WEBVTT 00:00:00.979 --> 00:00:03.480 What if I told you the event that sparked the 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:06.339 American Revolution didn't start with some, you 00:00:06.339 --> 00:00:08.960 know, grand philosophical debate over human liberty? 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:11.460 Right, like some noble speech in a hall somewhere. 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:15.580 Exactly. But instead, it actually started with 00:00:15.580 --> 00:00:19.039 a teenager screaming in the street about an unpaid 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:21.449 haircutting bill. It really is wild when you 00:00:21.449 --> 00:00:24.149 look at the actual history. It is. So you're 00:00:24.149 --> 00:00:26.469 joining us for a deep dive into an event you 00:00:26.469 --> 00:00:29.070 probably think you know, the Boston Massacre. 00:00:29.089 --> 00:00:32.289 We are pulling from a really comprehensive historical 00:00:32.289 --> 00:00:35.149 overview of what actually happened on that freezing 00:00:35.149 --> 00:00:39.479 night of March 5, 1770. And the mission today 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:42.240 is to essentially strip away centuries of that 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.119 oil painting mythology. Yeah, because when you 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:45.780 look closely at the source material, the birth 00:00:45.780 --> 00:00:48.420 of the nation wasn't this masterpiece of noble 00:00:48.420 --> 00:00:51.939 men making clean, heroic decisions. No, not at 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:54.579 all. It was chaotic. Super chaotic. It involved 00:00:54.579 --> 00:00:57.079 the 18th century equivalent of like an outrage 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.700 algorithm. Yeah. And it culminated in a shockingly 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:02.060 controversial legal defense by a future president. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.560 It really is a story where the ground level facts 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.620 clash wildly with the legend we're all taught. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:10.859 But to understand how a dispute over a wig maker's 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:13.640 bill ends in gunfire, you have to understand 00:01:13.640 --> 00:01:16.980 the environment. Like, Boston in the 1760s was 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:20.159 this incredibly wealthy, vital shipping town, 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:23.159 but its economy was just being suffocated by 00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:25.900 the Townsend Acts. Remind me, those were the 00:01:25.900 --> 00:01:29.159 tariffs, right? Yeah, exactly. They were tariffs 00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:31.920 passed by the British Parliament on everyday 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:36.260 imported goods. We're talking glass, lead, paint, 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:39.340 paper and tea. So this is the whole taxation 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:41.540 without representation breaking point. Decisely. 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:44.659 But reading the sources, it hits you that it 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:46.799 wasn't just abstract political theory to these 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:48.859 people, you know? Yeah. It was their livelihoods 00:01:48.859 --> 00:01:51.420 being squeezed. Oh, absolutely. And the British 00:01:51.420 --> 00:01:53.939 government didn't just send strongly worded letters 00:01:53.939 --> 00:01:56.700 to enforce these deeply unpopular tariffs. In 00:01:56.700 --> 00:01:59.739 1768, they sent heavily armed troops. Right, 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:01.900 into the city itself. Yeah, you had the 14th 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:04.739 and 29th regiments of foot. station directly 00:02:04.739 --> 00:02:06.799 inside the city. They weren't in some distant 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:08.659 fort. They were living right among the civilians 00:02:08.659 --> 00:02:10.759 they were supposed to be policing. Reading through 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.139 the sources, the sheer claustrophobia of that 00:02:13.139 --> 00:02:15.439 setup is staggering. Oh, totally. It makes me 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:20.740 think of a modern day hostel. military occupation 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:25.099 but crammed into a tiny freezing 18th century 00:02:25.099 --> 00:02:26.939 peninsula. That's a really good way to put it. