After the Massacre

 

Hello, history friends!!

Last time, we talked about the tragedy of the Boston Massacre and got to know a few of the victims a little bit. Today we are jumping back in, but we're going to look at what happens next. So many times, this is just an event on a timeline, but we don't dive into the real impact it had. In most history books, this happened and then boom, tea is dumped and we're in Lexington and Concord. But that's not how it really went. Remember that this is the first quarter of 1770 and the Boston Tea Party doesn't happen until the very END of 1773. That's like talking about a baby being born and then in the next sentence discussing their preschool enrollment. (I have 6 kids, so kid events are how I tell time). Let's back up a second and see what the events of 1770 did for the colonists AND for the British. Could you imagine having to wait 8 weeks to 6 months just to hear news of stuff? That would drive me bonkers. I guess instant messaging options have spoiled me a bit.

Anywho- I digress. Again. The first and most obvious thing that happened was that a picture was painted of the events with very obvious biases. I think I mentioned last time that American papers reported this incident as a a brutal attack on innocent boys who were simply enjoying a snowball fight. But British reports of the event painted a very different picture. But to set the record straight, John Adams was asked to represent the British officers in court. What an awful spot to be put on. For one, Samuel Adams was his cousin and very anti-British. For another, he wasn't stupid. And he was icredibly human. You know what? Let's take a second to talk about John Adams.

I will admit, the books I read first were of Hamilton and Washington. In their stories, I really was not a fan of John Adams. But as I looked at the humanness- I realized that 1. I probably would have been terrified of A. Ham. He was very much a Type A personality and that's a personality I clash with. How I got into Gryffindor and am not permanently a Hufflepuff is beyond me. Just kidding, being Mama Bear is what changed me. But anyway- Hamilton definitely spoke his mind about everything and didn't care who knew it. There were accusations that Washington was really letting Hamilton run the presidency and that scared a lot of people.

But, like I said, I let it reflect badly on the man from Briantree, Massachusetts. And then I studied him a bit. I listened to the book by David McCullough and watched the HBO miniseries (based on the same book and fairly close to it). I started to see Mr. Adams differently. He had to show a different kind of strength that I really don't think people gave him credit for (ugh, I'm tearing up writing this- I'm telling you, it's like I KNOW these men AND their families- often I can tell a quote is from Abigail by the tone before her name is even mentioned).

Here's a quick summary of John's life- he was born in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1735 (making him 35 years old at the time of the Boston Massacre. He went to Harvard when he was 15 and became a lawyer. He married Abigail in 1764 and they had  Nabby (her actual name was Abigail) in 1765, John Quincy was born in 1767, just after the whole Stamp Act debacle and just after the Townshend acts were... put into place. Then they moved to Boston and had another baby, Susana, but she barely lived a year. I briefly mentioned before, but in Boston, Adams defended John Hancock after the Lydia incident. He obviously had other cases, too, but that's the most interesting to me.

Then we get to where we are now. 1770. They had another son named Charles. Mr. Adams was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature. We're going to just be caught up there as John Adams will be an integral part of the rest of our story. Just remember that like the others, he's human. I think that being a bit vain and cocky must have been needed for the founding fathers as it seems to be a common trait. What kind of person, though, would one have to be to stand up to such an imposing country as England? To know that you deserve to be treated fairly and know how to get to that point. I just am so grateful FOR these founding families. 

Ok, sorry. Let's talk about the trial of the British Officers. I feel like because of the trial, we get more of the actual truth. What it ended up coming down to was whether or not this was murder, manslaughter, or if they were completely innocent and acting in self defense. Obviously, people who lived in Boston wanted these men to pay. If you remember, of the 5 people that died, three of them were just good citizens not looking for a fight at all. Heck, two of them were KIDS at only 17. I guess you could debate if that was considered a kid then since I'm pretty sure you could fight in wars at 16..... 

You can actually read the defense argument here, where I have it linked on my blog. It's long, but you can see that he was a great lawyer. And it's certainly not boring, but like I said very long. I could only read pieces of it.

John ended up getting Captain Preston acquitted, since he did NOT tell his men to shoot. Adams had two lawyers help him assist in the case where they defended the other 8 officers. Pretty much, what they were trying to figure out was whether or not the soldiers had any right to fire at all. They witnessed somewhere around 80 witnesses. I know they talked about Patrick Carr's forgiveness, but pretty much 6 of the soldiers were acquitted entirely and 2 were convicted of manslaughter. At that time in history, if you hadn't been convicted before, you could do what was called "plea to clergy" and get a lesser charge. In this case, the 2 soldiers had their thumbs branded.

John Hancock and Thomas Hutchinson had a meeting where it was decided that the troops needed to be moved before things escalated, so they were. Also, they decided that it was time to do something about the Townshend Acts. They ended up only being partially repealed in 1771.

I would love to know if you have ancestors who wrote about what life was like in Boston during that few year gap- after the Boston Massacre but before the Boston Tea Party, or even just the names of ancestors who LIVED in Boston in that time period- I'd love to hear what you've got!! Leave a message here in the blog comments or on the Facebook page!

Also, just for funsies- I figured I'd let you know of a few other things that happened in 1770. William Clark (Lewis & Clark) was born, as was Beethoven
In June, the Quakers opened a school for blacks, so that's cool. Also, does anyone know what the most respectful way to say that would be?