Boston Massacre
Part of the American Revolution
This famous depiction of the event was engraved by Paul Revere (copied from an engraving by Henry Pelham), colored by Christian Remick, and printed by Benjamin Edes. The Old State House is depicted in the background.[1]
Location	Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Date	March 5, 1770
Deaths	5
Injured	6
Assailants	British Army infantry

The Boston Massacre, called The Incident on King Street by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. He was eventually supported by eight additional soldiers, who were subjected to verbal threats and thrown objects. They fired into the crowd, without orders, instantly killing three people and wounding others. Two more people died later of wounds sustained in the incident.

The crowd eventually dispersed after Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson promised an inquiry, but reformed the next day, prompting the withdrawal of the troops to Castle Island. Eight soldiers, one officer, and four civilians were arrested and charged with murder. Defended by Patriot lawyer John Adams, six of the soldiers were acquitted, while the other two were convicted of manslaughter and given reduced sentences. The sentence that the men guilty of manslaughter received was a branding on their hand. Depictions, reports, and propaganda about the event, notably the colored engraving produced by Paul Revere (shown at right), further heightened tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies. The event is widely viewed as foreshadowing the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War five years later.

Background[link]

View of the Old State House, Boston, Massachusetts, the seat of British colonial government from 1713 to 1776. The Boston Massacre took place in front of the balcony, and the site is now marked by a cobblestone circle in the square (photo 2009)

Boston, the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and an important shipping town, was a major center of resistance to unpopular acts of taxation by the British Parliament in the 1760s.^[2] In 1768, the Townshend Acts were placed upon the colonists, by which a variety of common items that were manufactured in Britain and exported to the colonies were subjected to import tariffs. Colonists objected that the Townshend Acts were a violation of the natural, charter, and constitutional rights of British subjects in the colonies.^[2] The Massachusetts House of Representatives began a campaign against the Townshend Acts by sending a petition to King George III asking for the repeal of the Townshend Revenue Act. The House also sent what became known as the Massachusetts Circular Letter to other colonial assemblies, asking them to join the resistance movement,^[2] and called for a boycott of merchants importing the affected goods.^[3] In Great Britain, Lord Hillsborough, who had recently been appointed to the newly created office of Colonial Secretary, was alarmed by the actions of the Massachusetts House. In April 1768 he sent a letter to the colonial governors in America, instructing them to dissolve the colonial assemblies if they responded to the Massachusetts Circular Letter. He also ordered Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard to direct the Massachusetts House to rescind the letter. The house refused to comply.^[4]

Boston's chief customs officer, Charles Paxton, wrote to Hillsborough, asking for military support because "the Government is as much in the hands of the people as it was in the time of the Stamp Act."^[5] Commodore Samuel Hood responded by sending the fifty-gun warship HMS Romney, which arrived in Boston Harbor in May 1768.^[6] On June 10, 1768, customs officials seized the Liberty, a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock, on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing local sailors, began to riot.^[7] Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection.^[8]

Given the unstable state of affairs in Massachusetts, Hillsborough instructed General Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief, North America, to send "such Force as You shall think necessary to Boston".^[10] On October 1, 1768, the first of four British Army regiments began disembarking in Boston.^[11] Two regiments were removed from Boston in 1769, but the 14th and the 29th Regiments of Foot remained.^[12] The "Journal of Occurrences", an anonymously written series of newspaper articles, chronicled clashes between civilians and soldiers while troops were stationed in Boston, feeding tensions with its sometimes exaggerated accounts of the events. Tensions rose markedly after Christopher Seider, "a young lad about eleven Years of Age", was killed by a customs employee on February 22, 1770.^[12] Seider's death was glorified in the Boston Gazette, and his funeral was described as one of the largest of the time in Boston. The killing and subsequent propaganda inflamed tensions, with gangs of colonists looking for soldiers to harass, and soldiers also on occasion looking for confrontation.^[13]

Incident[link]

This 19th-century lithograph is a variation of Revere's famous engraving. Produced soon before the American Civil War, this image emphasizes Crispus Attucks, who had by then become an important symbol for abolitionists. (John Bufford after William L. Champey, circa 1856)^[14]

On the evening of March 5, Private Hugh White, a British soldier, stood on guard duty outside the Custom house on King Street, today known as State Street. A young wigmaker's apprentice named Edward Garrick called out to a British officer, Captain Lieutenant John Goldfinch, that Goldfinch had not paid a bill due to Garrick's master. Goldfinch had in fact settled his account and ignored the insult.^[15] White called out to Garrick that he should be more respectful of the officer.^[16] Garrick exchanged insults with Private White, who left his post, challenged the boy, and struck him on the side of the head with his musket. As Garrick cried in pain, one of his companions, Bartholomew Broaders, began to argue with White. This attracted a larger crowd.^[17] Henry Knox, a 19 year old bookseller (who would later serve as a general in the revolution), came upon the scene and warned White, "if he fired he must die for it."^[15]

