Paul Revere's Boston Massacre - 1770
On the evening of March 5, crowds of day laborers, apprentices, and merchant sailors began to pelt British soldiers with snowballs and rocks. A shot rang out, and then several soldiers fired their weapons. When it was over, five civilians lay dead or dying, including Crispus Attucks, an African American merchant sailor who had escaped from slavery more than twenty years earlier. Paul Revere, an American patriot engraved this image just 3 weeks after the Boston Massacre. It was one of the best pieces of American war propaganda of all time.
Here are a few of the elements Paul Revere used in his engraving to shape public opinion:
Here are a few of the elements Paul Revere used in his engraving to shape public opinion:
- The British are lined up and an officer is giving an order to fire, showing that the British soldiers are the bad guys.
- The colonists are shown reacting to the British when in fact they had attacked the soldiers.
- British faces are sharp and angular in contrast to the Americans’ softer, more innocent features. This makes the British look meaner.
- The British soldiers look like they are enjoying the violence, particularly the soldier at the far end.
- The colonists, who were mostly laborers, are dressed as gentlemen. Elevating their status affected the way people thought of them.
- The only two signs in the image that you can read are “Butcher’s Hall” and “Customs House,” both hanging directly over the British soldiers.
- There is a distressed woman in the rear of the crowd. This played on eighteenth-century notions of chivalry.
- Dogs tend to symbolize loyalty. The dog in the print is not bothered by the mayhem behind him and is staring out at the viewer.
- The sky is illustrated in such a way that it seems to cast light on the British “atrocity.”
- Crispus Attucks is visible in the lower left-hand corner. He is not portrayed as African American.
- The weather conditions depicted do not match the testimony presented at the soldier’s trial (no snow).
- The soldiers’ stance indicates an aggressive, military posture.