Prime Factors - Ranking UK Prime Ministers

11.2 - The Boston Massacre (The Incident on King Street)

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11.2 - The Boston Massacre (The Incident on King Street)

Episode Transcript

Joe: Before we begin, a brief content note. This episode covers a difficult moment in American history and includes detailed depictions of violence, including events in which several people die, one of them a young boy. Listener discretion is advised. Is that good?

Abram: Yeah. Welcome to Prime Factors. This week, the incident on King Street.

Parliament: Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

Abram: Hello and welcome back to Prime Factors. I'm Abram and I'm here with my dad. We're normally reviewing all the British Prime Ministers from Robert Walpole to Keir Starmer, but this week is a special, episode 11.2, "The Boston Massacre," also known as "The Incident on King Street."

Joe: Since George Grenville, British colonial policy has alienated North America. Each Prime Minister has either passed an act that pushed them away or reversed an act from the previous administration. All that acrimony comes to a head in 1770 as we increasingly see an American identity distinct from a British one.

Abram: We're also from Boston, so of course we want to do a talk about our local history.

Joe: It's like a town segment, but our town.

Abram: Yes.

Joe: Last time we covered Frederick North's rise in politics. The Boston Massacre happens right as he is appointed Prime Minister, perhaps even before word had reached the colonies. This will be one of the first crises of his new administration.

Abram: Crisis, crisis, crisis.

Joe: This episode is called "The Boston Massacre," but we're already showing our biases. In London, this was simply called "The Incident on King Street." And my goal for this episode is to be fair, but also make sure that we portray the British perspective.

Abram: We are a British history podcast after all.

Joe: Yes.

Abram: Don't forget that you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and at— period. We're also on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram. If you enjoy listening, please like, subscribe, comment, and review.

Joe: You don't want to say our website name?

Abram: That's not in the script.

Joe: Oh, we ran out of colored ink and it printed blue. We're at primefactorspodcast.com.

Abram: What do you mean by "printed blue"? It didn't print—

Joe: Look what it looks like on my script.

Abram: That's so funny. Oh, so just for note to our listeners, you colored it in as a link, but our printer ran out of ink, so it just doesn't exist. So it's Spotify, YouTube, and at just nothing, period. It's a really funny joke.

Joe: But Abram, we also have an announcement to make.

Abram: Drumroll please! Today we are announcing a second podcast: Prime Factors: Music. This is a podcast where we review albums and talk a little bit about the history of the bands we're covering, starting with the Beatles. Best of all, the podcast will be led by me. I am the host. I am writing the script. I used GarageBand to create loops for the theme music. The only thing I'm not doing is the editing. That's Palle's job. Sorry, Palle.

Joe: Please check out Prime Factors: Music on the same podcast apps. The first episode, "Please Please Me," is out now. But before you listen to some Beatles talk, we have a massacre to cover. Abram, would you please do the honors?

Picture This

Joe: The date is February 22nd, 1770, eleven days before the Boston Massacre. On this Thursday morning, Boston is frigid and bustling. It is market day and the city is crowded with farmers and merchants who have poured in to sell their goods at the market outside of Faneuil Hall or to shop from the city's many fine stores.

Joe: Market day in Boston was also a school holiday. The streets were teeming with children, mostly boys and young men, socializing, playing in the lightly snow-covered streets, and trying to stay out of trouble.

Joe: We move away from the busy market stalls of Faneuil Hall a little north into a North End neighborhood that is today part of Little Italy. Here too, the city is bustling with workers, merchants, apprentices, and many others going about their daily life. The streets are lined with homes and shops. We approach one in particular, a dry goods store owned by Theophilus Lillie. Overnight, a heavy red sign had been placed in front of his door, marking him clearly for his so-called crime: Importer.

Abram: Dun dun dun!

Joe: Mr. Lillie had bought British goods and paid taxes on them, refusing to enforce the unofficial boycott of British products in place since the Townshend Acts were passed. To anti-taxation groups like the Sons of Liberty, this was a crime, but they could not act directly.

Joe: Instead, this sign was placed by Mr. Lillie's door. A few unkempt schoolboys stood nearby like 18th-century picketers, taunting anyone who came near his shop door. They threw insults, mud, and Abram—

Abram: What?

Joe: They threw manure. It was a simple way to punish the shop owner, but it was effective.

Joe: Although this is Mr. Lillie's shop, this is not Mr. Lillie's story. Instead, we must turn to his neighbor, Ebenezer Richardson. Abram, listen closely. You have to tell me whether he is the hero or the villain of this story.

Abram: Is he evil or is he good?

Joe: Well, that's what you're going to tell me in a minute. Mr. Richardson woke up that morning to see his friend's shop marked "Forced Closed" by a boycott-enforcing street mob with schoolboys doing most of the dirty work. For all that the Sons of Liberty pushed against the taxes and the troops that had been stationed in Boston, Richardson was the opposite. He believed in the Crown, and he believed in the Crown's taxes, and he volunteered to find shops that sold smuggled or untaxed goods and report them to the Customs Office.

Joe: He even brought evidence against John Hancock, whose ship the Liberty had been found with an illicit cargo of wine a few months earlier. The Sons of Liberty were not just boycotting British goods, some of them were entangled with smuggling. To those enforcing the boycotts, Richardson had a reputation and a name. He was known simply as "The Informer."

Abram: I think he's good.

Joe: It is perhaps to his embarrassment that when he saw the sign go up in front of Mr. Lillie's shop, Richardson tried to remove it. Between the taunts and the pelts of the boys and the weight of the sign, he couldn't do it. He tried to convince neighbors to help. They refused. He even tried to steal, or maybe borrow, a horse and a wagon to move the sign that way. Everything he did failed.

Joe: And as Richardson flailed unsuccessfully against the sign, the crowd of boys and onlookers grew at the spectacle. It was comedy. His agitation increased with every turned-down plea for help, every tossed pile of manure, and his embarrassing attempt to steal a horse.

Joe: And whether it was because he was trying to remove the sign or because he had been recognized as an informer, the crowd's focus turned. It wasn't about Lillie's shop anymore. The growing thicket of boys and men swarmed around Richardson, and he began to panic. He fled into his nearby home where his wife and daughters looked on worriedly out the window. The mob followed him to his doorstep.