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.080 You have civilians who feel entirely oppressed 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:31.800 in their own homes and then you have these heavily 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:35.300 armed underpaid soldiers who feel entirely unwelcome 00:02:35.300 --> 00:02:37.699 and on edge. Right they are literally just trapped 00:02:37.699 --> 00:02:40.060 together waiting for a spark. Exactly. And the 00:02:40.060 --> 00:02:42.639 friction was constant because both sides were 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:44.939 heavily armed and actively patrolling the streets 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:47.639 the formal command structures often broke down. 00:02:47.699 --> 00:02:49.560 Because it's not the general with each other. 00:02:49.659 --> 00:02:52.080 Right. It wasn't generals negotiating with politicians. 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:54.759 It was low -ranking soldiers dealing with deeply 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:57.900 personal, daily civilian grievances. Which is 00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:00.719 a recipe for disaster. It is. And that grinding 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:03.960 tension reached a tragic boiling point just weeks 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:06.759 before the massacre itself. On February 20th, 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.800 1770, an 11 -year -old boy named Christopher 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:12.240 Sider was shot and killed by a customs employee. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:15.300 Wow, an 11 -year -old kid. Yes. And the reaction 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:17.699 to Sider's death shows you exactly where the 00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:21.009 public mindset was. His death was heavily amplified 00:03:21.009 --> 00:03:23.629 in local papers like the Boston Gazette. I mean 00:03:23.629 --> 00:03:26.530 you can imagine the outrage. Oh it was immense. 00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:29.849 The organizers turned his funeral into an enormous 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:32.610 visual spectacle. It was described as one of 00:03:32.610 --> 00:03:35.370 the largest gatherings in Boston's history. So 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:39.530 they took this immense unified grief. and it 00:03:39.530 --> 00:03:42.370 essentially mutated into pure rage. That's exactly 00:03:42.370 --> 00:03:44.810 what happened. The sources say that after the 00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:47.870 funeral, you literally had gangs of locals and 00:03:47.870 --> 00:03:50.289 groups of off -duty soldiers actively roaming 00:03:50.289 --> 00:03:52.669 the streets. Just looking for a fight. Yeah, 00:03:53.189 --> 00:03:55.229 practically hunting for confrontations with each 00:03:55.229 --> 00:03:57.909 other. It was a profoundly combustible atmosphere, 00:03:58.849 --> 00:04:02.210 which is why the events of March 5th spiral out 00:04:02.210 --> 00:04:05.389 of control so unbelievably fast. Right. It was 00:04:05.389 --> 00:04:07.490 an environment where the smallest provocation 00:04:07.490 --> 00:04:09.909 was going to trigger a massive explosion. And 00:04:09.909 --> 00:04:11.550 this is where we get to that teenager I mentioned 00:04:11.550 --> 00:04:13.669 at the top. Oh, right. The haircut bill. Yeah. 00:04:13.930 --> 00:04:16.310 So it's the evening of March 5th, and you have 00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:19.769 a single British sentry, Private Hugh White, 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:22.410 standing on guard duty outside the Boston Custom 00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:25.670 House. Just by himself. Just by himself. Out 00:04:25.670 --> 00:04:29.069 of nowhere, a 13 -year -old wickmaker's apprentice 00:04:29.069 --> 00:04:32.129 named Edward Garrick shows up. OK. He starts 00:04:32.129 --> 00:04:35.290 publicly screaming at a British officer. Captain 00:04:35.290 --> 00:04:38.089 Lieutenant John Goldfinch, accusing him of not 00:04:38.089 --> 00:04:40.930 paying his master's bill. And the profound irony 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.810 of this inciting incident is that Goldfinch actually 00:04:43.810 --> 00:04:46.569 had paid the bill. Wait, he had? Yeah, he settled 00:04:46.569 --> 00:04:49.269 the account the day before, so knowing he's in 00:04:49.269 --> 00:04:51.639 the right, Goldfinch just like... ignores the 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:53.500 kid's insults and keeps walking. Which is probably 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:55.379 the smartest thing he could have done. Definitely. 