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The Boston Massacre: A Family History
“Historical accuracy and human understanding require coming down from the high ground and seeing people in all their complexity. Serena Zabin’s rich and highly enjoyable book does just that.”—Kathleen DuVal, Wall Street Journal A dramatic, untold “people’s history” of the storied event that helped trigger the American Revolution. 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 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 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. Serena Zabin’s The Boston Massacre delivers an indelible new slant on iconic American Revolutionary history.
320 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2020
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February 23, 2020
This book is about very serious events but it's also very enjoyable. Zabin spent years researching the book and used all primary sources. She has created a picture that is more lively and accurate than others about life in Boston leading up to, during and just after the events of March 5th, 1770.
The famous engraving Paul Revere did and used as propaganda, the first three words of which are "The Bloody Massacre," gave the shootings their name. Paul Revere, noble hero who we're taught to revere, plagiarized the picture from a drawing done by a newspaper cartoonist to whom he never gave money or credit. Zabin has reproductions of both in the book along with other drawings and even an embroidery from the period.
Common history has left out the women, who are the key to a lot of what happened. Women served in or traveled with the British army regiments sent to Boston, a city in which one-fifth of the ladies were left out of the mating dance because there were more of them than eligible males. When the soldiers left Ireland, they had women serving with them to do the sewing, laundering and cooking, and also spouses and children allowed by the Crown to travel with their soldiers as an incentive in recruiting.
It was of course a time of rebellion and there were incidents of violence and harassment on the part of both sides. But no one expected the shootings on King Street (renamed State Street after the revolution, as Queen Street is now Court Street) -- and to this day no one is quite sure among all the conflicting accounts why they happened. A fight had broken out. A mob had accumulated. Who started it depends on whose account you're reading.
Zabin paints a vivid, broad but intimate portrait of Boston at the time where it wasn't occupiers vs. Sons of Liberty but rather in many cases familiars: friends and families. The crowded quarters on Castle Island led to the Redcoats renting space in town. This led to sex and marriage and babies and baptisms, adultery, spats and feuds. The women aren't forefront, they're not background, they're in their places. Not everyone was pleased to mix. One officer bedded and wedded a prominent businessman's granddaughter. Maybe he loved her and maybe he was poking her to poke the locals. Many marriages and baptism records record godparents who were commonly a mix of townies and soldiers. Many local women made good use of the fresh, new supply of men. I can't stand the tv shows but at times, and I mean this in the best way, I was smiling reading about the day-to-day goings on thinking, this is Ye Olde Housewives of Boston.
Of course the events were very serious, the consequences enormous, but Zabin allows in humor. This is about the people and Zabin has put their own words back in their mouths as often as possible and flesh on their bones. She's factual and end notes source every single thing, it's organized chronologically starting out in Ireland as the regiments leave. It's made of messy truth born of human interaction, sex and brawls and vendettas, misery and company as well as Empire and rebellion. "The Boston Massacre" is and was far more interesting than what the dry, bleached bones of received history would have us believe.
The famous engraving Paul Revere did and used as propaganda, the first three words of which are "The Bloody Massacre," gave the shootings their name. Paul Revere, noble hero who we're taught to revere, plagiarized the picture from a drawing done by a newspaper cartoonist to whom he never gave money or credit. Zabin has reproductions of both in the book along with other drawings and even an embroidery from the period.
Common history has left out the women, who are the key to a lot of what happened. Women served in or traveled with the British army regiments sent to Boston, a city in which one-fifth of the ladies were left out of the mating dance because there were more of them than eligible males. When the soldiers left Ireland, they had women serving with them to do the sewing, laundering and cooking, and also spouses and children allowed by the Crown to travel with their soldiers as an incentive in recruiting.
It was of course a time of rebellion and there were incidents of violence and harassment on the part of both sides. But no one expected the shootings on King Street (renamed State Street after the revolution, as Queen Street is now Court Street) -- and to this day no one is quite sure among all the conflicting accounts why they happened. A fight had broken out. A mob had accumulated. Who started it depends on whose account you're reading.
