Contents Title Page Contents Copyright Dedication List of Illustrations Prologue Families of Empire, 1765 Inseparable Interests, 1766–67 Seasons of Discontent, 1766–68 Under One Roof, 1768 Love Your Neighbor, 1769–70 Absent Without Leave, 1768–70 A Deadly Riot: March 1770 Photos Gathering Up: March 6, 1770–August 1772 From Shooting to Massacre, October–December 1770 Epilogue: Civil War Acknowledgments Notes Index About the Author Connect with HMH Copyright © 2020 by Serena Zabin All rights reserved For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016. hmhbooks.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zabin, Serena R., author. Title: The Boston Massacre : a family history / Serena Zabin. Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019026089 (print) | LCCN 2019026090 (ebook) | ISBN 9780544911154 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780544911192 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Boston Massacre, 1770. | United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Women. | United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Social aspects. | United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Causes. | Great Britain. Army. Regiment of Foot, 29th—History. | United States—History—Revolution, 1775– 1783—British forces. | Families of military personnel—North America—History—18th century. | Military dependents—Great Britain—History. | Army spouses—North America—History—18th century. | Boston (Mass.)—History—Revolution, 1775–1783. Classification: LCC E215.4 .Z33 2020 (print) | LCC E215.4 (ebook) | DDC 973.3/113—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019026089 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019026090 Cover design by Christopher Moisan Cover image: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Author photograph © Sara Rubinstein v1.0120 Dis Manibus Jan Ellen Lewis, 1949–2018 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS page xii “The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre,” print by Henry Pelham, 1770 (Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections) page xiii “Gin Lane,” print by William Hogarth, 1751 (Courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections) page 50 “Boston, seen between Castle Williams and Governor’s Island, distant 4 miles,” by Joseph F. W. (Frederick Wallet) Des Barres, 1777 (Reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library) page 53 “A plan of the bay and harbor of Boston,” map by Thomas Wheeler, James Grant, and Samuel Holland, 1775 (Courtesy of Library of Congress Geography and Map Division) page 71 “A new plan of ye great town of Boston in New England in America, with the many additionall buildings, & new streets, to the year, 1769,” map by William Prince and John Bonner (Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, GIS overlay by Wei-Hsin Fu) page 81 “The Annotated Newspapers of Harbottle Dorr, Jr.,” Boston Evening-Post, July 31, 1769 (Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Used by permission.) page 138 Hugh White’s discharge sheet, 1789 (Courtesy of the National Archives, WO 121/7/293) page 156 “Paul Revere’s plan of the scene of the Boston Massacre,” drawing by Paul Revere and Mellen Chamberlain, 1770 (Map reproduction courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library) Insert: page 1 top “The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street, Boston, on March 5th, 1770, by a Party of the 29th Regiment,” engraving by Paul Revere, 1770 (Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Used by permission.), bottom “British troops on the march,” watercolor, 1790 (Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library. Used by permission.); page 2 top “View of Boston Common,” embroidery on linen by Hannah Otis, c. 1750 (Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Used by permission.), bottom “A View of Part of the Town of Boston in New-England and Brittish Ships of War Landing Their Troops! 1768,” engraving by Paul Revere (Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society); page 3 top “A Prospective View of Part of the [Boston] Commons,” watercolor by Christian Remick, c. 1768 (Courtesy of the Concord Museum, Gift of Mr. John Brown, Jr., www.concordmuseum.org), bottom “A Military Encampment in the Green Park,” watercolor by Edward Eyre, c. 1780 (Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library. Used by permission.); page 4 top “English Barracks,” drawing by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1788 (Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library. Used by permission.), bottom “The Camp Laundry,” mezzotint printed for R. Sayers and J. Bennett, London 1782 (Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library. Used by permission.) PROLOGUE March 1770 Bending over the sheet of copper in his Boston workshop, Paul Revere wielded the sharp burin and thought about how