00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:57.920 But Private White, the guy standing guard, decides 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:00.279 he needs to intervene. Oh, man. Which, given 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:02.579 the Roman gangs we just talked about, feels like 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:05.779 a spectacularly bad idea. It was the worst possible 00:05:05.779 --> 00:05:08.300 move, but Private White tells the kid to be more 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:10.600 respectful to an officer. They start exchanging 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:13.379 insults. the teenager starts poking the officer 00:05:13.379 --> 00:05:16.560 in the chest. Yeah, so Private White leaves his 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:20.500 post, raises his musket, and strikes this 13 00:05:20.500 --> 00:05:22.319 -year -old kid on the side of the head with the 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.899 butt of his gun. Yikes. So Garrick starts crying 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:27.699 out in pain, and a crowd immediately swarms the 00:05:27.699 --> 00:05:31.019 area. But here's the detail that fascinated me. 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:34.800 Church bells begin to ring. Right. And in 18th 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:37.100 century Boston, church bells ringing at night 00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:40.220 only meant one thing, a fire. Yeah, and think 00:05:40.220 --> 00:05:42.459 about the mechanics of how a fire alarm worked 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:45.120 back then. You don't just call 911. Exactly. 00:05:45.220 --> 00:05:46.939 You don't just wake up and look out the window. 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:49.600 If the bells ring, you grab a bucket, you grab 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:52.360 tools, maybe a club to break down doors, and 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:55.160 you run out into the dark streets ready for intense 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:57.439 physical action. So you suddenly have an estimated 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:00.620 300 to 400 people pouring out of taverns at home. 00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:03.060 With their adrenaline just pumping. Right. carrying 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:06.000 clubs and buckets, only to find a British soldier 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.420 who just assaulted a local kid. And they completely 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:10.399 surround Private White. And they are furious. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.860 They're throwing snowballs, chunks of ice, oyster 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:15.860 shells, stones. It's pelting him. Yeah. And the 00:06:15.860 --> 00:06:18.060 sources note that one of the men helping to lead 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:21.399 this incredibly aggressive crowd is Crispus Attucks, 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:24.720 a mixed -race former slave. Right. And Private 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:27.779 White realizes he's in deep trouble. He retreats 00:06:27.779 --> 00:06:29.620 up the steps of the Custom House, essentially 00:06:29.620 --> 00:06:32.439 backing himself into a corner and calls for backup. 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:34.639 Which is when Captain Thomas Preston shows up, 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:37.620 right? Exactly. Captain Preston and seven soldiers 00:06:37.620 --> 00:06:39.720 from the 29th Regiment push their way through 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:42.459 this massive angry crowd with fixed bayonets 00:06:42.459 --> 00:06:45.779 to rescue him. And among those seven is a private 00:06:45.779 --> 00:06:48.480 named Hugh Montgomery. Wait, I have to stop you 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:50.040 here because I saw this in the notes and couldn't 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:53.699 believe it. Henry Knox, the guy who goes on to 00:06:53.699 --> 00:06:56.480 become George Washington's famous artillery general 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:58.920 in the revolution, he's just casually hanging 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:01.100 out in the crowd as a 19 -year -old bookseller. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.519 He is. History is full of these bizarre intersections. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:06.680 That is so wild. Knox is right there in the thick 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:09.279 of it and he actually grabs Captain Preston by 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:12.500 the coat and warns him point blank, if they fire, 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:15.500 you must die. Yeah, because Knox understands 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:18.930 the law. If the military fires on civilians without 00:07:18.930 --> 00:07:21.509 authorization, the commanding officer hangs. 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:24.990 And Preston knows this. He tells Knox he's aware. 