Joe: Racing up the stairs, Richardson threw open his second-story window and looked out onto the street. Word was getting around, and the group outside continued to swell. Schoolboys and apprentices poured in from the neighboring streets.

Joe: But there in the crowd, Richardson spotted him. Standing hardly taller than the angry teens surrounding him was Thomas Knox, a leader of the Sons of Liberty. Richardson seethed, thoughts churning in his head. This wasn't just the work of schoolboys, he reasoned. This was Knox's doing. This was revenge for what he had told the Customs Office.

Joe: Richardson leaned out the window to scream at Knox, "Perjury! Perjury!" Knox and the others had lied to the customs officials, and Richardson had called them out for it. He looked at the assembled mob around his house and screamed at Knox a second time, "By the eternal God, I'll make it too hot for you before night." Abram, I want you to hold your ears for a second.

Abram: What?

Joe: Knox didn't try to mask his presence. "Come out, you damn son of a bitch. I'll have your heart out, your liver out."

Abram: You swore?

Joe: Now, to be clear, this is from the transcript, Abram. This is educational swearing.

Abram: Don't care, you swore!

Joe: At that reply, the mob went on the offensive. They smashed Richardson's windows, sending rocks and glass into the home and injuring his wife and daughters who had been watching a little too closely. They fled deeper into the home. It was now a siege. Men and boys swarmed around the back of the house to try the rear door while others pounded on the front. Stones were thrown, the metal lattices of his windows bent and broken.

Joe: Across town, word had reached Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson of the riot, but he was paralyzed. After a so-called battle between Redcoats and the Sons of Liberty in New York had ended in bloodshed only a week earlier, he was not eager to send in troops. Instead, he commanded the sheriff to go to Middle Street and try to keep the peace. But if that sheriff arrived, he had little impact on what came next.

Joe: As the minutes ticked by, Richardson became increasingly panicked. His house was surrounded, his wife and daughters injured. He grabbed a musket and he filled it with birdshot. Now birdshot was less lethal than musket balls, but it spread over a wide arc. Firing birdshot into a crowd, well, it was almost guaranteed to injure a lot of people.

Joe: Armed with his gun, Richardson took a perch at his upstairs window. He cried out for the mob to leave him alone.

Abram: Leave me alone!

Joe: He waited for the hopeful sign of red uniforms coming down the street. He hoped for relief because it seemed like only moments before the mob, some say 300 strong, would break into his home.

Joe: He was joined at the window by George Wilmot, a friend who happened to be visiting his home at the time. Richardson screamed at Knox, at the crowd, at anyone who would listen. He screamed until he was hoarse. As the banging intensified, he spied his wife picking glass shards out from one of his daughters' hair, their clothes bloodied by small cuts.

Joe: Some decisions have ramifications far beyond their times. This is one of them.

Joe: Richardson returned to the window, took aim into the crowd, and he pulled the trigger. The musket screamed as a volley of birdshot scattered into the sea of men and boys.

Joe: Immediately, the sound of the musket was replaced by screams of pain, anger, and fear from below. With dozens of men and boys all clustered together, it was impossible to miss. But instead of the birdshot scattering wide, the short distance from the upstairs window and the men below meant that the fire was concentrated.

Joe: A few boys were lucky—torn clothing and scratches. One boy was shot in the hand. But another boy, an 11-year-old German immigrant named Christopher Seider, was not so lucky. He was struck eleven times, bent over with a stone still in his hand. He hit the street immediately, and the mob parted in shock.

Joe: The crowd's shock turned to anger. Someone began ringing the church bells. With renewed strength, older boys smashed open Richardson's door and demolished his windows. A few rushed in and grabbed Richardson and Wilmot, forcibly dragging them down the stairs and into the waiting mob outside.

Joe: Already, a rope was being hung over a nearby sign. Richardson struggled, trying to find a friendly face in the crowd, but there was no escape. A few members of the mob pulled Christopher aside to tend his wounds, but the rest were inflamed.

Joe: Just as Richardson was about to be lynched, a powerful voice cried out for them to stop. Whether summoned by the bells or already nearby, William Molineux now appeared. Molineux was a Sons of Liberty leader, and he put himself between the mob and Richardson. Against their protests, he promised the crowd that Richardson would be hanged, but it would be, quote, "by the form of the laws."

Joe: With a new direction to their energy, the assembled mob dragged the struggling Richardson and Wilmot through the Boston streets towards the city jail. Christopher Seider died of his injuries a few hours later.

Joe: We'll leave Ebenezer Richardson's story there for now as the mob drags him bloodily through the streets. Was he a frightened man defending his family and home, or was he a murderer of an 11-year-old boy? That would be up to a jury to decide. What did you think of our story, Abram?

Abram: Violent. Yeah. My opinion on him is that I was on his side until he may or may not have murdered someone, and then I'm like, I'm on his side, but I think he went a bit too far. I don't think he should have started shooting people. I think he should have hid instead of, like, shooting people. Yeah.

Joe: Since the last section, Abram and I took a break and we had a little bit of a chat. This is a challenging topic for us. Things that happen in Boston feel real in a way that things that happen in a kingdom across the sea certainly don't. So, I'm gonna be a little bit more understanding of that as we continue through the episode.

Joe: I promise the rest of it isn't this dark. The real thing I want to make sure we hit on is there were some really difficult things going on in this city by both the British and the Americans that ultimately led to the conflict that became the American Revolution. So, there will still be some difficult things that happen in this episode, but we're going to go. Are you ready, Abram?

Abram: I'm ready. All right.

A Brief History of Boston

Joe: We've talked a bit about Boston before. It's our home. You can find more in the Stamp Act episode. But let me catch you up if you have lost track of what's been going on here since George Grenville.

Joe: Boston was founded in 1630 as a "City on the Hill," an idealized home for the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They fled England during the reign of King Charles I. This is just a bit north of Plymouth, which is where we get the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving and the funny hats and all of that Americana. They were both religious refugees, but they are not the same religious refugees.

Joe: The original capital of Massachusetts Bay was Charlestown on the Charles River, but they moved across the river two years later to Trimountain, which they renamed Boston, as it was both more defensible and had better access to water.

