Bedford Public Library

The Boston Massacre, a family history, Serena Zabin

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [233]-284) and index

contains biographical information

platesillustrations

index present

non fiction

The Boston Massacre

bibliography

Serena Zabin

a family history

The story of the Boston Massacre--when on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to death--is familiar to generations. But from the very beginning, many accounts have obscured a fascinating truth: the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political. Professor Serena Zabin draws on original sources and lively stories to follow British troops as they are dispatched from Ireland to Boston in 1768 to subdue the increasingly rebellious colonists. And she reveals a forgotten world hidden in plain sight: the many regimental wives and children who accompanied these armies. We see these families jostling with Bostonians for living space, finding common cause in the search for a lost child, trading barbs and sharing baptisms. Becoming, in other words, neighbors. When soldiers shot unarmed citizens in the street, it was these intensely human, now broken bonds that fueled what quickly became a bitterly fought American Revolution

Prologue -- Families of Empire, 1765 -- Inseparable Interests, 1766-1767 -- Seasons of Discontent, 1766-1768 -- Under One Roof, 1768 -- Love Your Neighbor, 1769-1770 -- Absent Without Leave 1768-1770 -- A Deadly Riot, March 1770 -- Gathering Up, March 6, 1770- August 1772 -- From Shooting to Massacre, October-December 1770 -- Epilogue: Civil War