00:07:25.410 --> 00:07:27.870 He gets his men to form a semicircle around Private 00:07:27.870 --> 00:07:31.629 White. He is desperately shouting at these 300 00:07:31.629 --> 00:07:34.730 to 400 people to disperse. But they don't. No, 00:07:34.769 --> 00:07:38.170 they don't. The crowd is pressing right up against 00:07:38.170 --> 00:07:40.250 the blades of the bayonets. They are spitting 00:07:40.250 --> 00:07:42.689 at the soldiers, they are hitting the barrels 00:07:42.689 --> 00:07:44.990 of the muskets with their clubs, and they are 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:47.529 literally daring the soldiers to shoot. Just 00:07:47.529 --> 00:07:49.730 screaming at them. Yeah, screaming, fire, damn 00:07:49.730 --> 00:07:52.170 you, fire. The psychology of the soldiers in 00:07:52.170 --> 00:07:54.560 that moment must have been pure terror. I can't 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:56.899 even imagine. I mean, they are vastly outnumbered. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 They are taking physical hits from rocks and 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.600 heavy chunks of ice. And crucially, they do not 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:04.519 have orders to shoot. Right. But then the breaking 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:07.480 point arrives. A thrown object, likely a heavy 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:10.019 piece of ice or a club, strikes Private Montgomery 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:12.339 hard enough to knock him to the ground. Oh, wow. 00:08:12.540 --> 00:08:14.759 So he drops his musket. He does. He scrambles 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:17.939 back up, completely panicked and furious, recovers 00:08:17.939 --> 00:08:20.079 his weapon, and without any command from Captain 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.379 Preston, he shouts, damn you, fire, and discharges 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:26.240 his weapon directly into the dense crowd. Just 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.339 setting off a catastrophic chain reaction. Exactly. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:32.100 Eyewitnesses later testified there was a pause, 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:35.120 maybe a few seconds, maybe up to two agonizing 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:37.919 minutes, where the other soldiers, disoriented 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:40.480 by the noise and the flash, simply start firing. 00:08:40.539 --> 00:08:43.220 So it wasn't organized at all? No, not a coordinated 00:08:43.220 --> 00:08:46.440 military volley. It was a ragged, chaotic series 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:49.379 of panic -induced shots. And once the thick black 00:08:49.379 --> 00:08:52.759 powder smoke finally clears, five American colonists 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:55.559 are dead or dying on the cobblestones. Samuel 00:08:55.559 --> 00:08:58.620 Gray, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks, Samuel 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:01.120 Maverick, and Patrick Carr. It's just devastating. 00:09:01.299 --> 00:09:03.379 You know, we really need to pause and reevaluate 00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:06.059 how we talk about this event, because we are 00:09:06.059 --> 00:09:08.419 fundamentally taught to view the Boston Massacre 00:09:08.419 --> 00:09:12.080 as this brave, unified stand of patriots resisting 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:14.720 British tyranny. The whole noble narrative. Right. 00:09:15.179 --> 00:09:17.720 But listening to the mechanics of how it actually 00:09:17.720 --> 00:09:21.169 played out... It wasn't a noble protest. It was 00:09:21.169 --> 00:09:24.990 a chaotic, tragic bar fight that spiraled into 00:09:24.990 --> 00:09:27.950 a bloodbath because an entire city was pushed 00:09:27.950 --> 00:09:30.350 to its psychological limit. It is incredibly 00:09:30.350 --> 00:09:32.669 messy. And the authorities recognize that messiness 00:09:32.669 --> 00:09:35.590 immediately. How so? Well, Acting Governor Thomas 00:09:35.590 --> 00:09:38.210 Hutchinson practically sprints to the balcony 00:09:38.210 --> 00:09:41.129 of the State House that same night. He promises 00:09:41.129 --> 00:09:43.610 the crowd that there will be a strict, fair, 00:09:43.850 --> 00:09:46.750 legal inquiry if everyone just goes home. And 00:09:46.750 --> 00:09:49.389 they actually listen. They do. The physical violence 00:09:49.389 --> 00:09:52.470 on the street ends. But what replaces it is a 00:09:52.470 --> 00:09:54.929 completely different kind of warfare. The information 00:09:54.929 --> 00:09:57.350 war. Exactly. Because the physical smoke had 00:09:57.350 --> 00:10:00.009 barely cleared before the Patriots realized that 00:10:00.009 --> 00:10:03.009 whoever defined this event first owned it. Precisely. 