Episode Description
On the evening of the 5th of March 1770, a ragged volley of shots rang out on the streets of Boston, Massachusetts. That volley would change the history of the world. The incident, in which British troops fired into an angry crowd, killing five civilians, would become known as the ‘Boston Massacre’. Thanks to figures such as Sam Adams and Paul Revere, it would also become part of America’s founding myth.
In today’s show, we’re going to look at why tensions in Boston were so high in 1770. We’ll dig beneath the confused accounts and look at what actually happened that fateful night. And we’ll also look at the myth and reality of what followed, and why the ‘Boston Massacre’ remains such a powerful part of the American national story today.
Guest: Caitlin DeAngelis
https://bsky.app/profile/caitlindeangelis.bsky.social
Reading List:
- Gary B. Nash, "The Urban Crucible": https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9424/9780674930599
- Hiller B Zobel, "The Boston Massacre": https://archive.org/details/bostonmassacre00hill
- Serena Zabin, "The Boston Massacre, A Family History": https://serenazabin.com/book/
- Fred Anderson, "A People's Army: Massachusetts soldiers and society in the Seven Years War": https://archive.org/details/peoplesarmymassa00ande
- John Phillip Reid, "A Lawyer Acquitted: John Adams and the Boston Massacre Trials": https://www.jstor.org/stable/845085
- Farah Peterson, “Black Lives and the Boston Massacre”: https://theamericanscholar.org/black-lives-and-the-boston-massacre/
- Joanne Freeman, "The American Revolution" (Yale Lecture Series): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDA2BC5E785D495AB
- Caitlin DeAngelis, "The Caretakers": https://uk.bookshop.org/a/9424/9781633888999
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Credits:
- Host: Gareth Edwards
- Production & Editing: Linus Klaßen
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