Joe: Boston was then just about an island with a narrow neck to the west that was hardly wider than a road, which connected the peninsula to the mainland. Today, it looks nothing like that. Most of the harbor was filled in and swampland reclaimed. But in those days, having water on three sides and a highly defensible entrance allowed it to grow as a prominent port for fishing and trade.

Joe: I have a map here to help Abram, and we're going to put it up on the website. Abram, do you see our map?

Abram: Yes. Boston looks ugly.

Joe: It definitely looks different, doesn't it?

Abram: Ugly.

Joe: Why do you say ugly?

Abram: Because it could easily get beheaded.

Joe: Well, it just has this tiny little road and you cut off that road.

Abram: It has two tiny little roads. See, there's a tiny little road up here.

Joe: Ah, but that's a tiny little road across the mill pond. The tiny little road that connects to the rest of Massachusetts is there on the— on what is the west of this map.

Abram: I have a question. Why did they name it Charlestown if they were trying to get away from Charles?

Joe: You know, that's a very good question. I think the answer is that it's always nice to suck up to the king. Imagine you had an insecure ruler and you wanted to do something kind of meaningless, but also made that insecure ruler look and feel good. So you would start naming things after him, right? You would call it Charles River. You would call it the Charles Town.

Abram: Why are they naming stuff after the one who lost his head?

Joe: Well, what year is this, Abram?

Abram: He was still evil back then.

Joe: Well, he was certainly evil to the Puritans. Yeah, it's all pre-Cromwell people. Yeah, it is definitely true though that in modern politics, insecure people never try to name things after themselves. Really? Are you sure?

Abram: We have to edit this out so people don't leave us because of our politics. I get where you're going with that.

Joe: Anyway, during the English Civil War and the Protectorate, Puritan settlement dropped, and Boston— and Massachusetts Bay more generally— became appealing to immigrants of all sorts. In 1691, Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth merged and became the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

Joe: Advancing into the 18th century, Boston gradually lost that "City on a Hill" mentality in favor of being a more rough-and-tumble place. Smuggling was common in the city, and street gangs from the North and South Ends warred against each other for control. Despite its appetite for liberty, Boston had developed something of an outlaw character.

Joe: Legal control of the city was divided between a crown-appointed governor, a democratically elected legislature, and a town council. And as we approach the 1770s, that royal governor and the democratic institutions are gonna be very much at odds. Less officially, the Sons of Liberty.

Abram: Have you heard of them? Yeah, but liberty is not a person. It can't have kids.

Joe: So less officially, the Sons of Liberty have a significant amount of control, with street mobs and protesters moving at their suggestions. Major leaders in the colony like Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and other famous names, they were Sons of Liberty.

Joe: And after the riots of the Stamp Act and the subsequent repeal, where even Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson's home had been ransacked, the situation in the colony had cooled. The nervous peace, however, ended with the passing of the Townshend Acts. Britain was intent not only to raise taxes again, but to build a taxing apparatus out of the Boston Customs House. New commissioners were sent to Boston to enforce the taxes.

Joe: While no one liked taxes, the city was increasingly divided between the loyalists, that, well, grumbled but agreed that Parliament had the right to levy taxes, and those that fought against them through boycotts.

Abram: So is that essentially Roundheads versus Cavaliers Part 2?

Joe: Yeah, I think that's a very good—

Abram: The Cavaliers are the royalists and the Roundheads are the non-royalists.

Joe: Exactly. Although we would generally say loyalists and rebels in the American context.

Abram: Ah.

Joe: The Sons of Liberty pushed for a near-complete boycott of British goods and they punished those that broke their boycott, just like we saw in that Picture This.

Joe: The Customs Commissioners were not just going after the small fry, but they even seized John Hancock's ship, the Liberty, when it was discovered that he was smuggling Madeira wine. As a major leader of the Sons of Liberty, they needed to show the governor that this would not stand.

Joe: And so on June 10th, 1768, a mob ransacked the Customs House, reclaimed Hancock's ship, and they forced the customs officials to flee to nearby Castle Island, where there was a small military garrison. Governor Bernard— he was the royal governor at the time— knew that he did not have the manpower to keep the customs officers safe against the organized Sons of Liberty. He did the only thing he could do: he sent a letter to London asking for military assistance. He was gonna put Boston under military occupation.

The British Are Coming - One Year Before the Massacre

Joe: On September 30th, 1768, warships and transports began arriving in Boston. These ships arrived with fanfare, cannon ports opened, and the cannons loaded as they sailed as if to broadside the city.

Joe: Landing on the Long Wharf near Faneuil Hall, the first 600 men came off the boats in formation, muskets loaded, pipers and drummers playing, and they marched into the center of the town, stopping at Boston Common, where they made their initial encampment.

Joe: So Abram, you know this geography very well, but if you look on here, you can see— where is it? That is the Long Wharf. Faneuil Hall is right there. And then they marched up to the Common, which is right here.

Abram: It's kind of weird because it's the same stuff as it's still in Boston, but our map looks so different. It's like, how is that on the ocean? It's because they filled it all in.

Joe: Yeah.

Abram: Oh, one thing cool is that this, I think now is like the thing that's across from Cambridge now? And this is now filled in?

Joe: Well, that is definitely filled in, yes.

Abram: So Cambridge is now like right over here or something?

Joe: Yes, I think so.

Abram: And they filled in a lot of Cambridge.

Joe: Well, they filled in a lot of everything.

Abram: So yeah, Cambridge doesn't exist here.

Joe: Well, Cambridge does exist. Harvard has already been founded. There is a whole city where Cambridge is today, that is on the other side of the water, but this map doesn't show it.

Abram: But they don't show— this sort of isolates Boston.

Joe: Yeah, Boston was much more isolated than it is today.

Abram: Yeah, so I know that like Watertown used to be like ten towns in one.

Joe: Yes.

Abram: And it even was capital for like a year.

Joe: It was. Yes.

Joe: By the end of October, two regiments, the 14th and 29th Regiments, were fully in Boston, placing roughly 2,000 soldiers in a city of about 16,000 people. There was roughly one soldier for every eight people living in the city.

