Five colonists were killed in the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.
The confrontation occurred on King Street in Boston after an argument involving a British sentry attracted a growing crowd. Colonists shouted at the soldiers and threw objects, while the soldiers faced an agitated group in a tense city occupied by British troops.
Nine British soldiers fired into the crowd. Five colonists died, including Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr. Several others were wounded. Patriot leaders used the term “massacre” to portray the event as evidence of British tyranny, while British accounts emphasized the threatening crowd.
Paul Revere’s widely circulated engraving dramatically shaped public memory, though it presented a highly partisan version of events. John Adams, then a lawyer, defended the soldiers in court. Six soldiers were acquitted, while Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy were convicted of manslaughter and received reduced punishment.