As the evening progressed, the crowd around Private White grew larger and more boisterous. Church bells were rung, which usually signified a fire, bringing more people out. Over fifty of the Bostonian townspeople gathered, throwing things at White and challenging him to fire his weapon. White, who had taken up a somewhat safer position on the steps of the Custom House, sought assistance. Runners alerted the nearby barracks and Captain Thomas Preston, the officer of the watch.^[18][19] According to his report, Preston dispatched a non-commissioned officer and six privates of the 29th Regiment of Foot, with fixed bayonets, to relieve White.^[20][21] The soldiers Preston sent were Corporal William Wemms, Hugh Montgomery, John Carroll, William McCauley, William Warren and Matthew Kilroy. Accompanied by Preston, they pushed their way through the crowd. En route, Henry Knox, again trying to reduce tensions, warned Preston, "For God's sake, take care of your men. If they fire, you must die." The captain responded "I am [aware] of it."^[22] When they reached Private White on the custom house stairs, the soldiers loaded their muskets, and arrayed themselves in a semicircular formation. Preston shouted at the crowd, estimated to number between three and four hundred, to disperse.^[23]

Boston Massacre grave marker in the Granary Burying Ground

The crowd continued to press around the soldiers, taunting them by yelling, "Fire", and by throwing snow balls and other small objects at them.^[24] Richard Palmes, a local innkeeper who was carrying a cudgel (a club), came up to Preston and asked if the soldiers' weapons were loaded. Preston assured him they were, but that they would not fire unless he ordered it, and (according to his own deposition) that he was unlikely to do so, since he was standing in front of them. A thrown object then struck Private Montgomery, knocking him down and causing him to drop his musket. He recovered his weapon, and, angrily shouting, "Damn you, fire!", discharged it into the crowd. Palmes swung his cudgel first at Montgomery, hitting his arm, and then at Preston. He narrowly missed Preston's head, striking him on the arm instead.^[24]

There was a pause of uncertain length (eyewitness estimates ranged from several seconds to two minutes), after which the soldiers fired into the crowd. Rather than a disciplined volley (Preston gave no orders to fire), a ragged series of shots was fired, which hit eleven men.^[25] Three Americans — ropemaker Samuel Gray, mariner James Caldwell, and a mixed-race runaway slave turned sailor named Crispus Attucks — died instantly.^[26] Samuel Maverick, an apprentice ivory turner of seventeen,^[27] was struck by a ricocheting musket ball at the back of the crowd, and died a few hours later, in the early morning of the next day. Irish immigrant Patrick Carr died two weeks later.^[26]

The crowd moved away from the immediate area of the custom house, but continued to grow in nearby streets.^[28] Captain Preston immediately called out most of the 29th Regiment, which adopted defensive positions in front of the state house.^[29] Acting Governor Thomas Hutchinson was summoned to the scene, and was forced by the movements of the crowd into the council chamber of the state house. From its balcony he was able to minimally restore order, promising that there would be a fair inquiry into the shootings if the crowd dispersed.^[30]

Aftermath[link]

Hutchinson immediately began investigating the affair, and by morning Preston and the eight soldiers had been arrested.^[31] In a meeting of the governor's council held late the morning after the shootings, Boston's selectmen asked Hutchinson to order the removal of troops from the city to Castle William on Castle Island,^[30] while a town meeting at Faneuil Hall met to discuss the affair. The governor's council was at first opposed to ordering the troop withdrawal, with Hutchinson correctly claiming he did not have the authority to order the troops to move. Lieutenant Colonel William Dalrymple, commander of the troops, did not offer to move them.^[32] The town meeting, however, became more restive when it learned of this. Under an imminent threat of further violence, the council changed its position, and unanimously ("under duress", according to Hutchinson's report) agreed to request the troops' removal.^[33] Secretary of State Andrew Oliver reported that, had the troops not been removed, "that they would probably be destroyed by the people—should it be called rebellion, should it incur the loss of our charter, or be the consequence what it would."^[34] This decision left the governor without effective means to police the town.^[34] The 14th was transferred to Castle Island without incident about a week later, with the 29th following shortly after.^[35] The first four victims were buried amid great ceremony on March 8; Patrick Carr, the fifth and final victim, died on March 14 and was buried with them on March 17.^[36]

