--- title: The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt. url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/ description: A hand-coloured engraving shows a line of redcoats firing on an unarmed crowd in King Street at an officer's signal, with bleeding bodies in the… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770.jpg) # The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt. A hand-coloured engraving shows a line of redcoats firing on an unarmed crowd in King Street at an officer's signal, with bleeding bodies in the foreground, a sign reading 'Butcher's Hall' on the Custom House and a verse calling the troops 'savage Bands' and 'fierce Barbarians'. The verse's loaded labels and the one-sided staging, with no provocation shown from the crowd, are the tells. - **Date:** March 1770 - **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914) - **Made by:** Paul Revere, engraver and publisher, Boston (after a design by Henry Pelham) - **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america) - **Country:** [Province of Massachusetts Bay](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=province-of-massachusetts-bay) - **Medium:** [Print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=print) - **Issuer type:** [Individual](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=individual) - **Regime:** [Royal Province of Massachusetts Bay](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=royal-province-of-massachusetts-bay) - **Leader:** [Thomas Hutchinson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=thomas-hutchinson) - **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public) - **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize) - **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism) - **Event:** [Boston Massacre](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=boston-massacre) - **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) - **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are - **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661777/), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (published Boston 1770, before 1931); LOC: No known restrictions on publication Paul Revere, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770, Boston, 1770; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ppmsca-01657 ## Text on the object Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` The BLOODY MASSACRE perpetuated in King-Street BOSTON on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th REGt. [on the building at right:] BUTCHER'S HALL [on the Custom House sign:] Custom House [in a cartouche:] Engrav'd Printed & Sold by PAUL REVERE BOSTON Unhappy BOSTON! see thy Sons deplore, Thy hallow'd Walks besmear'd with guiltless Gore: While faithless P—n and his savage Bands, With murd'rous Rancour stretch their bloody Hands; Like fierce Barbarians grinning o'er their Prey, Approve the Carnage, and enjoy the Day. If scalding drops from Rage from Anguish Wring, If speechless Sorrows lab'ring for a Tongue, Or if a weeping World can ought appease The plaintive Ghosts of Victims such as these; The Patriot's copious Tears for each are shed, A glorious Tribute which embalms the Dead. But know, FATE summons to that awful Goal, Where JUSTICE strips the Murd'rer of his Soul: Should venal C—ts the scandal of the Land, Snatch the relentless Villain from her Hand, Keen Execrations on this Plate inscrib'd, Shall reach a JUDGE who never can be brib'd. The unhappy Sufferers were Messrs SAML GRAY, SAML MAVERICK, JAMS CALDWELL, CRISPUS ATTUCKS & PATK CARR Killed. Six wounded; two of them (CHRISTR MONK & JOHN CLARK) Mortally Published in 1770 by Paul Revere Boston ``` Read from a 1400 px downscale of the LOC master. The hand-colouring partly covers the word 'Boston' in the title, and the Custom House sign is small; superscript abbreviations (Saml, Jams, Patk, Christr, Regt) are rendered on the line. [← The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) ## Using the same techniques - [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling) - [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling) - [Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/) (1814 · Name-calling)