Joe: The purpose of this display and the massive number of troops was essentially shock and awe. And the Sons of Liberty were, well, at least initially cowed. Just finding places for that many soldiers to sleep was a big problem, so the governor initially stationed them in Faneuil Hall and then at the Old State House, essentially planting troops in the heart of Massachusetts's democratic apparatus. Right, Faneuil Hall is where the town meeting met.

Abram: Why do you say "apparatus" so much?

Joe: I like the word. Apparatus. The Old State House was where the legislature met. So they're putting the troops—

Abram: So what's the new ugly building then?

Joe: Oh, the new ugly building that was built in the 1970s? That is Boston City Hall. Boston is home to one of the ugliest known buildings. It is true.

Abram: Boo-hoo.

Joe: Very quickly, however, cracks began emerging in this overwhelming display of power. Many of the soldiers were poor and provisions were hard to come by. It was not long before soldiers started looking for side work. And while they were entirely unwelcome, they did begin to displace the poorest and most menial workers in the town, adding to an already stressful situation. A few soldiers had even brought families with them, adding to their need to find food and housing in a hostile city.

Joe: Troop cohesion was difficult to maintain. Some soldiers deserted into the Massachusetts countryside, and some of those that were found were executed as a warning to others. This did not help the low morale that crept in the longer those troops were forced to remain in the city.

Joe: And eventually, the city and the Sons of Liberty began organizing and fighting back. Paul Revere's famous engraving of the arrival of the British was spread throughout the colonies, serving as something of a call to arms rather than a warning. This picture depicted Britain as a foreign occupier in a God-fearing land. They showed churches big and tall, and it's all propaganda.

Abram: Is there an image?

Joe: So here, Abram, this is a picture made by Paul Revere of the famous ride fame. And you can see he's showing all of these warships arriving in Boston. And what are the largest things that you can see in the Boston skyline?

Abram: Church, church, church, church, church. Boat, boat, boat, boat, boat. Boats and churches.

Joe: Boats and churches.

Abram: Is that what Boston had?

Joe: Well, the boats were the British arriving and the churches were the God-fearing people that they were arriving to put down. So, yes, that is what Paul Revere was saying.

Abram: Look, it's some floating houses. Paul Revere forgot to draw that there was a thing under here, so now there are just floating houses.

Joe: No, I think he's trying to show that Boston was very thin there, which is why you can see the water on the other side.

Abram: No, but there's nothing below. Over here there's stuff below them, but over here there's nothing. Can I show you? Look, over here there's stuff below them. Is there anything below them here?

Joe: Oh, oh, oh. So Abram, this is the Long Wharf. So Boston is here, but this is this very long, like, dock that is going— well, the harbor is filled in here up to this point. Like, the Long Wharf went away because they just kept filling in past it. But you know how in old pictures of London Bridge that they have houses on the London Bridge? Because they did. This is exactly the same. There were buildings and houses all up and down the wharf.

Abram: When did the wharf get filled in?

Joe: I don't know the exact year. It was some time in the 1800s. Oh, so that area was filled in around 1860. Yeah.

Joe: Groups began harassing the soldiers in the streets, pushing them to make mistakes. One leader said, quote, "I don't suppose my men are without fault, but twenty of them have been knocked down in the streets and no more has been heard of it, whereas if one of the inhabitants meets with no more than a kick, the town is immediately in alarm."

Joe: Finding permanent housing for the troops was especially difficult. A tenement-like building called the Manufacturing House was selected, but the poor tenants that lived there refused to leave. This resulted in a siege of sorts where the military tried to claim the building, but locals kept smuggling in food and water to the residents to help them stay there. And eventually the military had to rent warehouses along the waterfront at, like, super high prices— in fact, from some of the Sons of Liberty members themselves, ironically funding the very leaders that they were trying to stop.

Joe: And during all of this, Governor Bernard was summoned back to London to report to the king. The city was led, as it had been during the Stamp Act crisis, by Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson.

Abram: Oh no.

Joe: To keep up the messaging that they wanted, the Sons of Liberty attacked a pro-monarch newspaper called the Boston Chronicle and destroyed their printing press, thus ensuring for a time that the rebel messages would be heard loudest.

Joe: The Sons of Liberty had retained their footing, and at the beginning of 1770, everyone was watching and waiting to see the sparks that would blow the powder keg sky high. And an altercation in New York became just the catalyst that they needed.

The Bloody Prelude - 45 Days Before the Massacre

Joe: So I should start by clarifying. The Sons of Liberty were a loosely affiliated collection of political and radical groups that were against taxation. Every city had more or less independently operated groups, and different groups in each place might have used that name even at the same time. It was a resistance organization, so decentralized administration was a strength, not a weakness.

Joe: And New York is not today remembered as a hotbed of revolutionary sentiment, but their chapter of the Sons of Liberty was one of the oldest. While Boston had a Liberty Tree— Abram, do you want to guess what New York had?

Abram: Liberty boot?

Joe: A Liberty Pole.

Abram: Ahahaha!

Joe: But New York had a very different problem. New York had been made the North American headquarters of the British Army after the Seven Years' War. A large permanent garrison was stationed there, and General Gage— you should remember that name, it's going to come up later— had his headquarters there.

Joe: It is unsurprising then that the New York Sons of Liberty struggled to keep their Liberty Pole standing. Three times from 1765 to 1769 had they put up a pole, only to have the military rip it down again. And this game played out one more time in January 1770.

Joe: Around January 19th, British soldiers had taken down the most recent Liberty Pole and began putting up signs and flyers around the city criticizing the Sons of Liberty. Copies survive today, and it starts with a poem. Ahem.

Joe: "God and a soldier all men doth adore, in times of war and not before. When the war is over and all things righted, God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

Joe: The whole thing is too long to read, but I'll give you an idea. Quote: "Whereas an uncommon and riotous disturbance prevails throughout the city by some of its inhabitants who style themselves the Sons of Liberty, but rather may more properly be called real enemies to society; and whereas the army now quartered in New York are represented in a heinous light, for having propagated a disturbance in this city by attempting to destroy their Liberty Pole in the Fields, which being now complete, we have reason to laugh at them and beg the public only to observe how chagrined these pretended Sons of Liberty look as they pass through the streets, especially as these great heroes thought their freedom depended on a piece of wood."