00:10:03.190 --> 00:10:05.529 They swapped muskets for printing presses. Both 00:10:05.529 --> 00:10:07.610 the Patriots and the loyalists understood that 00:10:07.610 --> 00:10:10.509 the actual truth of the chaos was far less important 00:10:10.509 --> 00:10:12.230 than the narrative they could build around it. 00:10:12.330 --> 00:10:14.929 And the Patriots executed a master class in propaganda. 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:18.039 We all know the famous engraving by Paul Revere, 00:10:18.299 --> 00:10:20.720 titled The Bloody Massacre. Right, the one everyone 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.159 sees in history textbooks. Yeah, though the sources 00:10:23.159 --> 00:10:25.480 make it clear he actually stole the design from 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:27.820 a lesser -known engraver named Henry Pelham. 00:10:27.899 --> 00:10:30.759 Oh, interesting. But Revere is the one who rushed 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.779 it to the presses. And looking at it now, it 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:36.480 functions exactly like a modern algorithm designed 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.879 to target the lizard brain. Like social media 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:42.710 style. Exactly. Instead of trying to explain 00:10:42.710 --> 00:10:45.549 the complex reality of ice -throwing crowds and 00:10:45.549 --> 00:10:48.409 panicked sentries, Revere flattened the entire 00:10:48.409 --> 00:10:51.789 event into a single, highly edited, emotionally 00:10:51.789 --> 00:10:54.730 manipulative image. He definitely knew his audience. 00:10:54.870 --> 00:10:57.789 He completely bypassed logic to maximize outrage. 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:00.590 If you look at the engraving, Revere depicts 00:11:00.590 --> 00:11:02.970 Captain Preston standing safely behind his men, 00:11:03.309 --> 00:11:05.889 actively raising his sword, ordering a synchronized 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:08.649 execution of a peaceful, well -dressed crowd. 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.580 Which completely contradicts the sworn testimonies 00:11:11.580 --> 00:11:14.019 of almost every eyewitness present. Exactly. 00:11:14.320 --> 00:11:16.279 He even added a sniper firing from the window 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:18.559 of the customs house, and he cheekily changed 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:20.940 the sign on the building to read, Witcher's Hall. 00:11:21.399 --> 00:11:23.799 That is some heavy spin. Oh, it gets crazier. 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:27.299 He totally removed the snow, the clubs, the darkness. 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:29.899 And depending on which market he was selling 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:33.080 to, some versions of the print altered Crispus 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:36.450 Attic's skin color. Wait. Really? Yeah. They 00:11:36.450 --> 00:11:39.169 would emphasize his race or hide it, depending 00:11:39.169 --> 00:11:41.330 entirely on which narrative would sell better 00:11:41.330 --> 00:11:44.289 to that specific audience. Wow. And you have 00:11:44.289 --> 00:11:46.649 to consider how media functioned in a largely 00:11:46.649 --> 00:11:50.750 text -based 18th century world. A vivid, bloody, 00:11:51.049 --> 00:11:54.230 highly partisan image like that stands out massively. 00:11:54.450 --> 00:11:56.269 It must have gone viral, essentially. Exactly. 00:11:56.309 --> 00:11:58.870 It was hung up in taverns. It was nailed to the 00:11:58.870 --> 00:12:01.669 walls of farmhouses all across New England. It 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:03.450 bypassed the intellect and went straight for 00:12:03.450 --> 00:12:06.049 the gut, effectively radicalizing colonists who 00:12:06.049 --> 00:12:08.490 were hundreds of miles away from Boston. Meanwhile, 00:12:08.870 --> 00:12:10.929 alongside this visual manipulation, you have 00:12:10.929 --> 00:12:13.610 the Battle of the Pamphlets. The Paper War. Right. 00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:15.870 The Patriots quickly published a document called 00:12:15.870 --> 00:12:18.289 A Short Narrative, put together by local leaders. 00:12:18.549 --> 00:12:21.389 They gather over 90 depositions, carefully curated 00:12:21.389 --> 00:12:23.470 to argue that the soldiers had deployed that 00:12:23.470 --> 00:12:26.070 night with the explicit premeditated intention 00:12:26.070 --> 00:12:28.779 of slaughtering citizens. And of course, the 00:12:28.779 --> 00:12:31.580 loyalists, led by Governor Hutchinson, are frantically 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:34.139 trying to counter this. Naturally. They gather 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:36.460 their own depositions from the soldiers and publish 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:39.720 a pamphlet called A Fair Account. It argues the 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:42.620 exact opposite, that the citizens of Boston had 