Connor witnesses the Boston Massacre at the beginning of the American Revolution in Assassin's Creed III.
The event occurs in Boston on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers fired on a crowd after escalating tensions. In the game, Ratonhnhaké:ton—usually called Connor—encounters the scene during his early story. The sequence introduces the political conflict that will shape the game’s Revolutionary War setting.
Historically, five colonists died in the shooting, including Crispus Attucks. Patriot propagandists used the incident to criticize British rule, helping make it a powerful symbol in the years before independence. The phrase “Boston Massacre” became widely used even though the incident began as a tense confrontation rather than a planned attack.
The Boston Tea Party happened later, in December 1773, and the Battle of Bunker Hill followed in June 1775. Assassin’s Creed III blends Connor’s fictional personal journey with real people and events, but the game’s opening historical reference is specifically the Boston Massacre.