Joe: As we saw in Boston when the Sons of Liberty attacked the Loyalist newspaper, they preferred to control the message. This broadsheet was being plastered up across New York, and it made them look silly.

Joe: A mob formed to harass some of the soldiers that were distributing these messages, and quickly the situation became tense. More citizens gathered, and then more soldiers arrived to aid their comrades. As the mob pressed closer, the soldiers were forced to use their bayonets to cut a path out of the melee. Many were injured, but no shots were fired. And although the details are clouded by propaganda, one member of the mob may have died of his injuries.

Abram: He died.

Joe: He did die. This event will be known to history as the Battle of Golden Hill, a somewhat exaggerated name for a brawl in Manhattan.

Joe: For the revolutionaries, it was a fantastic reminder of the asymmetric nature of their conflict. They could harass soldiers and get away with a bloody nose and a propaganda win, but the soldiers themselves were not permitted to fire despite being better armed and better trained.

Abram: Then why were they better trained if they can't even use it?

Joe: Well, think about it. The military is there to keep the peace.

Abram: They literally weren't keeping the peace because they weren't allowed to fire.

Joe: So you want the military to shoot the protesters? What do you do with unruly protesters?

Abram: I don't know.

Joe: It's a very tough question. This is— you've hit the heart of the problem, Abram.

Abram: Uh-huh.

Joe: How do you deal with unruly protesters with military? If the military shoots, they're oppressors. If they don't shoot, they get made fun of.

Abram: Mm-hmm.

Joe: So for the Sons of Liberty in Boston, this was practically a dress rehearsal.

The Death of Christopher Seider - 11 Days Before the Massacre

Joe: By February, Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson was watching the situation in New York carefully. He tried to force the Provincial Assembly to relocate out of Boston so they'd be less influenced by the mob, but he failed.

Joe: And this catches us up to our opening segment. The Sons of Liberty ran an aggressive boycott campaign against British goods. And they would use boys and young men to intimidate shoppers away from buying goods from anyone that violated the boycott.

Joe: On the morning of February 22nd, the group protested outside of Lillie's shop in the North End. Ebenezer Richardson really did try, perhaps even comically, to remove the sign, but the situation turned violent. The mob chased him into his home. They injured his wife and daughters, and eventually, he fired into the crowd, killing the 11-year-old Christopher Seider.

Abram: I think that I'm on his side. I don't think he should have killed anyone, but I feel like the Sons of Liberty were going too far on that one.

Joe: Yeah, this is really tough, isn't it?

Abram: Yeah.

Joe: I've done my best to be accurate in the portrayal, but several sources have different takes. There's a lot of propaganda going on. Were the Sons of Liberty protesting one shop that morning or four? What did the sign look like exactly? Did he fire from the ground floor or from above? When did he see Thomas Knox? Who did he shout insults to? So many things, right? There's a million questions.

Joe: But none of that changes the big picture. Ebenezer Richardson was chased by the mob into an impossible situation, and he narrowly avoided being lynched when he fired into the crowd.

Joe: Four days later, Christopher Seider's funeral was probably the largest ever in the colonies. 2,000 angry Bostonians led his casket in a procession that symbolized the three democratic centers of power in the colony. They took it past the Old State House, the Liberty Tree, and Faneuil Hall— the legislature, the Sons of Liberty, and the city council. And the casket was finally laid to rest in the Granary Burying Ground.

Joe: The funeral was stage-managed by the Sons of Liberty as a show of force and solidarity against the British establishment in the city, while Richardson, the great "Informer," sat in the city jail. The mob had wanted him to be hanged for murder, but before they could have a trial, the next domino fell.

The Rope Walkers - 3 Days Before the Massacre

Joe: So first, Abram, you're probably asking, "Dad, what is a rope walker?"

Abram: I know, the people who are on tightropes.

Joe: No.

Abram: They're literally a rope walker!

Joe: They are, but that is not who we're talking about. Can you imagine if, like, the Boston Massacre was started by circus people?

Abram: Haha! What if their lions accidentally attacked someone and started a massacre, which got two sides involved?

Joe: So in Boston, there were these long factories near the docks where workers would lay out long strands of fibers and spin them together to form ropes. But because ropes are really long, like, these factories would be very, very, very long. And it'd be like this.

Abram: Oh yeah, like this long and this wide.

Joe: Like, oh yeah, yeah, very long, thin factories that were along the docks. Rope walking was not a high-skill job, but it required close teamwork and camaraderie among the teams making the ropes.

Joe: And remember also that there were lots of soldiers near the docks, and it was not uncommon for troops that needed a little extra money to find small jobs that they could do around the city to make ends meet.

Joe: And on March 2nd, Patrick Walker, a soldier, was walking by one of the ropewalks in the South End when he was approached and he was asked, "Do you need a job?" He said he did, but the man asking was not serious, and he laughingly told him that he wanted him to go empty out his outhouse. He actually used a much less polite term, but Abram yelled at me for swearing, so I'm not going to say it.

Joe: Walker and the man began to fight, but rope walking is strenuous business, and the large man had no difficulty knocking down a British soldier and stealing his sword.

Abram: Did he eat the soldier?

Joe: No.

Abram: Why? He could have easily— eh, the soldier.

Joe: They were having a brawl. The soldier ran away, but came back a few minutes later with a dozen soldiers. But still the men of the ropewalk would not let them pass or give back the sword. More soldiers were gathered, but again they were pushed back. And eventually Walker and the others returned to their barracks, minus one sword and minus a lot of pride.

Joe: Like, these are big, burly men. They just made a whole bunch of British soldiers look stupid.

Joe: The animosity between the rope walkers and the soldiers only increased over the coming days, with multiple incidents where soldiers would harass the workers or vice versa.

Joe: On the night of the 3rd, however, a soldier did not return to his barracks and was missing. Immediately, suspicions grew that he had been harmed or killed by the rope walkers. So the military arrived in force and searched the ropewalks, but they found no sign of the missing soldier. The situation worsened as more rope walkers reported soldiers were following them back to their homes.

Joe: By the morning of the 5th, the missing soldier had been found. The Boston newspaper reported that he had been found at a brothel the whole time, but this might have been propaganda. You know what a brothel is, right?

