Boston Massacre, March 5th 1770

Artwork

1856

American Antiquarian Society

Original Record

Color image of a number of colonial men in a confused mass on the left, and a group of British soldiers in red coat uniforms in a line on the right. The soldiers are pointing muskets into the crowd and opening fire. In the very center a black man holds the end of the front-most musket. His head is kicked back and his neck is exposed directly in the line of fire of the musket with bayonet affixed. In background are colonial buildings in rows no taller than three stories, with a central brick building with cupola in the center background that is known today as the Old State House.

1856 depiction of the March 5, 1770 Boston Massacre on today's State Street, Boston.

Cropped color image of colonial men on the left, and a group of British soldiers in red coat uniforms in a line on the right. The soldiers are pointing muskets into the crowd and opening fire. In the very center a Black man holds the end of the front-most musket and bayonet. His head is kicked back and his neck is exposed directly in the line of fire of the musket. In the foreground are a colonial man and British soldier lying on the ground, injured.

Zoom in crop focusing on the death of Crispus Attucks.

Zoomed in version of an image. It is in color, though faded. Visible in the picture is Boston

Zoom in crop focusing on the Old State House and the Old Brick Meeting House on today's Washington Street.

Lithograph by William L. Champney depicting an abolitionist view of the Boston Massacre. Crispus Attucks is the central figure. Champney depicts him at the moment he dies at the hands of British soldiers. William Cooper Nell, abolitionist, historian, and a man of color born and raised in Boston, researched the role of “colored patriots” during the American Revolution. This included Crispus Attucks, the first person to die in the American Revolution. For activists like Nell, the fact that men of African descent died in the streets of Boston and in the battlefields of the Revolutionary War proved they had earned their right to citizenship in the United States.