Zabin paints a vivid, broad but intimate portrait of Boston at the time where it wasn't occupiers vs. Sons of Liberty but rather in many cases familiars: friends and families. The crowded quarters on Castle Island led to the Redcoats renting space in town. This led to sex and marriage and babies and baptisms, adultery, spats and feuds. The women aren't forefront, they're not background, they're in their places. Not everyone was pleased to mix. One officer bedded and wedded a prominent businessman's granddaughter. Maybe he loved her and maybe he was poking her to poke the locals. Many marriages and baptism records record godparents who were commonly a mix of townies and soldiers. Many local women made good use of the fresh, new supply of men. I can't stand the tv shows but at times, and I mean this in the best way, I was smiling reading about the day-to-day goings on thinking, this is Ye Olde Housewives of Boston.
Of course the events were very serious, the consequences enormous, but Zabin allows in humor. This is about the people and Zabin has put their own words back in their mouths as often as possible and flesh on their bones. She's factual and end notes source every single thing, it's organized chronologically starting out in Ireland as the regiments leave. It's made of messy truth born of human interaction, sex and brawls and vendettas, misery and company as well as Empire and rebellion. "The Boston Massacre" is and was far more interesting than what the dry, bleached bones of received history would have us believe.
July 17, 2025
Having written previously on the commerce and culture of the colony of New York prior to the American Revolution, Professor Serena Zabin returns with a social history that showcases the period leading up to the infamous Boston Massacre. With a tense and gripping prologue that sets the overall tone of the book in capturing Paul Revere’s monumental engraving of the British debauchery, Zabin easily proves that this will be a highly engaging social history of the town and the tumult of the times. Indeed, the very first paragraph in the opening chapter is unique and appealing as Zabin acknowledges the oft-overlooked role that women had in connection with the disaster that would eventually take place.
She sets out by covering the Irish Twenty-Ninth Regiment’s embarkation for North America, noting the inconvenience of having a limit placed on the number of women and children who were allowed to accompany them. Fortunately, a law was passed the very year that they were to set sail (1765), which allowed for their family members to join. This small act consequently reduced the amount of welfare and food that would have been necessary and essential had they been forced to remain in Ireland. Zabin relates that while these soldiers and other regiments were stationed in Canada, they were put on alert and made preparations for quashing any potential riot or violent protests that may come from the unpopular Stamp Act, which fortunately was repealed in 1766.
Throughout the first half of the book, Zabin magnifies her focus on Matthew and Jane Chambers—noting his exploits in the Twenty-Ninth Regiment, and Jane’s commitment to their growing brood and the changes that come with a new life across the Atlantic. Appealing subchapters are unfortunately few and far between, with only select chapters receiving this treatment—nonetheless, these rare gems add to the reading experience by concisely describing what lies in the pages ahead. As the Twenty-Ninth and Fourteenth Regiments eventually station in Boston, Zabin concisely describes the Quarters Act with its respective faults, and relates the dire consequences that come with an imperial military—specifically one bent on drinking away boredom, and unsympathetic to the local populace:
Yet even violent public demands to sleep with a married woman did little to damage a soldier’s reputation. Dalton immediately went to Justice Dana to swear out a complaint against Fitzpatrick. When Fitzpatrick went to trial, he pleaded no contest to the charges. Or rather, he instructed his lawyer, the Son of Liberty Josiah Quincy, to plead on his behalf. He was let off with a fine that his lawyer immediately appealed. Rather than expressing horror at his conduct, Fitzpatrick’s commanding officers promoted him to lieutenant before he left Boston.
While the research gathered by Zabin is both extensive and impressive, the reader at times may feel bogged down and overloaded by the copious amount of stories and backgrounds tied to numerous individuals and families prior to the Massacre. The details of that monumental event are finally laid out evenly through the eyes of several of the day’s participants—where Zabin expertly interprets and recollects their accounts with vivid attention and impartiality 250 years after the brief yet tragic debacle. The ramifications for the British soldiers involved (and indeed all of those quartered in Boston) are told in chronological fashion in the following two chapters, where public discontent for colonial rule heightens exponentially—and the by-now-controversial rule of Parliamentary Law is tested in the Massachusetts courts.
The eventual trial itself takes full spotlight and is unquestionably the highlight of Zabin’s work, where she touches on the various proceedings and John Adams’ esteemed—albeit detested—role in providing defense for the condemned redcoats. Indeed, it’s his depiction and definition of the mob at hand that saves the very lives of these soldiers: painting a picture that altogether removed the average (in his version, innocent) Boston citizen from participating in any violent acts—placing the blame instead on “outsiders” and lawless rabble. With an appropriate epilogue that brings together the futures of those individual lives and relationships that she followed from the beginning, Serena Zabin has established the quintessential history of the events surrounding the Boston Massacre. A selection of illustrations are included, as well as various photos of important documents, journals, and paintings found throughout.
