On the cold evening of March 5, 1770, a man of mixed African and Native American descent named Crispus Attucks, a 47-year-old male, found himself at the center of a brewing storm in Boston, Massachusetts. Tensions in the city were already high, with British soldiers a common and unwelcome sight on the streets of Boston. The presence of these troops, sent to enforce unpopular British tax laws, created a constant source of friction with the local populace, who were growing ever more resentful of
British authority.
That fateful night, a minor dispute between a young apprentice and a British officer quickly escalated. A crowd of colonists, fueled by simmering anger, gathered and began to verbally harass a British sentry stationed outside the Custom House on King Street. As the crowd grew in size and aggression, throwing snowballs, ice, and sticks, the lone soldier called for reinforcements. Captain Thomas Preston and seven other soldiers from the 29th Regiment of Foot arrived to support their comrade, forming a defensive line in the face of the hostile mob. Attucks, a sailor and ropemaker, was reportedly at the forefront of the group of colonists, some of whom were armed with clubs and sticks.
In the ensuing chaos, one of the soldiers was struck by a projectile and fell. Accounts of what happened next vary, but the result was a volley of shots fired by the British soldiers into the crowd. Crispus Attucks was the first to fall, struck by two musket balls in the chest. Four other men were also killed in the incident, which would quickly become known as the Boston Massacre. The shots rang out through the cold night air, leaving a scene of bloodshed and further inflaming the passions of the colonists against the British.
In the aftermath of the deadly confrontation, Captain Preston, eight of his soldiers, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder. The soldiers were put on trial, with future U.S. President John Adams taking on the unpopular role of their defense attorney, arguing that they had acted in self-defense against a threatening mob. The trial resulted in the acquittal of Captain Preston and six of his men. Two other soldiers, Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy, were found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, branded on the thumb, and released. The verdict, seen as lenient by many colonists, did little to quell the growing revolutionary fervor that would eventually lead to the American War for Independence.