Abram: No.

Joe: It's a store that's illegal where you can go to buy sex.

Abram: Yes! Ah!

Joe: What? The events of a few hours later made the question of where the missing soldier had been almost moot.

Joe: Notes had been pasted around Boston, supposedly from the military, saying, quote, "This is to inform the rebellious people in Boston that the soldiers in the 14th and 29th Regiments are determined to join together and defend themselves against all who would oppose them."

Joe: The note was inflammatory, and it probably was a false flag by the Sons of Liberty to make the town even angrier at the soldiers. And if that was its aim, it was widely successful, because before evening fell on March 5th, the mobs were in the streets and they were looking for trouble.

The Man in Red - One Hour Before the Massacre

Joe: Throughout the day on March 5th, rumors circulated around the city that something was about to happen. Exactly what this was seemed to differ. Some sources say that a group of soldiers had attacked an oysterman, while others say that the Boston garrison was preparing to take down the Liberty Tree.

Joe: Whatever the excuse, 200 to 300 angry locals gathered just after 8 PM at Dock Square near Faneuil Hall. Many were armed with wooden clubs or other weapons that they could find, a few swords, and one source reported that a Scottish immigrant wielded a Highland broadsword.

Abram: Is that like a fancy Scottish sword?

Joe: Yes. By 8:30, the men in the streets had been joined by a mysterious red-cloaked figure wearing a wig. To this day, historians are not sure who it was, but whoever it was goaded the citizens into violence.

Joe: A mass of men traveled up the hill to where City Hall is today, to an old sugar warehouse where the 29th Regiment was housed. The barracks site was well defended, with only a narrow alley leading to the entrance. The mob, in a show of tremendous bravery or stupidity, attempted to storm the barracks itself.

Joe: The well-trained soldiers had no difficulty defending themselves, using only clubs and bayonets, taking advantage of the tight passages of the colonial city. A child of only seven or eight was included in the fighting and was injured, which angered the protesters even further. The bells of the Old Brick Meeting House began to ring, summoning even more Bostonians into the street.

Joe: To their credit, the soldiers self-policed their response. One soldier that was going to shoot into the crowd was stopped by his comrades and pulled back into the barracks. They were not allowed to fire. They did not want to escalate.

Joe: One of the leaders in the barracks negotiated what was essentially a standoff with Richard Palmes, a Sons of Liberty member. They agreed that they would remain in their barracks throughout the evening.

Joe: Finding themselves prevented from attacking the barracks directly, the mob broke up and searched the streets looking for any stray soldiers to harass. And they found two.

Joe: Captain John Goldfinch had been out getting a haircut before he was stopped near the Customs House by a group of apprentices that accused him of not paying. He showed them his receipt, but they still insisted. Hugh White, a soldier stationed to guard the Customs House, came out, defended the captain's honor, and he struck one of the apprentices with the butt of his musket.

Abram: Hee hee hee!

Joe: As Captain Goldfinch returned to his barracks, oblivious to the danger, the group turned their attention to the lone sentry guarding the hated Customs House.

The Boston Massacre

Joe: So I'm going to interject right away, Abram, to say that the details I'm about to describe are murky. Witnesses provided contradictory testimony as to exactly what happened, and what follows is my best attempt to tell the story as I understand it from my sources.

Joe: Hugh White was alone in front of the Customs House, surrounded by a group of taunting young apprentices. In what might be one of history's most obviously incorrect statements, a constable appeared in the square. White shouted for assistance, but the constable appeared unfazed or oblivious.

Joe: He told the apprentices to disperse, but he laughed off the whole thing. He said that they were just children and really wouldn't hurt him. "They're just having a bit of fun." And when the constable walked away and the young apprentices did not, White suspected that he was in danger. He abandoned his sentry box and retreated to the Customs House steps, perhaps hoping to be let in or at least have some safety in higher ground.

Joe: By this time, the crowd had swelled to about 15 to 20 youths. The crowd continued their taunts, and White, visibly shaken, made a show of loading his musket. He swore here. Should I not swear?

Abram: If you do, I'll say, "Yes, swear!"

Joe: Alright. "Darn them," he was heard to say. "If they molest me, I will fire." Someone in the crowd responded, "Fire and be darned."

Joe: White pounded on the door of the Customs House, but there was no answer from inside.

Joe: Now enter Crispus Attucks. Have you heard the story of Crispus Attucks, Abram?

Abram: I've heard the name before.

Joe: Yeah, in a story that's already covered in American mythology, Attucks looms large. Some things about him are very clear. He was a sailor of African and Indigenous ancestry, and later generations would remember him as the first martyr of the Revolution. But exactly what he did in the crowd that night is less certain.

Joe: He's going to become a hero to the anti-slavery and civil rights movements and a powerful symbol that Black Americans were present in the nation's founding struggle from the beginning. When I was your age, in 7th grade, I had to write a paper about Crispus Attucks asking, was he the first person that died in the American Revolution? Do you think so? It depends whether you think the revolution started now or a couple years later.

Abram: I would say the revolution started— I would say— with the Stamp Act. I would say it didn't become a full— it wasn't a war until 1775, but I would say it started with the Stamp Act. And this is the first battle of it before it became a full war. Do you agree with that?

Joe: I think that is a very fine way to look at it.

Joe: So our story has Crispus Attucks bringing two clubs with him so he could hand off one to anyone that needed one. But I am a little bit not sure about that. I think the idea of a Black man in the city wielding two clubs is a little bit too stereotypical to be likely.

Joe: Another shows him as a leader of men, bringing 15 to 20 mob members with him. And if the latter is true, then that's especially impressive given the racism of the day. Whatever Attucks's role was, he is the figure that schoolchildren learn about when they learn about the massacre.

Joe: The mob continued to swell, now up to 50 or 60 men, and more were arriving by the minute. Not all were looking for a fight. Many came with firefighting equipment, as the bells that were ringing were supposed to mean fire. But the situation became more and more tense as White stood alone on the stairs to the hated Customs House.

Joe: Fortunately, real help was coming. Some young loyalists had seen White trapped and ran to get assistance. Captain Preston, a watch officer, was located at a nearby tavern, and he assembled a rescue party of six grenadiers and a corporal to try to extract the sentry from the crowd.