the town had been buzzing over the past three weeks with rumors, stories, and contradictory accounts. Revere was a man who kept an ear to the ground, especially when it came to politics. He was a longtime member of the “Sons of Liberty,” an informal network of men opposed to the Massachusetts governor. Revere had heard a great deal about the killings in King Street. Five Bostonians were dead; eight British soldiers were in the town jail. Now he wanted to say something about it. By his side lay young Henry Pelham’s vivid sketch of the shootings. It was good, and Revere was happy to copy it closely, but not slavishly. He would have to engrave a mirror image of Pelham’s sketch in order for his own print to come out properly. Beyond the technical challenge, however, Revere wanted to heighten some points and make his engraving tell an even clearer story. He understood the political implications of this shooting; it was time to explain them to a bigger audience. He kept Pelham’s neat line of soldiers and their officer with his sword, giving the signal to attack. The crowd of unfortunate but neatly dressed Bostonians was well drawn, as were the three men sprawled on the ground. Even the little dog was perfectly placed, though challenging to engrave. Henry Pelham created the drawing on which both his engraving and Revere’s less subtle one are based. Pelham chose Psalm 94, “A Prayer for Vengeance,” as his text below the image. He would make one clear addition. The story needed a strong title; other changes could be subtler. In the meantime, what else should he do to tell the right story? Perhaps assign the name “Butcher’s Hall” to the Custom House? Was that too much? Certainly it was no more extreme than William Hogarth’s recent title “Gin Lane,” applied to his moralizing print of disintegrating buildings and a drunken, syphilitic mother, highlighting the evils of alcohol. Hogarth’s “Gin Lane,” a scathing political commentary, was a model for Revere’s own engraving. Revere would leave that sign on the Custom House building, and his viewers would understand that, while the bloodthirsty soldiers pulled the trigger, the tax-collecting customs officials were ultimately responsible for the violence and the deaths. “Butcher’s Hall” would make it quite clear that if the imperial administration back in London had simply allowed the colonies to contribute money to the empire’s upkeep exactly as they had done before, this disaster would never have happened. Soldiers and politicians, not civilians, were at fault for this shooting. Revere liked how Pelham’s picture drew the eye to the center of the conflict; he wanted to keep viewers’ attention on the people in the town square. The lightly sketched buildings, with smoke curling from their chimneys, indicated location without detracting from that focus. The image of warm homes was appealing, a contrast to the inches of snow still covering the ground in raw weather. He also retained the steeples of the nearby churches; it never hurt to point out that Boston was a town of God-fearing churchgoers. He would, however, highlight that single woman in the crowd. Her presence would make it clear that the locals were not hooligans, but respectable citizens. Unlike the men around her, she would not look at the soldiers. There was no need to suggest that she might well have known them, rented a spare room to some, or that she might have flirted or slept with or even married one. He knew that part of the story, as did everyone in Boston. Nonetheless, it was not going to appear in this picture. To tighten the visual focus, he would get rid of the two men fleeing in the background. No need to spend effort improving on the individualized faces of the soldiers. But that soldier at the end: he could lean forward into the crowd even more aggressively with his bayonet. And Pelham had not made it easy to count how many soldiers were involved; Revere could separate the two that had been half-hidden by smoke in order to prove that seven privates had fired on the crowd. Gun smoke. A thick white line in the center of the picture divided the row of disciplined soldiers in red from the crowd of terrified civilians they were slaughtering. It marked the split between inhabitants on one side and soldiers on the other. Only a bayonet pierced the barrier between them. That wall of smoke could be used to clarify rather than obscure. It was the perfect dividing line. Nothing left but to refine the title. Pelham’s was far too long: “THE FRUITS OF ARBITRARY POWER, OR THE BLOODY MASSACRE: PERPETRATED IN KING STREET BOSTON ON MARCH 5, 1770 IN WHICH MESSRS SAML GRAY, SAML MAVERICK, JAMES CALDWELL, CRISPUS ATTUCKS, PATRICK CARR WERE KILLED SIX OTHERS WOUNDED TWO OF THEM MORTALLY.” The death of civilians in a public square at the hands of the British government’s soldiers was undoubtedly the result of unchecked political power—but it would be far more effective not to bury the lede.