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:45.340 deliberately planned an ambush to murder the 00:12:45.340 --> 00:12:47.639 troops. But the Patriots won the war of logistics, 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.429 didn't they? They did. They put their pamphlet 00:12:50.429 --> 00:12:52.750 on a faster ship to London. Just beat them to 00:12:52.750 --> 00:12:56.090 the punch. Exactly. So by the time the loyalist 00:12:56.090 --> 00:12:58.970 version arrived, the narrative that bloodthirsty 00:12:58.970 --> 00:13:01.889 soldiers had massacred innocent civilians was 00:13:01.889 --> 00:13:03.990 already cemented in the minds of the British 00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:07.009 public and parliament. So the propaganda strategy 00:13:07.009 --> 00:13:09.490 worked flawlessly on the court of public opinion. 00:13:09.789 --> 00:13:12.450 Flawlessly. But the law required a very different 00:13:12.450 --> 00:13:15.049 standard of proof. And that brings us from the 00:13:15.049 --> 00:13:17.090 printing presses to the courtroom, where we get 00:13:17.090 --> 00:13:18.929 one of the most surprising twists in American 00:13:18.929 --> 00:13:21.289 history. Oh, this is my favorite part. The man 00:13:21.289 --> 00:13:24.289 who steps up to defend these completely despised 00:13:24.289 --> 00:13:27.929 British soldiers. John Adams, a leading patriot, 00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:30.690 a vocal critic of British overreach, and our 00:13:30.690 --> 00:13:34.120 future second president. He took the case. Which, 00:13:34.179 --> 00:13:36.639 I have to say, makes absolutely no sense on the 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:39.019 surface. It seems counterintuitive, right? Yeah. 00:13:39.019 --> 00:13:41.940 Yeah. Why would the ultimate patriot risk his 00:13:41.940 --> 00:13:45.679 life, his career, and his reputation to defend 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:48.759 the very soldiers his own political party is 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:51.259 calling butchers? It was a highly calculated 00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:54.799 move. driven by both intense pragmatism and deep 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:57.820 principle. OK, unpack that a bit. Well, pragmatically, 00:13:57.960 --> 00:14:00.039 the colonial leaders knew that if they held a 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:03.120 kangaroo court and executed these soldiers, London 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:05.600 would likely respond by revoking the Massachusetts 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:08.059 Charter and sending in an overwhelming military 00:14:08.059 --> 00:14:10.679 force. Ah, so they had to prove they were civilized. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:14.039 Exactly. But personally, Adams harbored a profound 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:16.700 belief in the rule of law. He believed that no 00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:19.500 matter how unpopular the defendant, a fair trial 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:22.210 was the only thing separating society. from tyranny 00:14:22.210 --> 00:14:24.750 okay ensuring a fair trial is a beautiful principle 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:27.470 but we need to look at the actual defense strategy 00:14:27.470 --> 00:14:29.929 Adams used to get those acquittals yeah it gets 00:14:29.929 --> 00:14:31.970 a bit dark because it is incredibly uncomfortable 00:14:31.970 --> 00:14:34.409 to read today Adams basically puts the victims 00:14:34.409 --> 00:14:37.269 on trial he really does he doesn't argue that 00:14:37.269 --> 00:14:39.509 the soldiers were angels he argues they were 00:14:39.509 --> 00:14:42.629 terrified men reacting to a deadly mob but the 00:14:42.629 --> 00:14:46.029 language he uses He leans all the way into the 00:14:46.029 --> 00:14:48.809 class and racial prejudices of the jury. He absolutely 00:14:48.809 --> 00:14:52.049 did. Adam stood in front of that jury and described 00:14:52.049 --> 00:14:55.129 the Bostonians who gathered that night as a motley 00:14:55.129 --> 00:14:58.190 rabble of saucy boys, Negroes and mulattoes, 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:01.529 Irish teagues and outlandish Jack Tars. It's 00:15:01.529 --> 00:15:04.629 just so blatant. And he specifically scapegoats 00:15:04.629 --> 00:15:07.870 Crispus Attucks. He tells the jury that Attucks' 00:15:08.110 --> 00:15:11.009 very appearance was enough to terrify any reasonable 00:15:11.009 --> 00:15:13.539 person. He claims Attucks was one who grabbed 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:16.220 a soldier's bayonet and caused the firing, even 00:15:16.220 --> 00:15:18.299 though multiple witnesses testified that Attucks 00:15:18.299 --> 00:15:21.120 was actually 12 to 15 feet away when the first 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.919 shot rang out. It's a complete distortion. Adams 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.940 explicitly tells the jury that the dreadful carnage 00:15:26.940 --> 00:15:29.720 of that night was Attucks' fault. Which forces 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:32.460 you to confront a really difficult question. 