The Boston Massacre: On This Day, March 5

On March 5, 1770, tensions in the American colonies culminated with an armed skirmish between British troops and American colonists in Boston. Although the American Revolution did not begin in earnest until five years later, the Boston Massacre is considered the spark that ignited revolutionary fervor in the colonies. Below is an interactive exploration of one of the treasures of the Gilder Lehrman Collection, Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, entitled "The Bloody Massacre in King-Street."