U.S. History Images. Mission US | THIRTEEN. Boston Massacre. When Paul Revere first began selling his color prints of "The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street" in Boston, he was doing what any like-minded patriot with his talents in 1770 would have done. Only, Paul Revere did it faster and more expeditiously than anyone else, including two other artist-engravers who also issued prints of the Massacre that year. Twenty-one days before — on the night of March 5, 1770 — five men had been shot to death in Boston town by British soldiers. Precipitating the event known as the Boston Massacre was a mob of men and boys taunting a sentry standing guard at the city's customs house. When other British soldiers came to the sentry's support, a free-for-all ensued and shots were fired into the crowd.
Four died on the spot and a fifth died after four days. The presence of British troops in Boston had long been a sore point among Boston's radical politicians. Notice also that Revere's engraving shows a blue sky. Enlargement of Paul Revere's Engraving of the Boston Massacre. Boston Massacre. Brain Pop. The Civil War in Art : Teaching & Learning Through Chicago Collections.
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