them struck Mr. Atwood with a club, which was\u00a0repeated by another. Retreating, Mr. Atwood met two officers and said, “Gentlemen,\u00a0what is the matter?” They answered “You will see by and by.” The \u00a0soldiers proceeded into King Street, where they attacked single and unarmed\u00a0persons till they raised much clamor. Thirty or forty persons, mostly lads,\u00a0were by this means gathered in King Street. Captain Preston with a party of\u00a0soldiers with charged bayonets came from the main guard, the soldiers\u00a0puShing their bayonets and crying, “Make way!”. As they continued to push\u00a0the people off, the latter began to throw snowballs. On this the Captain\u00a0conunanded the soldiers to fire, and more snowballs coming, he said, “Fire,\u00a0be the consequence what it will!” One soldier then fired, and a townsman\u00a0with a cudgel struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his\u00a0musket. The townsman rushed on and aimed a blow at the captain’s head, which\u00a0grazed his hat and fell pretty heavy upon his arm. The soldiers continued the\u00a0fire, successively, until 7 or 8, or some say 11, guns were discharged. By\u00a0the maneuver three men were laid dead on the spot, and two more were struggling\u00a0for life.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Benjamin Leigh, now undertaker in the Delph Manufactory, interposed,\u00a0and after some conversation with Captain Preston relative to his conduct, advised\u00a0him to draw off his men, with which request the captain complied.”<\/p>\n
So much for the Gazette’s story. History records what followed: the orderly\u00a0investigation culminating in the withdrawal of the regiments from Boston,\u00a0the trial of Captain Preston, John Adams’ staunch legal defense of the British\u00a0captain, and his acquittal by a jury of Boston citizens.<\/p>\n
Even the prejudiced Gazette reveals that there were two sides to the affair.<\/p>\n
Not all of Boston condemned the captain nor blamed his soldiers for starting\u00a0the trouble. Far down in the lower left corner of page 3 the Gazette printed a\u00a0public notice, one which I have never seen mentioned by any historian, yet it\u00a0reveals clearly that not all Boston citizens wanted to see Preston punished for\u00a0the death of the massacre victims. Here is the notice, as it appeared word\u00a0for word in that paper on March 12, 1770:<\/p>\n
“Boston Jail, Monday, 12th March 1770”<\/p>\n
“Permit me through the channel of your paper to return my thanks in the\u00a0most public manner to the inhabitants in general of this town, who, throwing\u00a0aside all party and prejudice, have with the utmost humanity and freedom\u00a0stepped forth advocates for truth, in defence of my injured innocence, in\u00a0the late unhappy affair that happened on Monday night last; and to assure them\u00a0that I shall ever have the highest sense of the justice they have done me,\u00a0which will be ever gratefully remembered by their much obliged and most obedient\u00a0humble servant, Thomas Preston.”<\/p>\n
Year: 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #70, broadcast on May 28, 1950<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}