00:15:33.080 --> 00:15:36.659 Was Adams being a noble champion of blind justice, 00:15:36.940 --> 00:15:40.519 or was he a political elitist who was perfectly 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.580 willing to throw working class apprentices, Irish 00:15:43.580 --> 00:15:46.139 immigrants, and a former slave to the wolves 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:49.399 just to preserve the respectability of the colonial 00:15:49.399 --> 00:15:52.100 elite in the eyes of the British crown? I leaned 00:15:52.100 --> 00:15:54.820 toward the latter, honestly. He used every ugly 00:15:54.820 --> 00:15:57.539 bias available to him to win. And it worked. 00:15:58.009 --> 00:16:00.549 The jury acquitted Captain Preston entirely, 00:16:00.750 --> 00:16:03.250 finding he never gave an order to fire. Unbelievable. 00:16:03.570 --> 00:16:06.070 They also acquitted six of the soldiers, but 00:16:06.070 --> 00:16:08.490 two soldiers, Montgomery, who fired the first 00:16:08.490 --> 00:16:11.110 shot and a private named Kilroy, were found guilty. 00:16:11.289 --> 00:16:13.529 But not of murder. No, however, they weren't 00:16:13.529 --> 00:16:15.789 convicted of murder. They were convicted of manslaughter. 00:16:15.889 --> 00:16:17.909 And their punishment is one of the most bizarre 00:16:17.909 --> 00:16:20.309 legal footnotes I've ever heard. It's so strange. 00:16:20.549 --> 00:16:22.230 They didn't go to prison. They got branded on 00:16:22.230 --> 00:16:24.590 the thumb. How on earth does shooting into a 00:16:24.590 --> 00:16:26.750 crowd result in a thumb branding? It's due to 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:29.970 a medieval legal loophole called benefit of clergy. 00:16:30.149 --> 00:16:33.809 Benefit of clergy? Yeah. Originally, centuries 00:16:33.809 --> 00:16:36.809 ago, this was a law meant to protect actual clergymen 00:16:36.809 --> 00:16:39.629 from secular courts. But by the 18th century, 00:16:39.769 --> 00:16:42.389 it had evolved into a first -time offender loophole 00:16:42.389 --> 00:16:44.710 for certain crimes. So how did they prove they 00:16:44.710 --> 00:16:47.389 were clergy? To prove you were clergy, all you 00:16:47.389 --> 00:16:49.649 had to do was read a specific passage from the 00:16:49.649 --> 00:16:52.850 Bible, usually Psalm 51. So because Montgomery 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:55.049 and Kilroy could read a Bible verse out loud 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:59.330 in court, they escaped the hangman's noose. Precisely. 00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.330 They were branded with an M for manslaughter 00:17:02.330 --> 00:17:04.829 on the brawn of their thumbs in open court so 00:17:04.829 --> 00:17:06.589 they could never use the Lukehole again and then 00:17:06.589 --> 00:17:08.869 they were released. That is just mind -blowing. 00:17:09.049 --> 00:17:11.829 It is. But the jury's decision to lessen the 00:17:11.829 --> 00:17:14.049 charges to manslaughter wasn't just based on 00:17:14.049 --> 00:17:16.470 Adams' rhetoric. There was a crucial piece of 00:17:16.470 --> 00:17:19.250 evidence that essentially exonerated the soldiers, 00:17:19.250 --> 00:17:21.509 and it came directly from one of the victims. 00:17:21.670 --> 00:17:24.509 Patrick Carr, the Irish immigrant. Yes. Carr 00:17:24.509 --> 00:17:26.470 had been shot in the abdomen during the chaos. 00:17:26.730 --> 00:17:29.089 Medical science being what it was, it took him 00:17:29.089 --> 00:17:32.609 two agonizing weeks to die. Two weeks. Just awful. 00:17:32.890 --> 00:17:35.549 During that time, his surgeon continuously asked 00:17:35.549 --> 00:17:38.299 him about what happened that night. And Carr, 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:41.119 knowing he was dying, testified that he had grown 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:44.160 up in Ireland. He had seen plenty of street mobs 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:46.220 clash with the British soldiers over there. And 00:17:46.220 --> 00:17:48.019 what did he say about the soldiers in Boston? 00:17:48.500 --> 00:17:50.420 He said he had never seen soldiers bear half 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.160 so much abuse before they fired. He told his 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:54.940 doctor that he believed the soldier who shot 00:17:54.940 --> 00:17:57.480 him did so in self -defense and he explicitly 00:17:57.480 --> 00:18:00.299 forgave him. That is just it's staggering to 00:18:00.299 --> 00:18:02.680 have the clarity and grace to forgive the man 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:05.420 who shot you while you were dying from the wound 00:18:05.420 --> 00:18:08.500 because you recognize the possible situation 00:18:08.500 --> 00:18:11.460 he was put in. It was so impactful that the justices 