Joe: With bayonets forward, the soldiers marched in formation to the Customs House, pushing back the crowd as needed. Getting there was easy, but no sooner did they mount the Customs House stairs than they discovered that they were trapped. Just as in New York, the mob knew that the soldiers would not be allowed to fire, so they gathered in close, throwing taunts, rocks, and ice. The crowd had now swollen to between 200 and 300 people.

Joe: The soldiers entered a defensive formation with muskets pointing out. A man in the crowd— by one account, that Scotsman with a broadsword— shouted to the group asking if their muskets were loaded. One soldier, Hugh Montgomery, replied that they were.

Joe: What happened next is a blur. A thrown piece of wood, ice, or frozen snow struck Montgomery. Whether he slipped, staggered, or lost control in the confusion is not clear, but moments later his musket discharged, and another soldier hearing the shot fired as well.

Joe: Some versions of this story place Attucks front and center trying to grab Montgomery's weapon when he was shot. Another man, Samuel Gray, went down from the same shots.

Joe: Captain Preston shouted to his men, "Why did you fire?" Fire! Fire! Fire! But in the panic and noise, the soldiers only heard the last word. Fire! Fire! Three more soldiers fired into the crowd. Another man died. Two more were fatally injured. The soldiers fell back to reload.

Joe: The shock of seeing several dead caused the mob to pause for a moment, long enough for more reinforcements to arrive and for Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson to be summoned. Hutchinson demanded to know why Preston ordered his men to fire. And again, history is conflicted on exactly what was said. Preston testified that he never gave the order, while other contemporary reports claimed that he admitted that, quote, "I was obliged to, to save my sentry." Separating fact from fiction here, Abram, very tough.

Abram: Mm-hmm.

Joe: With the Lieutenant Governor on the scene, he was able to convince the mob to allow the troops to return safely to the barracks. He informed the mob that it would be up to the law to determine what to do next. And as if that was a promise, he stayed up all night interviewing witnesses to get to the bottom of what happened.

Joe: In all, three men died immediately: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, and James Caldwell. Samuel Maverick died the following morning. Patrick Carr survived for nine days before succumbing to his wounds. At least seven others were seriously wounded.

Joe: By morning, it had been decided: Captain Preston, Hugh White, and the other soldiers would be arrested immediately. The massacre was over. Now it was time to deal with the aftermath.

Abram: But why is only one of the five people who died ever talked about?

Joe: That's a good question. In large part because Crispus Attucks was Black. He was very much a symbol for a lot of people about the African American contributions to the Revolution. The other members were equally important, but I didn't learn about them in school. I only learned about Crispus Attucks.

Abram: I learned that five people died, but Crispus Attucks was the only one that I actually, like— yeah, I think— do you agree with that?

Joe: Yes, absolutely. I think history is unfair. I can't even tell you about the others, and I've just read two books.

Abram: I feel like Crispus Attucks does get a bit more focus than he needs because the others were important too.

Joe: Yeah, most sources say that Crispus Attucks died first, although one of the books I was reading said that actually that's propaganda too, and that Samuel Gray died first. But, you know, having Attucks be the first martyr was much more of a propaganda win.

Joe: It's so hard to separate fact from fiction here, and I think you're 100% correct to say that out of the five that died, he is the only one that I learned about in school, and I think the only one that you're learning about.

Abram: I've learned about this in like 4th grade.

Joe: This is a really big event in American history, so if you're British and you're learning about this for the first time, you learn about this when you're young here.

The Aftermath

Joe: The following day was full of meetings as both the colonials and Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson tried to make sense of what had happened and how they could each navigate a complex situation.

Joe: The people of Boston— as represented by the Sons of Liberty members Samuel Adams, William Molineux, and John Hancock— demanded that the troops leave the city immediately. Hutchinson claimed that only General Gage in New York had that authority, but seeing a mob of people outside his window was extremely convincing. He agreed that the soldiers could be moved to Castle Island, south of the city. Abram, do you know where Castle Island is?

Abram: South of the city. Right. So a harbor island.

Joe: It isn't, as it turns out. I thought it was a harbor island and it was a harbor island in the 1700s. But now the entire harbor up to the island has been filled in and it's just Castle Island State Park in South Boston.

Abram: Mm-hmm. Like there's 34 islands, but two of them are actually connected to the land. So, 34 harbor islands, yeah. What did you think?

Joe: I never thought to know that number.

Abram: Good job. What did you think? How many did you think?

Joe: It never occurred to me to wonder.

Abram: Some of them were just a rock or a few rocks.

Joe: So this would prove to be a lasting victory for the colonists. The two hated regiments would not return from Castle Island, and they eventually were rotated out. The British Navy remained in the harbor, but the Customs House and its officers remained in fear. And at least for now, the taxes were less well collected. We'll get back to that part of our story under Lord North, because he's going to have something called the Intolerable Acts, and he's going to try to force Boston to be under his heel again.

Joe: On March 8th, 1770, funerals were held— again, stage-managed by the Sons of Liberty— which resulted in burying the four men that had died at that point in the Granary Burying Ground right next to Christopher Seider.

Joe: Because of the high tempers and anxiety around the massacre and Seider's death, trials could not be held immediately. Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson tried to delay the trials as long as possible to maximize the chance that tempers would cool and to get recommendations from his superiors back in Britain.

Joe: To cite one example, when depositions were held to gather evidence for the trial, the testimony of mob members were widely different. This contributes to a muddled sense of the events that lasts until today. Several members believed that shots had been fired from the Customs House windows and officers inside were also arrested, although we now know that this is false.

Joe: False or not, this is the image that Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty wanted to spread around the colonies. And Revere has a very famous picture of the massacre, which became how many people remember it today.

Abram: So did Paul Revere just make pictures?

Joe: Yeah.

Abram: Is he a painter?

Joe: He was a silversmith who engraved the pictures so they could be printed in bulk by a printing press. And so this is a picture of the Boston Massacre.

Abram: Is that a dog?

Joe: It probably is a dog.

Abram: Why is the dog there?

Joe: Run, little doggy!