On March 27 the eight soldiers, Captain Preston, and four civilians who were in the Customs House and were alleged to have fired shots, were all indicted for murder.^[38] Bostonians, however, continued to be hostile to the troops and their dependents. General Gage, convinced the troops were doing more harm than good, ordered the 29th Regiment out of the province in May.^[39] Governor Hutchinson took advantage of the ongoing high tensions to orchestrate delays of the trials until later in the year.^[40]

Propaganda battle[link]

In the days and weeks following the incident, a propaganda battle was waged between Boston's radicals and supporters of the government. Both sides published pamphlets that told strikingly different stories, which were principally published in London in a bid to influence opinion there. The Boston Gazette's version of events, for example, characterized the massacre as part of an ongoing scheme to "quell a Spirit of Liberty", and harped on the negative consequences of quartering troops in the city.^[41]

A young Boston artist, Henry Pelham, half-brother of the celebrated portrait painter John Singleton Copley, depicted the event. Silversmith and engraver Paul Revere closely copied Pelham's image, and is often credited as its originator. In order to further public outrage, the engraving contained several inflammatory details. Captain Preston is shown ordering his men to fire, and a musket is seen shooting out of the window of the customs office, which is labeled "Butcher's Hall."^[42] Artist Christian Remick hand-colored some prints.^[43] Some copies of the print show a man with two chest wounds and a somewhat darker face, matching descriptions of Attucks; others show no victim as a person of color. The image was published in the Boston Gazette, circulating widely, and became an effective piece of anti-British propaganda. The image of bright red "lobster backs" and wounded men with red blood was hung in farmhouses across New England.^[44]

Anonymous pamphlets were published describing the event from significantly different perspectives. A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre, published under the auspices of the Boston town meeting, was principally written by James Bowdoin, a member of the governor's council and a vocal opponent of British colonial policy.^[45] It described the shooting and other lesser incidents that took place in the days before as unprovoked attacks on peaceful, law-abiding inhabitants, and was, according to historian Neal Langley York, probably the most influential description of the event.^[46] The account it provided was drawn from more than 90 depositions taken after the event, and it included accusations that the soldiers sent by Captain Preston had been deployed with the intention of causing harm.^[47] In the interest of minimizing impact on the jury pool, city leaders held back local distribution of the pamphlet, but sent copies to other colonies and to London, where they knew depositions collected by Governor Hutchinson were en route.^[48] A second pamphlet, Additional Observations on the Short Narrative, furthered the attack on crown officials by complaining that customs officials (one of whom had left Boston to carry Hutchinson's gathered depositions to London) were abandoning their posts under the pretense that it was too dangerous for them to do their duties.^[49]

The depositions that Hutchinson collected and sent to London were eventually published in a pamphlet entitled A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance in Boston. Because it was not published until well after the first pamphlet had arrived in London, it ended up having a much smaller impact on the public debate there.^[50] Drawn mainly from depositions by soldiers, its account of affairs sought to blame selfish Bostonians for denying the validity of Parliamentary laws. It also blamed the city's hoodlums and gangs for the lawlessness preceding the event, and claimed that they set up an ambush of the soldiers.^[51]

Trials[link]

The government was determined to give the soldiers a fair trial so there could be no grounds for retaliation from the British and so that moderates would not be alienated from the Patriot cause. After several lawyers with Loyalist leanings refused to defend Preston, he sent a request to John Adams, pleading for him to work on the case. Adams, who was already a leading Patriot and who was contemplating a run for public office, agreed to help, in the interest of ensuring a fair trial.^[53] Adams was joined by Josiah Quincy II after the latter was assured that the Sons of Liberty would not oppose his appointment, and by Robert Auchmuty, a Loyalist.^[54] They were assisted by Sampson Salter Blowers, whose chief duty was to investigate the jury pool, and Paul Revere, who drew a detailed map of the bodies to be used in the trial of the British soldiers held responsible.^[55][56] Massachusetts Solicitor General Samuel Quincy and private attorney Robert Treat Paine, hired by the town of Boston, handled the prosecution.^[57] Tried separately in late October 1770, Preston was acquitted after the jury was convinced that he had not ordered the troops to fire.^[58]

