What city was the site of the Boston Massacre in 1770?

The Boston Massacre took place in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 5, 1770. At the time, Boston was part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, a British colony.

The confrontation occurred on King Street, outside the Boston Custom House. Tensions had grown after British troops were stationed in Boston to enforce unpopular laws and support Crown officials. A crowd gathered around Private Hugh White, and additional soldiers arrived under Captain Thomas Preston. After the soldiers were struck with clubs, stones, and other objects, gunfire broke out.

Five colonists died, including Crispus Attucks, and several others were wounded. Patriot leaders such as Samuel Adams used the event as powerful anti-British propaganda. Paul Revere's widely circulated engraving portrayed the soldiers as deliberately firing into an innocent crowd, intensifying colonial anger.

The event was also important legally: future president John Adams defended the soldiers in court. Six were acquitted, while two were convicted of manslaughter. A common mix-up is placing the massacre in Charlestown or Philadelphia; both were important colonial locations, but the shooting happened in Boston, on what is now State Street.