Video Podcasts

The Boston Massacre Trial: Politics & Performance?

John Adams and Josiah Quincy II. Visit AARevulotion.net for more images and interviews of scholars of the American Revolution with host Adel Aali.

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part IV If the shooting on King Street was chaos, the trials that followed were something else entirely—carefully staged, deeply political, and just as consequential. From the start, this wasn’t only about guilt or innocence. It was about perception—who could claim the moral high ground, not just in Boston, but […]

Paul Revere’s Depiction of the Boston Massacre – Confusion and Conspiracies

Paul Revere’s 1770 engraving of the Boston Massacre. Visit AARevulotion.net for more images and interviews of scholars of the American Revolution with host Adel Aali.

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part III Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre is one of the most famous images from 18th-century America—but it is not a neutral snapshot of what happened. And that’s really the place to start: this is not a photograph of a street scene. It’s a story. Revere wasn’t trying […]

In the Boston Massacre, Did British Soldiers and Colonists Know Each Other?

The featured image depicts the Boston Massacre, showing people in Boston and British soldiers intermingled during the shooting—unlike Paul Revere’s famous 1770 engraving, which portrays them as clearly separated by thick plumes of gunshot smoke. Alonzo Chappel’s 1878 depiction is generally considered more historically accurate. In our program, we examine the purpose and propaganda motivations behind Revere’s engraving in conversation with Dr. Serena Zabin, linked below.

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part II One of the most revealing and underappreciated layers of the Boston Massacre story is just how socially entangled British troops and Boston residents were before the shooting on King Street. It’s easy to imagine a rigid divide — angry townsfolk on one side and “British soldiers on the […]

Was the Boston Massacre Really a “Massacre”?

The featured image comes from the Boston Gazette, March 12, 1770—four days after the funeral of the Boston Massacre victims on March 8. Initials on the coffins identify the four men buried that day: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, and Samuel Maverick. The fifth victim, Patrick Carr, died on March 17 and was not included in this report.

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part I When we think of the Boston Massacre—which likely reflects what we learned in school and college—the word “massacre” immediately stands out. It evokes tragedy. It carries weight. It paints the British as ruthless tyrants who slaughtered innocent American colonists. But the reality is far more complicated. In part […]