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:14.220 specifically instructed the jury to weigh Carr's 00:18:14.220 --> 00:18:16.759 words heavily. Historically, this became one 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:19.420 of the very first recorded uses of the dying 00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:22.279 declaration exception to hearsay evidence in 00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:24.319 U .S. jurisprudence. Right. The legal assumption 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:26.339 being that a person who is actively stepping 00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:29.039 into eternity has absolutely no motivation to 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:31.200 lie. Exactly. And when you pull all of these 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:33.740 threads together, the relevance for you listening 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:36.460 today is impossible to ignore. It really is. 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:38.539 We are talking about the freezing streets of 00:18:38.539 --> 00:18:43.220 Boston in 1770, but the themes are remarkably 00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:45.640 modern. They feel like they could be ripped from 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:48.440 today's headlines. This deep dive shows us that 00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:50.799 the core issues we wrestle with right now are 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:53.660 foundational to who we are, how highly edited 00:18:53.660 --> 00:18:56.960 media shapes our perception of reality, the very 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.240 real terrifying danger of escalating mob mentality, 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.960 and the intense strain between raw public outrage 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:06.630 and the cold rule of law. Yeah, these aren't 00:19:06.630 --> 00:19:09.450 new glitches in the system. Exactly. These were 00:19:09.450 --> 00:19:12.470 the exact forces that birthed the country. It 00:19:12.470 --> 00:19:14.349 fundamentally changes how you view history. I 00:19:14.349 --> 00:19:16.990 mean, Samuel Adams and the Patriots immediately 00:19:16.990 --> 00:19:19.470 began hosting annual commemorations of the event, 00:19:19.829 --> 00:19:22.009 literally calling it Massacre Day. They needed 00:19:22.009 --> 00:19:24.190 that narrative. Right. They needed a massacre 00:19:24.190 --> 00:19:26.289 to unify the colonies, so they built one out 00:19:26.289 --> 00:19:29.230 of a tragedy. They prioritized the utility of 00:19:29.230 --> 00:19:31.309 memory over the reality of history. They turned 00:19:31.309 --> 00:19:34.210 a localized riot into the undeniable spark of 00:19:34.210 --> 00:19:36.109 the American Revolution. Which leaves me with 00:19:36.109 --> 00:19:37.930 one final thread from the source material that 00:19:37.930 --> 00:19:39.849 I just keep thinking about. What's that? Well, 00:19:39.910 --> 00:19:42.150 we spend so much time analyzing the five men 00:19:42.150 --> 00:19:44.690 who died immediately, the soldiers who survived, 00:19:44.730 --> 00:19:48.369 and the politicians who spun the narrative. But 00:19:48.369 --> 00:19:50.690 the historical records briefly mention another 00:19:50.690 --> 00:19:54.990 name, Christopher Monk. Oh, right. He's an apprentice. 00:19:55.269 --> 00:19:56.769 Much like the kids who started the argument, 00:19:57.049 --> 00:19:58.990 he was caught in the volley and severely wounded. 00:19:59.069 --> 00:20:01.859 He was crippled that night. Crippled. And he 00:20:01.859 --> 00:20:03.880 lived with those devastating injuries for another 00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:08.059 10 years, finally passing away in 1780. Wow. 00:20:08.619 --> 00:20:10.839 A casualty of the revolution who lived long enough 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:13.700 to watch the war begin, but who suffered quietly 00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:16.180 every single day because of a petty argument 00:20:16.180 --> 00:20:18.640 he had absolutely nothing to do with. That is 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:21.279 just incredibly tragic. It really makes you wonder, 00:20:21.279 --> 00:20:23.420 you know, how many Christopher monks are completely 00:20:23.420 --> 00:20:25.960 left out of our history books. When we define 00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:29.400 a historical tragedy by its immediate explosive 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:32.059 aftermath and by how politically useful it is 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:35.140 for the people in power, how easily do we forget 00:20:35.140 --> 00:20:37.700 the victims whose suffering just quietly unfolds 00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:40.420 over decades, long after the propaganda posters 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:41.380 have been taken down?