She sets out by covering the Irish Twenty-Ninth Regiment’s embarkation for North America, noting the inconvenience of having a limit placed on the number of women and children who were allowed to accompany them. Fortunately, a law was passed the very year that they were to set sail (1765), which allowed for their family members to join. This small act consequently reduced the amount of welfare and food that would have been necessary and essential had they been forced to remain in Ireland. Zabin relates that while these soldiers and other regiments were stationed in Canada, they were put on alert and made preparations for quashing any potential riot or violent protests that may come from the unpopular Stamp Act, which fortunately was repealed in 1766.
Throughout the first half of the book, Zabin magnifies her focus on Matthew and Jane Chambers—noting his exploits in the Twenty-Ninth Regiment, and Jane’s commitment to their growing brood and the changes that come with a new life across the Atlantic. Appealing subchapters are unfortunately few and far between, with only select chapters receiving this treatment—nonetheless, these rare gems add to the reading experience by concisely describing what lies in the pages ahead. As the Twenty-Ninth and Fourteenth Regiments eventually station in Boston, Zabin concisely describes the Quarters Act with its respective faults, and relates the dire consequences that come with an imperial military—specifically one bent on drinking away boredom, and unsympathetic to the local populace:
Yet even violent public demands to sleep with a married woman did little to damage a soldier’s reputation. Dalton immediately went to Justice Dana to swear out a complaint against Fitzpatrick. When Fitzpatrick went to trial, he pleaded no contest to the charges. Or rather, he instructed his lawyer, the Son of Liberty Josiah Quincy, to plead on his behalf. He was let off with a fine that his lawyer immediately appealed. Rather than expressing horror at his conduct, Fitzpatrick’s commanding officers promoted him to lieutenant before he left Boston.
While the research gathered by Zabin is both extensive and impressive, the reader at times may feel bogged down and overloaded by the copious amount of stories and backgrounds tied to numerous individuals and families prior to the Massacre. The details of that monumental event are finally laid out evenly through the eyes of several of the day’s participants—where Zabin expertly interprets and recollects their accounts with vivid attention and impartiality 250 years after the brief yet tragic debacle. The ramifications for the British soldiers involved (and indeed all of those quartered in Boston) are told in chronological fashion in the following two chapters, where public discontent for colonial rule heightens exponentially—and the by-now-controversial rule of Parliamentary Law is tested in the Massachusetts courts.
The eventual trial itself takes full spotlight and is unquestionably the highlight of Zabin’s work, where she touches on the various proceedings and John Adams’ esteemed—albeit detested—role in providing defense for the condemned redcoats. Indeed, it’s his depiction and definition of the mob at hand that saves the very lives of these soldiers: painting a picture that altogether removed the average (in his version, innocent) Boston citizen from participating in any violent acts—placing the blame instead on “outsiders” and lawless rabble. With an appropriate epilogue that brings together the futures of those individual lives and relationships that she followed from the beginning, Serena Zabin has established the quintessential history of the events surrounding the Boston Massacre. A selection of illustrations are included, as well as various photos of important documents, journals, and paintings found throughout.
March 9, 2020
I’m sorry to say that I knew nothing about ‘The Boston Massacre,’ an event that occurred on March 5, 1770 on King Street in Boston, Massachusetts. For me, the American Revolution was whipped up by the Boston Tea Party. Learning the history of my own country faded along with my high school days of yore when teachers tried to pry open my brain in order to implant beneficial nuggets of information. Serena Zabin writes a fascinating and detailed historical account of the intertwining of the lives of the colonists and British soldiers in the years leading up to the shooting (massacre). Five men were killed and six wounded. I had never given a lot of thought to what life must have been like for those Bostonians in those times or tried to imagine the life of a redcoat soldier who took a liking to one of Boston’s young women. Zabin recreates those lives from numerous historical records.