Joe: So this picture, again, it's Paul Revere. He basically put together a picture that shows the British firing in an ordered line on a whole bunch of unarmed colonists. And you'll notice none of those colonists are actually Black.

Abram: Huh.

Joe: Crispus Attucks is not in this scene.

Abram: Really?

Joe: Yeah. It's hard to tell because this is in black and white, but I have the color version and he's not there.

Abram: Can I see?

Joe: Let me bring this up for you.

Abram: Maybe he already fell on the ground and is behind a few other people.

Joe: Or maybe Paul Revere thought that it was better propaganda if it didn't have a Black guy there. It's hard to say. Okay, Abram, here's the picture in color.

Abram: So this guy isn't him? I don't think that guy is him.

Joe: I mean, it's very hard to tell.

Abram: He's on the ground. He might be dead. And he has slightly darker skin.

Joe: Okay, it might be him. I had never noticed that before. But I think the big thing is that Paul Revere was describing a scene of, like, middle-class Bostonians being fired on by a well-organized militia, as opposed to what really happened, which was a mob.

Abram: What side was the Scottish guy on?

Joe: Oh, he was on the mob side. He's anti-British.

Abram: Of course he's Scottish.

Joe: Yeah. I mean, you knew the answer as soon as you asked the question.

Abram: No, but he is on, like, the British island, so he could have sided with them.

Joe: Yeah, but he's a colonist.

Abram: Yeah.

Joe: On April 21st, 1770, the first of the trials was concluded. Ebenezer Richardson was convicted of murdering Christopher Seider. Hutchinson did all that he could to prevent Richardson from actually being executed. And the state pushed against irregularities in the trial. The jury, for example, was told that they could only approve manslaughter, but still they found him guilty of murder.

Joe: And although the jury was made up of non-Bostonians, they were likely influenced by— or at least Hutchinson claimed they were influenced by— the sounds of the mob outside their deliberation rooms. For those reasons and others, Hutchinson successfully lobbied King George III for a pardon. And Richardson was freed in 1772 under cover of darkness to prevent him being caught and lynched. His eventual fate is unclear, but one source I found said that he fled with the Boston loyalists to Halifax in 1776.

Joe: On October 30, 1770, the trial of Captain Preston ended with an acquittal. He was not guilty. He was found not to have ordered his men to fire. And through the remaining trials, the juries largely found the soldiers to have been acting in self-defense. Preston and six soldiers were found innocent, two were found guilty of manslaughter and were branded with the letter "M" on their thumbs as punishment, and all of the Customs House officers were found innocent.

Joe: It is notable that future President John Adams served as Preston's defense attorney.

Abram: Because he felt like the British should have, like, a fair chance.

Joe: Yep, that's the story that's told. When defending Preston, he minimized the deaths of the civilians using slurs that I can't repeat here. He called them slurs for Black people, for mixed-race people, for Irish people, and— and honestly, some slurs that I don't even know what they mean, except it's all pretty bad. Even in the 1700s, racism was an effective defense when trying to win over an all-white jury. After he was acquitted, Preston eventually left the military and resettled in Ireland.

Joe: Abram, having heard all this, what do you think of the massacre? Should the military have been found guilty or innocent?

Abram: Um, this is hard to say.

Joe: You don't have to answer.

Abram: I feel like the leader shouldn't have been found guilty. The others probably should have.

Joe: Okay. Yeah. Does that make sense?

Abram: Makes sense.

Joe: And that's more or less what happened. Preston was innocent, but two of the soldiers that fired were found guilty.

Abram: Mm-hmm.

Joe: But they were given a very light punishment, relatively speaking.

Joe: This is far from the end of the story of Boston in the Revolution. We're three years away from the Boston Tea Party, which is arguably a lot more famous. But before we get there, we're gonna head back across the Atlantic to cover at least the first part of Frederick North's time as Prime Minister.

Joe: Because almost exactly the same time as this bloody event took place, North was in Parliament working to repeal most of the hated Townshend Acts. If the colonists had only known, perhaps things would have gone a little differently. But we're going to save that for next time. Thank you for listening.

Abram: This has been Prime Factors. I'm Abram. I'm here with my dad. Don't forget to follow us and please write a review if you like what you hear.

Joe: All that's left to say is, "Say goodnight, Abram."

Abram: Goodnight.

Joe: Oh my God, he did it.

Bibliography

Joe: Before I get into my sources for this episode, I just want to admit that this went a little off the rails. I had planned this episode to be a 20-minute short, but the deeper I went into the sources, the bigger the episode became. I love Boston and hope that we can continue this city's stories into the war, but that depends on our appetite. Appetite for specials.

Joe: I was challenged by the need to tell this story from the British perspective. Just like Abram, I learned this story starting in elementary school, and we certainly tell it a little differently. I've done my best to be fair, but I also took pains to humanize the British perspective. This sometimes makes the Sons of Liberty come off as villains, but that is part of the point. From the British perspective, they often looked less like principled patriots and more like organized intimidators.

Joe: And finally, I admit that I went a little dark. This is a difficult topic and it is hard to make jokes about a massacre. When I opened the episode with the death of an 11-year-old, Abram quite reasonably threw a flag on the play, or maybe a red card, or I don't know my sports metaphors, something like that. I've apologized to Abram and tried to tone things down while keeping the real history. I hope you agree that I balanced it acceptably well.

Joe: My key sources are *The Boston Massacre* by Robert Allison, published in 2006. I actually took one of Allison's History of Boston classes a few years ago and found him to be an amazing professor, although he assigned more reading than any other class I have ever taken, including his own book.

Joe: And *Cradle of Violence: How Boston's Waterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution* by Russell Bourne, also published in 2006. I also used several smaller and online sources such as excerpts from the papers of John Adams, specifically around the massacre testimony, the Boston 1775 blog, and more.

Joe: Next time we'll be back in Britain with Frederick North. After that, I have no idea. I'm trying to arrange some interviews and sketch out what the next couple of episodes will look like, but how slowly or quickly we get to the end of the Revolution is really not quite decided yet. Feel free to let me know on Bluesky your opinion.

Joe: Please check out Abram's new Prime Factors: Music podcast, available wherever you get this podcast. Thanks for listening. We'll see you soon.

Abram: Cock-a-doodle-doo! Good morning.

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