Five colonists were killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.
The confrontation occurred on King Street in Boston, then part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. British soldiers fired into a crowd after a tense dispute involving a sentry and local residents. The dead included Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr.
The incident became a powerful Patriot symbol, although the word “massacre” was political language used to emphasize British responsibility. Paul Revere's widely circulated engraving presented a dramatic interpretation of the event and helped shape public opinion. In Britain, the confrontation was commonly called the Incident on King Street.
John Adams, who later became the second U.S. president, defended the soldiers in court. Six soldiers were acquitted, while Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy were convicted of manslaughter and received reduced punishment. The event did not immediately begin the Revolutionary War, but it intensified colonial opposition to British military occupation and taxation.