With lands expanded by the Treaty of Paris of 1763, the British government now needed a greater military presence in the territories relinquished by the French. Many colonists were happy about the end of the Seven Years’ War and happy to embrace the mother country of Great Britain. They weren’t quite so happy when the British government decided the best way to pay for all these troops that were going to be moving across the North American continent was to raise the taxes on colonial trade. Boston was quite a political hotbed with the “Sons of Liberty” opposing the governor of Massachusetts. The Stamp Act which applied to different kinds of official papers such as newspapers, pamphlets, and bail bonds among many others, was fiercely opposed by the colonists. Riots fomented in the streets, at times of thousands of people. Francis Bernard, the governor of Massachusetts panicked and fled to Castle William after destructive riots in the city. Asking for more troops to be sent to Boston to keep the peace, Bernard hopes that the big decisions will be taken off his hands. There is a fine line on which the British soldiers must operate to police the colonists for they are still under the laws of Boston. It is murky territory, but Zabin wades in to gather the human side of the story, of both colonists and soldiers.
What I appreciated most about Zabin’s history is the humanizing of the British soldiers and their wives. With inadequate housing, many had to pitch tents while others sheltered in Faneuil Hall, and still others, in an empty warehouse. What was most difficult about this narrative is that it is dense with names and facts and in order to digest it properly I feel like I would need to read it again, and I’m not going to do that, at least not right now. I came to an understanding of the complexity of relationships between the colonists and soldiers which led to the shooting on King Street. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in America’s early history or for advanced non-fiction readers. I’m a beginning reader of non-fiction struggling to reach an intermediate stage and while this narrative was intriguing on many levels, it was also above my skill set. Perhaps it’s books like this that will get me there.
With lands expanded by the Treaty of Paris of 1763, the British government now needed a greater military presence in the territories relinquished by the French. Many colonists were happy about the end of the Seven Years’ War and happy to embrace the mother country of Great Britain. They weren’t quite so happy when the British government decided the best way to pay for all these troops that were going to be moving across the North American continent was to raise the taxes on colonial trade. Boston was quite a political hotbed with the “Sons of Liberty” opposing the governor of Massachusetts. The Stamp Act which applied to different kinds of official papers such as newspapers, pamphlets, and bail bonds among many others, was fiercely opposed by the colonists. Riots fomented in the streets, at times of thousands of people. Francis Bernard, the governor of Massachusetts panicked and fled to Castle William after destructive riots in the city. Asking for more troops to be sent to Boston to keep the peace, Bernard hopes that the big decisions will be taken off his hands. There is a fine line on which the British soldiers must operate to police the colonists for they are still under the laws of Boston. It is murky territory, but Zabin wades in to gather the human side of the story, of both colonists and soldiers.
What I appreciated most about Zabin’s history is the humanizing of the British soldiers and their wives. With inadequate housing, many had to pitch tents while others sheltered in Faneuil Hall, and still others, in an empty warehouse. What was most difficult about this narrative is that it is dense with names and facts and in order to digest it properly I feel like I would need to read it again, and I’m not going to do that, at least not right now. I came to an understanding of the complexity of relationships between the colonists and soldiers which led to the shooting on King Street. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in America’s early history or for advanced non-fiction readers. I’m a beginning reader of non-fiction struggling to reach an intermediate stage and while this narrative was intriguing on many levels, it was also above my skill set. Perhaps it’s books like this that will get me there.
April 3, 2020
Zabin focuses on the wives of British soldiers that accompanied their husbands to Boston from England and Ireland; and the Boston women who lived alongside the British occupiers. Using many first-hand accounts, Zabin paints a picture of the two factions becoming friends, marrying, and living side-by-side reasonably well. It isn’t until half-way through the book that the British and Bostonians relationship starts to fray, and the massacre takes place. Recommend this fascinating account from ‘the womens' point-of-view’.
July 19, 2025
This was highly informative and explained the details leading up the shooting. Serena Zabin did an excellent job of detailing the British Army, its deployment cycle, British and Colonial interactions, and Boston society at the time of the conclusion of the French & Indian War/Seven Years' War, 1763.
I learned that the regular British Army allowed (if not all, most of) it's family members to travel with their husbands. The deployment tempo was a quick turnaround by today's standards but sitting in icy Canada, the Mediterranean, the British Isles, and India could be disastrous. She explained the culture of the British Army of the time, its dealings with good order & discipline, and the inevitable assimilation into the Boston colonial culture.
As taxation without representation was in full swing—the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Townshend Act—colonial Americans slowly began driving force and vocalized tensions against the Crown. By 1768, rebelliousness was needing to be dealt with as British troops (four regiments) were forward-deployed to Boston. The living situation of the troops placed them in the heart of Boston, making their presence known by sight and sound on the daily.
The true horror of the Boston Massacre was due to two years worth of developed friendships, civilian and soldier marriages, shared religious values, and peaceful coexistence between the American colonials and the British common soldiers. At large, there was resentment and animosity towards the Crown; on the everyday-level there were peaceful relations.