The trial of the eight soldiers opened on November 27, 1770.^[59] Adams told the jury to look beyond the fact the soldiers were British. He argued that if the soldiers were endangered by the mob, which he called "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes, and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs [i.e. sailors]",^[60] they had the legal right to fight back, and so were innocent. If they were provoked but not endangered, he argued, they were at most guilty of manslaughter.^[61] The jury agreed with Adams and acquitted six of the soldiers after two and one-half hours deliberation. Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter because there was overwhelming evidence that they fired directly into the crowd. The jury's decisions suggest that they believed the soldiers had felt threatened by the crowd, but should have delayed firing.^[62] Patrick Carr, the fifth victim, corroborated this with a deathbed testimony delivered to his doctor.^[63] The convicted soldiers were granted reduced sentences by invoking Benefit of clergy, which reduced their punishment from a death sentence to branding of the thumb in open court.^[64]

The four civilians were tried on December 13.^[65] The principal prosecution witness, a servant of one of the accused, made claims that were easily rebutted by defense witnesses. In the face of this weak testimony, as well as waning public interest, the prosecution did not press its case very hard. The civilians were all acquitted, and the servant was eventually convicted of perjury, whipped, and banished from the province.^[66]

The Boston Massacre is considered one of the most important events that turned colonial sentiment against King George III and British Parliamentary authority. John Adams wrote that the "foundation of American independence was laid" on March 5, 1770, and Samuel Adams and other Patriots used annual commemorations of the event to fulminate against British rule.^[67] Later events such as the Boston Tea Party further illustrated the crumbling relationship between Britain and its colonies. Although five years passed between the massacre and outright revolution, and direct connections between the massacre and the later war are (according to historian Neil Langley York) somewhat tenuous,^[68] it is widely perceived as a significant event leading to the violent rebellion that followed.^[69][70]

Legacy[link]

Massacre memorial on the Boston Common

Boston marked the anniversary of the massacre as Massacre Day until American independence was recognized in 1783. The massacre was again remembered in 1858 in a celebration organized William Cooper Nell, an African American abolitionist who saw the death of Crispus Attucks as an opportunity to demonstrate the role of African Americans in the Revolutionary War.^[71] In 1888, a monument was erected on the Boston Common to the men killed in the massacre, and the five victims, along with Christopher Seider, were reinterred in a prominent grave in the Granary Burying Ground.^[72]

The massacre is reenacted annually on March 5^[73] under the auspices of the Bostonian Society.^[74][75] The Old State House, the massacre site, and the Granary Burying Ground are all part of Boston's Freedom Trail, connecting sites important in the city's revolutionary-era history.^[72]

See also[link]

Boston portal

• Timeline of United States revolutionary history (1760–1789)
• List of massacres in Massachusetts

References[link]

Sources[link]

• A Fair Account of the Late Unhappy Disturbance at Boston. London: B. White. 1770. OCLC 535966548. http://books.google.com/books?id=bKtbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Original printing of the governor's account.
• A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre. London: W. Bingley. 1770. OCLC 510892519. http://books.google.com/books?id=catbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP2#v=onepage&q&f=false.  Original printing of the colonists' account.
• Adams, John; Butterfield, L. H. (ed) (1962). Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. OCLC 19993300. 
• Allison, Robert (2006). The Boston Massacre. Beverly, MA: Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-933212-10-4. OCLC 66392877. 
• Archer, Richard (2010). As if an Enemy's Country: the British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538247-1. OCLC 313664751. 
• Bailyn, Bernard (1974). The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-64160-0. OCLC 6825524. 
• Cumming, William P.; Rankin, Hugh F (1975). The Fate of a Nation: The American Revolution Through Contemporary Eyes. New York: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-1644-9. OCLC 1510269. 
• Fischer, David Hackett (1994). Paul Revere's Ride. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508847-2. OCLC 263430392. 
• Knollenberg, Bernhard (1975). Growth of the American Revolution, 1766–1775. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-917110-3. OCLC 1416300. 
• Middlekauff, Robert (2007). The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516247-9. OCLC 496757346. 
• Nell, William Cooper; Wesley, Dorothy Porter; Uzelac, Constance Porter (2002). William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist: Selected Writings from 1832–1874. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press. ISBN 978-1-57478-019-2. OCLC 50673509. 
• O'Connor, Thomas H (2001). The Hub: Boston Past and Present. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 978-1-55553-474-5. OCLC 248309644. 
• Ross, Betsy McCaughey; Elizabeth P. McCaughey (1980). From Loyalist to Founding Father: the Political Odyssey of William Samuel Johnson. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-04506-3. OCLC 479827879. 
• Triber, Jayne (1998). A True Republican: The Life of Paul Revere. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-139-7. OCLC 171052850. 
• Walett, Francis (September 1950). "James Bowdoin, Patriot Propagandist". The New England Quarterly (Volume 23, No. 3). JSTOR 361420. 
• Wheeler, William Bruce; Becker, Susan Becker; Glover, Lorri (2011). Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence: To 1877. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-495-79984-9. OCLC 664324291. 
• Woods, Thomas (2008). Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877. New York: Associated University Press. ISBN 978-0-7614-7746-4. OCLC 302384920. 
• York, Neil Longley (2009). "Rival Truths, Political Accommodation, and the Boston 'Massacre'". Massachusetts Historical Review (Volume 11): pp. 57–95. JSTOR 40345980. 
• York, Neil Longley (2010). The Boston Massacre: a History with Documents. New York: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-87348-2. OCLC 695944958. 
• Young, Alfred (Spring 2003). "Revolution in Boston? Eight Propositions for Public History on the Freedom Trail". The Public Historian (Volume 25, No. 2): pp. 17–41. http://digilib.bc.edu/reserves/co626/morr/co62611.pdf. 
• Zinn, Howard (1999). A People's History of the United States. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019448-2. OCLC 42420960. 
• Zobel, Hiller B (1970). The Boston Massacre. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31483-0. OCLC 243696768. 

