The E Pluribus Unum Project

Goal/Rationale: Students will examine an important and complex event – the Boston Massacre – from several perspectives. They will then draw their own conclusions as to what happened, why, and whether any guilt should be ascribed to any of the parties.

Prerequisite knowledge: A firm understanding of the events leading up to March 5, 1770: colonial U.S. history, the Seven Years’ War, and the series of laws of actions in the 1760s which brought the colonies and Great Britain to the edge of conflict in the 1770s. Several good surveys are available online: http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/index.html is The Biography of America; The History Place is at http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/rev-prel.htm and http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/revwar-75.htm/; the PBS site about the American Revolution is at http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/. The survey created and maintained at the University of Gottingen (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/index.htm) is excellent for its deep and broad coverage of events and presentation of primary sources, but the essays are uneven and the site is organized haphazardly.

Performance Objectives:

MA Curriculum Frameworks:

Under Guiding Principle Three: “Students need to learn of events, ideas, individuals, groups, ideals, dreams, and limitations that have shaped our country and the world;” “In these pursuits, students should study primary and secondary sources, learn to use electronic media and to read and interpret data.”

From The History Standards Project, National Standards for

U.S.

History

(http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/Benchmark.asp?SubjectID=5&StandardID=6)

Standard I: Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns

Era 3 - Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

Level IV, Benchmarks #1, 2.

Standard 6: Understands the causes of the American Revolution, the ideas and interests involved in shaping the revolutionary movement, and reasons for the American victory.

Level II, Benchmarks #1-6;

Level III, Benchmarks #1,2,4,6;

Level IV, Benchmarks #1,2,3,6.

Also see National Center for History in the Schools, U.S. History Standards for Grades 5-12 (UCLA Standards), http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/era3-5-12.html, Era 3, Standard 1A, 5-12, 7-12, 9-12; Standard 1B, 5-12, 9-12; Standard 2A, 7-12.

Under Study Strands and Learning Standards for History and Social Science (VIII): #3: “Research, Evidence, and Point of View. Students will acquire the ability to frame questions that can be answered by historical study and research; to collect, evaluate, and employ information from primary and secondary sources, and to apply it in oral and written presentations. They will understand the many kinds and uses of evidence.”

Materials: Word processor, internet connection; url of documents: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/bostonmassacre.html for Famous Trials, BM. Links to other sites are here: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/linksandbiblio.html .

A nice drawing of the massacre: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/revgfx/bost-mass2.jpg

Use this, for Captain Thomas Preston’s account of the BM: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1751-1775/bostonmassacre/prest.htm

Use this, for an anonymous account: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1751-1775/bostonmassacre/anon.htm .

Yet another account, differing on a key point: http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/bostonm2.htm

Also see Lucia Knoles’s essay on the rhetoric and “core arguments” in the 1770s at http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/1770s/coreargsintro.html.

Initiation: The teacher should prepare the students for this exercise by guiding them into the concept of close analysis of documents. If this is the first such experience for students, then the teacher should consider using a site that introduces this subject, such as the National Archives and Records Administration (http://www.nara.gov/). A short essay about the value of primary sources, that both teachers and students can read and discuss together, is at http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/raw.html . The site also has worksheets for analyzing many types of documents (text, photograph, cartoon, posters, maps, etc.), at http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/analysis/analysis.html . These can be printed out and used by students if the teacher desires. These forms are useful for researchers as they begin to analyze documents; teachers and students might find them confining as they become more experienced and skilled.

If students are experienced with research in primary sources, then the teacher will want to review briefly the value and significance of these resources. She will also want to review some of the major themes to be considered while studying the United States in the 1770s: liberty, individual and collective rights, colonialism, the authority of Crown and Parliament, corruption, and other ideas that students suggest.

Regarding Captain Preston’s account (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1751-1775/bostonmassacre/prest.htm):

1. How was Capt. Preston involved in the events of March 5, 1770? Given his position, how do we encounter his description of the events?

2. Why were the British “soldiery” apprehensive prior to the event (2^nd paragraph)? List several reasons here.

3. Provide a brief outline of the accounts that transpired on Monday night, according to Capt. Preston.

4. Third paragraph: what was the reason for Capt. Preston’s initial personal involvement in the activity?

5. At what point did Capt. Preston issue the order to fire?

Regarding the anonymous account (http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1751-1775/bostonmassacre/anon.htm):

6. Fourth paragraph: to what obscure reason does the author ascribe the desire of British commissioners for “exciting disturbances and tumults”?

7. Paragraph 16: does this account agree with Capt. Preston’s description of the first early encounters between soldier(s) and citizen(s), prior to any firing or mob activity? Explain your answer with specific reference to text.

8. According to this account, why were the soldiers angered and determined to exact revenge on citizens? What was “the occasion” of the conflict?

9. What is the position of this anonymous witness as to Capt. Preston’s order to fire?

10. And how about this account? http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/bostonm2.htm

10. What would you conclude from these three accounts as to what actually transpired?

Using yet another item and form of evidence, Paul Revere’s depiction of the massacre at (http://www.si.umich.edu/spies/print-bostonmassacre.html):

11. It is widely written that this engraving is inaccurate. Be specific as to which inaccuracies you find in it. (Use http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog04/transcript/page03.html and http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h83.html).

Look at this more modern picture of the event: http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/revgfx/bost-mass2.jpg.

12. How does the above differ from the Revere engraving?

Considering next various testimony from eyewitnesses, at the trial of Captain Preston and the British soldiers (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/prestontrialexcerpts.html):

13. On what key point did the case against Captain Preston hinge? How did the jury find on this point? Do you agree with its conclusion? Explain.

14. What ultimately happened to Captain Preston?

15. How is the testimony of Captain Gifford (near bottom of page) significant?

Extended Activity:

Do you know of any situations similar to the Boston Massacre in which there were civilian casualties resulting from military fire? Describe that event, and discuss similarities and differences between it and the Boston Massacre.

Students can read the diary entry of John Adams at http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/bostonmassacre/diaryentries.html . They can reflect on Adams’s decision to defend Captain Preston. They can be prompted to think of other situations in which a person made a deliberate decision to take on an unpopular cause, and think of the consequences of such decisions.

Closing: The teacher might want to introduce her own context on mob situations and prompt students to think about how they would react in such circumstances. This is a theme that is worthwhile following through the U.S. history survey: Jackson’s minions were often described as a mob; the draft riots of 1863 in New York City were often characterized similarly; students can read about Kent State in 1973, and so on.

Assessment Measures: Authentic assessment is best applied here. Teachers and students can look to the Extended Activities for means to assess student understanding of the Boston Massacre. Teachers can ask students to extend the boundaries of the unit still further by prompting them, for example, to write what the judge would have instructed the jury, or what a member of the jury might have written in his memoirs about the case against Captain Preston. The theme of mob action, suggested as an Extended Activity, is also worth exploring further to assess student understanding: the teacher might ask students whether mob encounters can yield positive results, and whether that was the case in the colonies in the 1770s.

Student Evaluation:

Here the teacher will look back at the Performance Objectives listed above and reflect on how well the students have met those goals, as demonstrated in the execution of the lesson plan and in the assessment.

Self Evaluation:

This is the teacher’s reflection on the lesson, its strengths and weaknesses. What went smoothly? What might have gone more smoothly? What needed better explanation? Who needs more reinforcement? What did you learn from this lesson about your teaching? What might you do differently next time?

The Boston Massacre

E Pluribus Unum