The Bloody Massacre The Boston Massacre through American

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 5 th 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.