Further reading[link]

• Reid, John Phillip (1974). "A Lawyer Acquitted: John Adams and the Boston Massacre". American Journal of Legal History (Volume 18, No. 3): pp. 189–207. ISSN 0002-9319. 
• Ritter, Kurt W (1977). "Confrontation as Moral Drama: the Boston Massacre in Rhetorical Perspective". Southern Speech Communication Journal (Volume 42, No. 1): pp. 114–136. ISSN 0361-8269. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Boston Massacre

• The Boston Massacre Historical Society
• Boston National Historical Park Official Website
• Massachusetts Historical Society Massacre Exhibit
• Boston Massacre investigative game by the Bostonian Society, stagers of the annual reenaction

Coordinates: 42°21′32″N 71°03′25″W / 42.358798°N 71.057052°W / 42.358798; -71.057052

Boston
—  State Capital  —
City of Boston
Clockwise: Skyline of Back Bay seen from the Charles River, Fenway Park, Christian Science Church, Boston Common and the Downtown Crossing skyline, skyline of the Financial District seen from the Boston Harbor, and Massachusetts State House
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Beantown,[1] The Hub (of the Universe),[1] The Cradle of Liberty,[2] The Cradle of Modern America,[1] The Athens of America,[2] The Walking City[1]
Motto: Sicut patribus sit Deus nobis (Latin "As God was with our fathers, so may He be with us")
Location in Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Boston Location in the United States
Coordinates: 42°21′28″N 71°03′42″W / 42.35778°N 71.06167°W / 42.35778; -71.06167Coordinates: 42°21′28″N 71°03′42″W / 42.35778°N 71.06167°W / 42.35778; -71.06167
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Suffolk
Settled	September 17, 1630
Incorporated (city)	March 4, 1822
Government
• Type	Strong mayor – council
• Mayor	Thomas M. Menino (D)
Area[3][4][5]
• State Capital	89.63 sq mi (232.14 km2)
• Land	48.43 sq mi (125.43 km2)
• Water	41.21 sq mi (106.73 km2)
• Urban	1,774 sq mi (4,595 km2)
• Metro	4,511 sq mi (11,683 km2)
• CSA	10,644 sq mi (27,568 km2)
Elevation	141 ft (43 m)
Population [6][7][8][9]
• State Capital	617,594 ('10 census)
• Density	12,752/sq mi (4,924/km2)
• Urban	4,032,484 ('00 census)
• Metro	4,522,858 ('08 est.)
• CSA	7,609,358 ('09 est.)
• Demonym	Bostonian
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code(s)	53 total ZIP codes:[10] 02108–02137, 02163, 02196, 02199, 02201, 02203, 02204, 02205, 02206, 02210, 02211, 02212, 02215, 02217, 02222, 02228, 02241, 02266, 02283, 02284, 02293, 02295, 02297, 02298
Area code(s)	617 and 857
FIPS code	25-07000
GNIS feature ID	0617565
Website	www.cityofboston.gov

Boston (pronounced /ˈbɒstən/ or locally /ˈbɔstən/ ( listen)) is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts,^[11] and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region.^[12] The city proper, covering only 48.43 square miles, had a population of 617,594 according to the 2010 U.S. Census.^[6] Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country.^[8] Greater Boston as a commuting region^[13] is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.^[9][14]

In 1630, Puritan colonists from England founded the city on the Shawmut Peninsula.^[15] During the late 18th century, Boston was the location of several major events during the American Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party. Several early battles of the American Revolution, such as the Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, occurred within the city and surrounding areas. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the peninsula. After American independence was attained Boston became a major shipping port and manufacturing center,^[15] and its rich history now helps attract many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone attracting over 20 million every year.^[16] The city was the site of several firsts, including America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635),^[17] and the first subway system in the United States (1897).^[18]

