"Were the British soldiers to blame for the Boston Massacre?"

[Nicole M]

My son has to write a paper for his community college history class answering both in the affirmative and the negative about the Boston Massacre. He's having trouble locating sources. Any clues about where to find articles about this? The highly-touted Research Gateway (I like to call it the Mystery Portal!) is givin' us nuthin'.

It's due Monday. :confused:

If you have any clues about how / where to search, please let me know!

Thanks.

[Julie in MN]

Have you looked at Wikipedia? I know it's nothing official, but I often find many points of view represented there.

The thing we looked at was the role of the "media" with Paul Revere's newspaper picture. Not sure if that could directly be labeled a "fault" since it's after-the-fact (in fact, most of what we read/discussed was about the after-effects), but it's interesting :)
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/winter96/massacre.html

Here's something I got with a quick Google search of "boston massacre blame" -- you might try that search yourself.
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/revolutionarywar/a/boston_massacre_2.htm

[mktkcb]

If you could go to a Barnes and Noble and get a copy of the book "John Adams" by David McCoullough (a highly acclaimed historian who writes fascinating narrative history), the whole description of the Boston massacre, and the part John Adams plays in it (he was the only lawyer who would defend the British soldiers, and he won) is extremely informative, and factual. Fascinating as well. There is a HBO miniseries that was done called "John Adams" that is based on McCoulloughs narrative that you could watch as well, if you could get ahold of it. Great stuff.
Kayleen

[Michelle in GA]

Albert Marrin's book on the American Revolution has a very detailed account of the Boston Massacre and how Adam's defended the British.

[Nicole M]

Thanks for these sources, ladies! We actually own the McCullough book. I will see if I can pick up the Marrin. And thanks, Julie, good idea. I googled "Boston Massacre blame" too and found some good stuff.

I found this website to be pretty useful. Lots of primary source documents:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/bostonaccount.html

I just don't know whether this would be considered a valid source for this type of paper. What's the hive's opinion?

[Nan in Mass]

Bunker Hill Monument is a national park or historical park or whatever it is called. They would have a government website that would have information. Bunker Hill is on the Freedom Trail, which also will have a government website, so you could look for that, also. And I'd look for the Lexington and Concord park's site, too. Those would be government sites and I should think would be acceptable as sources.
-Nan

[Michelle in MO]

My son has to write a paper for his community college history class answering both in the affirmative and the negative about the Boston Massacre. He's having trouble locating sources. Any clues about where to find articles about this? The highly-touted Research Gateway (I like to call it the Mystery Portal!) is givin' us nuthin'.

It's due Monday. :confused:

If you have any clues about how / where to search, please let me know!

Thanks.
Nicole, if I remember correctly (from McCollough's John Adams), I believe that Adams defended the British soldiers who fired upon the crowd, and the soldiers were found not guilty. I do recommend reading that section of the book--and the whole book, when you have time! :D It should be toward the beginning, I believe.

[Nicole M]

Nicole, if I remember correctly (from McCollough's John Adams), I believe that Adams defended the British soldiers who fired upon the crowd, and the soldiers were found not guilty. I do recommend reading that section of the book--and the whole book, when you have time! :D It should be toward the beginning, I believe.

I seem to recall that there were only British on the jury. I will look into this.

[Nicole M]

Bunker Hill Monument is a national park or historical park or whatever it is called. They would have a government website that would have information. Bunker Hill is on the Freedom Trail, which also will have a government website, so you could look for that, also. And I'd look for the Lexington and Concord park's site, too. Those would be government sites and I should think would be acceptable as sources.
-Nan

Thanks, Nan. This article indicates that the source I mentioned earlier (since it's an .edu site) would be kosher, too: http://homeworktips.about.com/od/researchandreference/a/internet.htm