Bloody Massacre in King Street Analysis Essay

The engraving above is called the ‘Bloody Massacre in King Street’ or also mostly known as the Boston Massacre. This piece of art was made by Paul Revere to portray what happened on the day of March 5th, 1770. Or at least what Revere wanted people to believe. This art is British propaganda that the artist used to show how the troops were to the colonists. 

In the artwork you can see the redcoat's commander ordering his soldiers to fire into the crowd that was taken place in front of the State House as you can see in the background. The person ordering them being none other than Captain Preston. The colonists are seen as being unarmed and surprised by the attack implying that the British gave no warning and just went there firing. Despite them being helpless with no way to fight back they were still gunned down. When you focus on the soldiers' faces, they all have this cold and determining expression on them, making the army look unremorseful of what they are doing. Unlike the colonists who have the looks of fear and terror, even one of them having his arm out in an effort for the redcoats to stop firing. On the bottom left corner of the illustration there are three wounded men, one of them are supposedly the first victim to the massacre who was Crispus Attucks because he was in the front row when they started shooting. Along the bottom you can also see a small dog unaffected with the commotion going on in the art and just staring off somewhere. This can be depicted that the British treated animals better than the colonists or it can also be seen that the dog is placed there to symbolize their faith in a certain belief. 

Along with the engraving came many inaccuracies of the event. Such as Thomas Preston ordering his men to start shooting behind them. He was taken to court along with his soldiers being represented by John Adams and was acquitted of his charge. It also depicts that the event happened during the day when in reality it happened when it was dark out. As mentioned, the artwork shows the group of colonists unarmed but that wasn’t the case. Now you might be wondering why there are so many inaccuracies in this picture. 

Well, the mistakes weren’t placed there by accident. Paul Revere made this propaganda piece with a reason in mind. That reason being to get the British out of Boston. As a result, that is what the British did after Revere fired up anti British views with this work making their image and reputation look bad. Another message that the engraver was trying to make was what the redcoats would do to the Americans. It was also used to power up the colonists and unite them after the events, being their turning point of all this. This helped them and made the desire for American independence stronger. This all leading up to the start of the American revolution and the fight towards independence of the colonies.