This was a quick read because it was informative and interesting in my opinion. There were lots of details explaining circumstances and correlation without boring me. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Colonial American history and events leading to the American Revolutionary War. Thanks!
I learned that the regular British Army allowed (if not all, most of) it's family members to travel with their husbands. The deployment tempo was a quick turnaround by today's standards but sitting in icy Canada, the Mediterranean, the British Isles, and India could be disastrous. She explained the culture of the British Army of the time, its dealings with good order & discipline, and the inevitable assimilation into the Boston colonial culture.
As taxation without representation was in full swing—the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Townshend Act—colonial Americans slowly began driving force and vocalized tensions against the Crown. By 1768, rebelliousness was needing to be dealt with as British troops (four regiments) were forward-deployed to Boston. The living situation of the troops placed them in the heart of Boston, making their presence known by sight and sound on the daily.
The true horror of the Boston Massacre was due to two years worth of developed friendships, civilian and soldier marriages, shared religious values, and peaceful coexistence between the American colonials and the British common soldiers. At large, there was resentment and animosity towards the Crown; on the everyday-level there were peaceful relations.
This was a quick read because it was informative and interesting in my opinion. There were lots of details explaining circumstances and correlation without boring me. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Colonial American history and events leading to the American Revolutionary War. Thanks!
May 16, 2025
This book is an interesting 3.5/5 for me. On one hand, I feel like I didn't learn as much about the Boston Massacre as I had hoped. On the other hand, I learned more about colonial Boston and the social networks of that time way more than I thought I would. So while I'm left slightly disappointed with the book's direction, it's only because it wasn't what I was expecting when I bought the book - the book itself, as well as Zabin's approach, are very good.
Zabin's general thesis is that the Boston Massacre is better understood as the result of an interwoven network of friends and families between local residents and colonial soldiers. Rather than imagining homogeneous categories of "American" or "Redcoat," Zabin considers how people blended, combined, and blurred these distinctions. Her notion that the Revolution was a really a "family conflict" is really interesting, and offers a new way of viewing the period, even if it doesn't explain every last process occurring at that time. Certainly, it made me think differently about my understanding of the city of Boston, the relationship between the Crown and her subjects, and 18th-century colonial powers.
The book excels at demonstrating the connections between individuals and communities in colonial Boston. Zabin's extensive research on kinship networks, support structures, and interpersonal anecdotes (often, quite juicy ones) goes a long way to illustrate the social ties and awareness of the city in the 1760s and 70s. They also exemplify her broader notions of family as a historical subject and access point for wider conflicts. Lengthy passages regarding the wives of British soldiers shipped throughout North America fill in a gap I was unaware of, and show just how frequently traditional history omits these women who play essential military, social, and interpersonal functions in community and national events. It's quite good, and the strength of the text.
I was disappointed, however, by how much the Boston Massacre plays second fiddle to this family focus. It isn't that I dislike the focus at all (see above), but rather that I purchased the book with the intention of learning more about the Boston Massacre. While I certainly did learn more (namely, that despite an immense amount of testimony we still don't have a clear picture of what happened), I didn't learn as much as I had hoped for a book titled The Boston Massacre. Other versions of the title - Road to Revolution, The Eve of a Massacre, Heating Up (whatever you could think of) - that emphasize the Massacre as an epilogue event rather than a central event would have prepared me more for what I read.
Overall, a valuable contribution to scholarship on colonial Boston, and definitely has some useful information regarding the Massacre, even if it isn't as central as I initially hoped. I would recommend it to those interested in social history or family history, and would recommend it as an additional (but not initial) resource for those interested in the Boston Massacre. In particular, I think Maggie would enjoy it. I would recommend it to Hilde, but Hilde has already read it!
Zabin's general thesis is that the Boston Massacre is better understood as the result of an interwoven network of friends and families between local residents and colonial soldiers. Rather than imagining homogeneous categories of "American" or "Redcoat," Zabin considers how people blended, combined, and blurred these distinctions. Her notion that the Revolution was a really a "family conflict" is really interesting, and offers a new way of viewing the period, even if it doesn't explain every last process occurring at that time. Certainly, it made me think differently about my understanding of the city of Boston, the relationship between the Crown and her subjects, and 18th-century colonial powers.