With many colleges and universities within the city and surrounding area, Boston is an international center of higher education and a center for medicine.^[19] The city's economic base includes research, manufacturing, finance, and biotechnology.^[20] As a result, the city is a leading finance center, ranking 12th in the Z/Yen top 20 Global Financial Centers.^[21] The city was also ranked number one for innovation, both globally and in North America,^[22] for a variety of reasons.^[23][24] Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the United States,^[25] though it remains high on world livability rankings, ranking third in the US and 36th globally.^[26]

History[link]

Boston in 1772, compared with Boston in 1880

Boston was founded on September 17, 1630, by Puritan colonists from England.^[15] The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony are sometimes confused with the Pilgrims, who founded Plymouth Colony ten years earlier in what is today Bristol County, Plymouth County, and Barnstable County, Massachusetts. The two groups, which differed in religious practice, are historically distinct. The separate colonies were not united until the formation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691.

The Shawmut Peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus and was surrounded by the waters of Massachusetts Bay and the Back Bay, an estuary of the Charles River. Several prehistoric Native American archaeological sites that were excavated in the city have shown that the peninsula was inhabited as early as 5000 BC.^[27] Boston's early European settlers first called the area Trimountaine, but later renamed the town after Boston in Lincolnshire, England, from which several prominent colonists had emigrated. Massachusetts Bay Colony's original governor, John Winthrop, gave a famous sermon entitled "A Model of Christian Charity", popularly known as the "City on a Hill" sermon, which espoused the idea that Boston had a special covenant with God. (Winthrop also led the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, which is regarded as a key founding document of the city.) Puritan ethics molded a stable and well-structured society in Boston. For example, shortly after Boston's settlement, Puritans founded America's first public school, Boston Latin School (1635),^[17] and America's oldest school in continuous existence, Roxbury Latin School (1645). Over the next 130 years, Boston participated in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their native allies in North America. Boston was the largest town in British North America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid 18th century.^[28]

Map showing a British tactical evaluation of Boston in 1775

In the 1770s, British attempts to exert more-stringent control on the thirteen colonies—primarily via taxation—led to the American Revolution.^[15] The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several early battles—including the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston—occurred in or near the city. During this period, Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride. After the Revolution, Boston had become one of the world's wealthiest international trading ports because of the city's consolidated seafaring tradition. Exports included rum, fish, salt, and tobacco.^[29] During this era, descendants of old Boston families were regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites; they were later dubbed the Boston Brahmins.^[30]

The Embargo Act of 1807, adopted during the Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812 significantly curtailed Boston's harbor activity. Although foreign trade returned after these hostilities, Boston's merchants had found alternatives for their capital investments in the interim. Manufacturing became an important component of the city's economy, and by the mid-19th century, the city's industrial manufacturing overtook international trade in economic importance. Until the early 20th century, Boston remained one of the nation's largest manufacturing centers and was notable for its garment production and leather-goods industries.^[16] A network of small rivers bordering the city and connecting it to the surrounding region made for easy shipment of goods and led to a proliferation of mills and factories. Later, a dense network of railroads facilitated the region's industry and commerce. From the mid-19th to late 19th century, Boston flourished culturally. It became renowned for its rarefied literary culture and lavish artistic patronage.^[31][32]

View of Boston from Dorchester Heights, 1841

Boston also became a center of the abolitionist movement.^[33] The city reacted strongly to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850,^[34] which contributed to President Franklin Pierce's attempt to make an example of Boston after the Burns Fugitive Slave Case.^[35][36]

Scollay Square in the 1880s

In 1822,^[37] the citizens of Boston voted to change the official name from "the Town of Boston" to "the City of Boston", and on March 4, 1822, the people of Boston accepted the charter incorporating the City.^[38] At the time Boston was chartered as a city, the population was about 46,226, while the area of the city was only 4.7 square miles (12 km²).^[38] In the 1820s, Boston's population began to swell, and the city's ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Irish potato famine. By 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston.^[39] In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians,^[40] French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settle in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston's core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants—Italians inhabited the North End, Irish dominated South Boston and Charlestown, and Russian Jews lived in the West End. Irish and Italian immigrants brought with them Roman Catholicism. Currently, Catholics make up Boston's largest religious community,^[41] and since the early 20th century, the Irish have played a major role in Boston politics—prominent figures include the Kennedys, Tip O'Neill, and John F. Fitzgerald.^[30]

Haymarket Square, 1909

Between 1631 and 1890, the city tripled its physical size by land reclamation—by filling in marshes, mud flats, and gaps between wharves along the waterfront^[42] —a process that Walter Muir Whitehill called "cutting down the hills to fill the coves". The largest reclamation efforts took place during the 19th century. Beginning in 1807, the crown of Beacon Hill was used to fill in a 50-acre (20 ha) mill pond that later became the Haymarket Square area. The present-day State House sits atop this lowered Beacon Hill. Reclamation projects in the middle of the century created significant parts of the South End, the West End, the Financial District, and Chinatown. After The Great Boston Fire of 1872, workers used building rubble as landfill along the downtown waterfront. During the mid-to-late 19th century, workers filled almost 600 acres (2.4 km²) of brackish Charles River marshlands west of Boston Common with gravel brought by rail from the hills of Needham Heights. Also, the city annexed the adjacent towns of South Boston (1804), East Boston (1836), Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (including present day Mattapan and a portion of South Boston) (1870), Brighton (including present day Allston) (1874), West Roxbury (including present day Jamaica Plain and Roslindale) (1874), Charlestown (1874), and Hyde Park (1912).^[43][44] Other proposals, for the annexation of Brookline, Cambridge,^[45] and Chelsea,^[46][47] have been unsuccessful.

On January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood, a large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, known as The Boston Molasses Disaster.^[48]

By the early and mid-20th century, the city was in decline as factories became old and obsolete, and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere.^[15] Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), which was established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated a project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. Extensive demolition was met with vociferous public opposition.^[49] BRA subsequently reevaluated its approach to urban renewal in its future projects, including the construction of Government Center. In 1965, the first Community Health Center in the United States opened, the Columbia Point Health Center, in the Dorchester neighborhood. It mostly served the massive Columbia Point public housing complex adjoining it, which was built in 1953. The health center is still in operation and was rededicated in 1990 as the Geiger-Gibson Community Health Center.^[50]

The John F. Kennedy Library, located on the Columbia Point peninsula, 2007

By the 1970s, the city's economy boomed after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston's Back Bay during this time period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and later began again. Boston now has the second largest skyline in the Northeast (after New York) in terms of the number of buildings reaching a height of over 500 feet (150 m). Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women's Hospital lead the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Boston University, the Harvard Medical School, Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology and Boston Conservatory attract students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s. In 1984, the City of Boston gave control of the Columbia Point public housing complex to a private developer, who redeveloped and revitalized the property from its rundown and dangerous state into an attractive residential mixed-income community called Harbor Point Apartments, which opened in 1988 and was completed by 1990. It was the first federal housing project to be converted to private, mixed-income housing in the United States, and served as a model for the federal HUD HOPE VI public housing revitalization program that began in 1992.^[51]

The North End has been experiencing gentrification since the completion of the Big Dig in the early 2000s (decade), which moved the elevated Central Artery freeway mostly into tunnels. This has also been changing the traditional Italian American culture of the area.^[52]

In the early 21st century, the city has become an intellectual, technological, and political center. It has, however, experienced a loss of regional institutions,^[53] which included the acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times, and the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene's have both been merged into the New York–based Macy's. Boston has also experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century,^[54] with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s.^[25] Living expenses have risen, and Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the United States,^[55] and was ranked the 99th most expensive major city in the world in a 2008 survey of 143 cities.^[56] Despite cost of living issues, Boston ranks high on livability ratings, ranking 36th worldwide in quality of living in 2011 in a survey of 221 major cities.^[57]

Geography[link]

Simulated-color satellite image of the Boston area taken on NASA's Landsat 3

Owing to its early founding, Boston is very compact. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 89.6 square miles (232.1 km²)—48.4 square miles (125.4 km²) (54.0%) of land and 41.2 square miles (106.7 km²) (46.0%) of water. Boston is the country's third most densely populated city that is not a part of a larger city's metropolitan area.^[58] This is largely attributable to the rarity of annexation by New England towns. Boston is surrounded by the "Greater Boston" region and is bordered by the cities and towns of Winthrop, Revere, Chelsea, Everett, Somerville, Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brookline, Needham, Dedham, Canton, Milton, and Quincy. The Charles River separates Boston proper from Cambridge, Watertown, and the neighborhood of Charlestown. To the east lies Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (BHINRA). This includes part of the city's territory, specifically Calf Island, Gallops Island, Great Brewster Island, Green Island, Little Brewster Island, Little Calf Island, Long Island, Lovells Island, Middle Brewster Island, Nixes Mate, Outer Brewster Island, Rainsford Island, Shag Rocks, Spectacle Island, The Graves, and Thompson Island. The Neponset River forms the boundary between Boston's southern neighborhoods and the city of Quincy and the town of Milton.^[59] The Mystic River separates Charlestown from Chelsea and Everett, and Chelsea Creek and Boston Harbor separate East Boston from Boston proper.^[60] Boston's official elevation, as measured at Logan International Airport, is 19 ft (5.8 m) above sea level.^[61] The highest point in Boston is Bellevue Hill at 330 ft (101 m) above sea level, and the lowest point is at sea level.^[62] Boston is the only state capital in the contiguous United States with an ocean coastline.

The headquarters of the Church of Christ, Scientist in the Back Bay is dominated by a reflecting pool. The tall buildings in the background are the Prudential Tower and 111 Huntington Avenue.

Much of the Back Bay and South End neighborhoods are built on reclaimed land—all of the earth from two of Boston's three original hills, the "Trimountain", was used as landfill material. Pemberton Hill, which would become Pemberton Square in the Government Center neighborhood, and Mount Vernon, were leveled completely. Only Beacon Hill—the smallest of the three original hills—remains partially intact; only half of its height was cut down for landfill. Tremont Street is named after the three hills. The downtown area and immediate surroundings consist mostly of low-rise brick or stone buildings, with many older buildings in the Federal style. Several of these buildings mix in with modern high-rises, notably in the Financial District, Government Center, the South Boston waterfront, and Back Bay, which includes many prominent landmarks such as the Boston Public Library, Christian Science Center, Copley Square, Newbury Street, and New England's two tallest buildings—the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center.^[63]

The iconic Boston brownstones that dominate the Back Bay area

Copley Square

Near the John Hancock Tower is the old John Hancock Building with its prominent weather forecast beacon—the color of the illuminated light gives an indication of weather to come: "steady blue, clear view; flashing blue, clouds are due; steady red, rain ahead; flashing red, snow instead". (In the summer, flashing red indicates instead that a Red Sox game has been rained out.) Smaller commercial areas are interspersed among single-family homes and wooden/brick multi-family row houses. Currently, the South End Historic District remains the largest surviving contiguous Victorian-era neighborhood in the U.S.^[64] Along with downtown, the geography of South Boston was particularly impacted by the Central Artery/Tunnel (CA/T) Project (or the "Big Dig"). The unstable reclaimed land in South Boston posed special problems for the project's tunnels. In the downtown area, the CA/T Project allowed for the removal of the unsightly elevated Central Artery and the incorporation of new green spaces and open areas.

Boston Common seen from the Prudential Skywalk Observatory, an observation deck on the 50th floor of the Prudential Tower^[65]

Boston Common, located near the Financial District and Beacon Hill, is the oldest public park in the United States.^[66] Along with the adjacent Boston Public Garden, it is part of the Emerald Necklace, a string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted to encircle the city. Jamaica Pond, part of the Emerald Necklace, is the largest body of freshwater in the city. Franklin Park, which is also part of the Emerald Necklace, is the city's largest park and houses the Franklin Park Zoo.^[67] Another major park is the Esplanade, located along the banks of the Charles River. The Hatch Shell, an outdoor concert venue, is located adjacent to the Charles River Esplanade. Other parks are scattered throughout the city, with the major parks and beaches located near Castle Island (not part of the BHINRA, and now connected to the mainland); in Charlestown; and along the Dorchester, South Boston, and East Boston shorelines.

Neighborhoods[link]

Boston is sometimes called a "city of neighborhoods" because of the profusion of diverse subsections. There are 21 official neighborhoods in Boston used by the city.^[68] These neighborhoods include: Allston/Brighton, Back Bay, Bay Village, Beacon Hill, Charlestown, Chinatown/Leather District, Dorchester, Downtown/Financial District, East Boston, Fenway/Kenmore, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, North End, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, South End, West End, and West Roxbury.

Boston skyline from the north side of the Charles River

Boston as seen from the 26th floor of Student Village II at Boston University

Climate[link]

Boston has a climate that is continental in nature but with maritime influences owing to its coastal location, a phenomenon common to coastal southern New England. The climate is either classified as a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), using the −3 °C (26.6 °F) isotherm of the original Köppen scheme, or a humid continental climate (Köppen 'Dfa), using the 0 °C (32 °F) isotherm preferred by some climatologists.

Summers are typically warm, rainy, and humid, while winters are cold, windy, and snowy. Spring and fall are usually mild, but conditions are widely varied, depending on wind direction and jet stream positioning. Prevailing wind patterns that blow offshore affect Boston, minimizing the influence of the Atlantic Ocean.

Boston's skyline in the background, with fall foliage in the foreground