Boston Massacre

American  

noun

American History.

1. a riot in Boston (March 5, 1770) arising from the resentment of Boston colonists toward British troops quartered in the city, in which the troops fired on the mob and killed several persons.

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Boston Massacre Cultural  

1. A clash between British troops and townspeople in Boston in 1770, before the Revolutionary War. The British fired into a crowd that was threatening them, killing five, including Crispus Attucks. The soldiers had been sent to help the government maintain order and were resented even before this incident. The killings increased the colonists' inclination toward revolution.

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Example Sentences

Prints, paintings and works of decorative art document the philosophies, pivotal events and major figures of the time, from the Boston Massacre and Paul Revere to indigenous conflicts and George Washington.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 18, 2026

For the founding generation, their defining experience of the dangers of domestic deployment of the military was the Boston Massacre and the quartering of British troops in private homes.

From Salon • Jul. 11, 2025

Then there’s Crispus Attucks, who is best known as a victim in the Boston Massacre of 1770 and is often portrayed as the first martyr of the American Revolution.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2023

In 2009, Ms. Engelbrecht created the nonprofit King Street Patriots, named after the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre, which fueled colonial tensions that would erupt again with the Tea Party uprising three years later.

From New York Times • Sep. 14, 2022

But I’d thought it was a small conflict, like the Boston Massacre, which Dad talked about a lot, in which half a dozen people had been martyred by a tyrannical government.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover