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
- Made by
- Paul Revere, engraver and publisher, Boston (after a design by Henry Pelham)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- Province of Massachusetts Bay
- Medium
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- Royal Province of Massachusetts Bay
- Leader
- Thomas Hutchinson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- Boston Massacre
- Techniques
- Name-callingCard stacking
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, 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
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.
