The Boston Massacre: You be the judge!

This lesson is focused on the Boston Massacre. It will be taught in a sixth grade classroom in the American Revolution unit. It will be an opportunity for students to look at a historical event from multiple perspectives using corroborating evidence. It will include group work, whole class guided reading, and an individual assessment piece where they decide who is the “blame” for the event. The lesson will use primary sources that include pictures, newspaper articles, and testimonies and have students apply the historical thinking skills of sourcing, close reading, contextualizing, and corroborating to help interpret them.

Historical Background

In the early 1760s tension began to rise between the colonists and those remaining loyal to the British. This occurred as a result of several actions by the British. The Proclamation of 1763 that restricted movement of the colonists was resented. The colonists also did not like the fact that the British were controlling the colonial legislatures and that they did not have representation in Parliament. They also resented the power of colonial governors and the taxes that were levied on the m to offset the cost of the French and Indian War. The British sent soldiers to the colonies to keep order, especially to Massachusetts where there had been a lot of unrest. The soldiers were sent to help with the enforcement of the Townshend Acts of 1767. In 1768, there were 4,000 British troops in Boston when the population of Boston was only 20,000 at that time.

One night, on March 5, 1770 this tension ended up in an incident now called “The Boston Massacre”. There are numerous accounts of what happened that night. As a result of the incident, five civilians died. Three died that night and two others died later. The people who died were: Crispus Attucks, an African American, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr. Some say the incident was a British response to a mob rioting while other contend the soldiers attacked the colonists who were just minding their own business. The event was popularized after Paul Revere made an engraving entitled “The Bloody Massacre in King Street”. He used it as propaganda to capitalize on colonial resentment of the British. Other historical accounts and the trial itself portray a different depiction of the events. Of the nine British regulars charged during the two Boston Massacre trials, two were found guilty and Preston and six other were acquitted.

By using various primary sources in an interactive setting, the students will use the historical thinking skills of sourcing, close reading, contextualization, and corroborating to understand different historical perspectives of a specific event.

Lesson Objective

Students will be able to identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of an event in United States history. (US1.1a) They will also be able to interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives. (USI.1d)

Materials

Procedure

  1. Hook/Preview: The teacher will ask a dean about an incident that happened this year in 6th grade where there were different accounts of what happened. Share that with the students and ask them if they can think of any other instances where it is not always clear what happened.
  2. The students will look at four depictions of the Boston Massacre and answer the questions that accompany each one on the graphic organizer.
  3. Each group will only look at one picture at a time. Rotate pictures until they have seen all four and have them record answers on the graphic organizer. Ask the students: What are some differences in the pictures? What questions do you still have about this event?
  4. Read the two newspaper accounts together as a class. One is the Boston Gazette article and the other is an article from the London Chronicle. Ask the students: How are these accounts the same? How are they different? Have we learned anything new that we did not know from the pictures?
  5. Hand each pair an excerpt from the trial testimony. What point of view did their person have? Who do they think was at fault? What words did they use to make you think that? You may want to ask students to underline these “loaded” words as they read. Alternative: have students role play the witnesses and have the class be the jury.
  6. The student will debrief this lesson by having a student read the textbook account of the Massacre and have them compare what they talked about today with this account.
  7. Show the students the HBO John Adams clip how the trial proceeded and ask them whether they agree or disagree with the decision. How might different interpretations of the same event affect our understanding of history? What should we do, as students of history, to make sure multiple perspectives are considered?

Assessment

Students will write a letter to the editor of a British or American newspaper that begins: “Dear _________________, I am writing to express my opinion about the events that occurred March 5, 1770 in Boston. I feel the blame rests solely on…..(student must then make an argument either way on who is to blame using information that they learned during the lesson). This letter will be graded on a four point rubric scale.

References

Teaching American History.org. “Boston Massacre.” British and Colonial Perspectives. www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/Boston_Massacre_Colonists_v._British_Perspective.pdf (accessed August 2, 2012).

Glogster. “Boston Massacre Depictions.” Bell2012 Glogster.edu. www.negroartist.com/REVOLUTIONAY%20WAR/images/CRISPUS%20ATTUC KS%20%201ST%20MARTYR%201770_jpg (accessed August 2, 2012).

“Boston Massacre Historical Society.” Boston Massacre Historical Society. http://www.bostonmassacre.net/trial/d-bliss.htm (accessed August 2, 2012).

“Crispus Attucks, the first martyr of the American Revolution, King (now State) Street, Boston, March 5th, 1770. – ID: 488599 – NYPL Digital Gallery.” NYPL Digital Gallery Home.http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetatil.cfm?trg (accessed August 2, 2012).

“Enlargement of Paul Revere’s Engraving of the Boston Massacre.” Archiving Early America: Primary Source Material from 18th Century America. http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/enlargement.html (accessed August 2, 2012).

PBS. “Painting of Boston Massacre.” Africans in America. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/images/2cris2378b.jpg (accessed August 2, 2012).

“The Boston Massacre.” Boston Gazette and Country Journal, March 12, 1770, http://www.constitution.org/primarysources/boston.html (accessed August 2, 2012).

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