An On-Line Publication of the Anonymous Anything Society
Remembering the Boston Massacre
It began much like the events that transpired this weekend in
Portland, Oregon.
On February 22, 1770, a mob of outraged citizenry attacked the home
of British Tax official Ebenezer Richardson (no relation of mine) in Boston.
He tried to break-up the crowd by firing his gun into the mass of
protesters, killing 11-year old Christopher Seider.
John
Adams
Once word spread among patriots, an unruly crowd confronted British
troops billeted in Boston and on March 5th of that year, bells that usually
rang when a serious fire broke out, pealed throughout the city.
This drew an even greater number of protestors. Many of the 2,000
British soldiers billeted nearby confronted the mob. A shot rang out,
killing Christopher Attucks, a citizen of mixed-blood ancestry and two other
patriots, outright. Two others later died of wounds suffered in the barrage.
Thomas Jefferson termed it “The rattle of musketry heard throughout the
colonies.”
There is a great irony found in the outcome of the massacre: All of
the accused were defended by Attorney John Adams, soon to be elected the
second President of the United States (March 4, 1825).
Six soldiers were acquitted of any wrongdoing. Two others were
convicted of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded, a common punishment
at the time.
-Phil Richardson, Storyteller and Observer of the Human Condition.
