Frustration edging toward hostilities between the British colonies and the British Crown was escalating after several years of conflict over taxes, lack of representation in Parliament, and the imposition of troops in colonial towns. On June 10, 1768, Boston’s new five-member board of commissioners, appointed by Parliament to oversee the collection of taxes, decided that John Hancock’s vocal opposition to the new taxes required immediate action. They seized Hancock’s sloop, the Liberty (aptly named), alleging that Hancock had transported illegal goods and threatened a tax collector.

Instead of quickly seizing the sloop, making an example of Hancock and going back to collecting taxes, the commissioners were greeted by a mob protesting British action; within minutes, a riot broke out on the docks and spread throughout the city, targeting British tax collectors and homes of British supporters. General Thomas Gage moved additional troops to Boston from Halifax and, by early fall, more than 2,000 soldiers disembarked in Boston.

Lieutenant Colonel William Dalrymple, commander of the 14th Regiment, requested that Boston officials provide quarters and supplies for the troops. Forced quartering of troops had long been denied as a “right of Englishmen,” but, as Dalrymple noted, English colonists were not English citizens entitled to those historic rights. If Boston refused to quarter the troops, then they would simply set up post in the Boston Commons where they could observe all activities.

By March 1770, the situation had reached a critical point, and heated tempers and vocal threats erupted into confrontation.

On March 5, a group of approximately 300-400 Bostonians gathered near the Commons and began taunting the sentry on duty and later hurling snowballs, perhaps packed around stones, at him. Seven additional troops were sent out to support the sentry, led by British Captain Thomas Preston. A single shot rang out and the other British soldiers fired into the crowd; when the smoke cleared, five American colonists were dead and six others wounded. No order to fire had been given, but the incident became known as the Boston Massacre, and a woodcut illustration by Henry Pelham, copied by Paul Revere, was circulated to the other 12 colonies, alerting each assembly to the increasing violence being inflicted by the British troops. The first three victims who died immediately became martyrs to the cause of freedom, and their names — Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, and Crispus Attucks — became memorial calls throughout the colonies.

Boston appeared ready to erupt in flames until Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson promised an inquiry into the actions. Nine members of the British military and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder while the other troops withdrew from the city to nearby Castle Island. In an interesting turn of events, patriot leader and learned attorney John Adams offered to represent the accused at their trial, believing that the “rule of law” demanded that both sides be represented by skilled counsel. (Yay, John Adams!)

Six of the soldiers were acquitted, and the two found guilty of manslaughter were branded on the thumb, the punishment prescribed by law. While the legal system had dealt effectively with the incident, the Boston Massacre, as it was deemed, resulted in more conflict between British officials and troops in the colonies and the colonial leaders. The victims’ graves at the Granary Burying Grounds became frequently visited sites for the patriots.

Pamphlets including “A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre” and “Additional Observations on the Short Narrative” describing the incident were published anonymously and led to further attacks on customs officials. The Boston Gazette also published an illustration of the caskets with the initials of each victim depicted on his casket, eliciting sympathy for the victims and their families.

How important was the Boston Massacre? It is credited with inflaming the anger of colonists against King George III and the English Parliament. Differences of opinion regarding rights and freedoms had escalated from a war of words to English troops firing on English colonists. For years following the incident, Bostonians would commemorate the date and place wreaths of remembrance on the Commons as a reminder, calling the event “Massacre Day.”

Only a period of calm and reconciliation could lessen the hostilities, but that was not to be the course ahead.