The book excels at demonstrating the connections between individuals and communities in colonial Boston. Zabin's extensive research on kinship networks, support structures, and interpersonal anecdotes (often, quite juicy ones) goes a long way to illustrate the social ties and awareness of the city in the 1760s and 70s. They also exemplify her broader notions of family as a historical subject and access point for wider conflicts. Lengthy passages regarding the wives of British soldiers shipped throughout North America fill in a gap I was unaware of, and show just how frequently traditional history omits these women who play essential military, social, and interpersonal functions in community and national events. It's quite good, and the strength of the text.
I was disappointed, however, by how much the Boston Massacre plays second fiddle to this family focus. It isn't that I dislike the focus at all (see above), but rather that I purchased the book with the intention of learning more about the Boston Massacre. While I certainly did learn more (namely, that despite an immense amount of testimony we still don't have a clear picture of what happened), I didn't learn as much as I had hoped for a book titled The Boston Massacre. Other versions of the title - Road to Revolution, The Eve of a Massacre, Heating Up (whatever you could think of) - that emphasize the Massacre as an epilogue event rather than a central event would have prepared me more for what I read.
Overall, a valuable contribution to scholarship on colonial Boston, and definitely has some useful information regarding the Massacre, even if it isn't as central as I initially hoped. I would recommend it to those interested in social history or family history, and would recommend it as an additional (but not initial) resource for those interested in the Boston Massacre. In particular, I think Maggie would enjoy it. I would recommend it to Hilde, but Hilde has already read it!
October 19, 2020
This book may not be what you think it is when you first pick it up, which I think accounts for the lower rating here on Goodreads. It is not a straightforward history of the event that became known as the Boston Massacre.
The names of the men who were killed are only mentioned a few times (some are only mentioned once in the very beginning of the book), and there is no real linear "this happened first, and then this, and then also this." Part of that is because we just don't KNOW what happened in the Boston Massacre to this day (depending on the witness, the townspeople were aggressors bent on striking out at the British Empire or victims to overzealous soldiers bent on killing any Bostonian they could or just kind of standing around because they thought the town was on fire). The author admits that there is no way of discovering who is exactly to blame, and that isn't even the point of the book anyway, so no blame needs be assigned.
Instead, this book is about the culture of the British Army (particularly the 14th and 29th Regiments) and Boston before and just after the Boston Massacre. Much of the story is told through its women, both military wives who packed up from their homelands of England or Ireland or Scotland to follow their husbands to the Colonies (Canadian first, then American) and the women of Boston who befriended those military women and/or married into the military themselves. It is about the interconnected relationships that the people of Boston had with those regiments, even when a good portion of those citizens resented their very presence in the city. The soldiers were soldiers, but they were also tenants, neighbors, friends, romantic partners, etc.
The Boston Massacre effectively decimates those relationships. The two regiments are sent out to New Jersey after the Massacre, severing their ties to the community of Boston. Marriages unravel. Husbands desert the military to be with their families or desert their families to remain with the military. Friends become bitter enemies in the coming years. Families are estranged from one another depending on which side they choose in the Revolution, oftentimes separated for life.
The author uses this pivotal moment in time to also showcase how the Massacre not only destroyed personal relationships, but also the American Colonies' relationship with Great Britain, using those personal relationships as a mirror to the larger severance looming in the near future.
I enjoyed reading this book a great deal, and I learned a lot of little facts about Colonial Boston, which always makes my brain happy. If you're looking for a detailed and linear accounting of the events of the Boston Massacre, however, I would suggest that you look elsewhere.
The names of the men who were killed are only mentioned a few times (some are only mentioned once in the very beginning of the book), and there is no real linear "this happened first, and then this, and then also this." Part of that is because we just don't KNOW what happened in the Boston Massacre to this day (depending on the witness, the townspeople were aggressors bent on striking out at the British Empire or victims to overzealous soldiers bent on killing any Bostonian they could or just kind of standing around because they thought the town was on fire). The author admits that there is no way of discovering who is exactly to blame, and that isn't even the point of the book anyway, so no blame needs be assigned.
Instead, this book is about the culture of the British Army (particularly the 14th and 29th Regiments) and Boston before and just after the Boston Massacre. Much of the story is told through its women, both military wives who packed up from their homelands of England or Ireland or Scotland to follow their husbands to the Colonies (Canadian first, then American) and the women of Boston who befriended those military women and/or married into the military themselves. It is about the interconnected relationships that the people of Boston had with those regiments, even when a good portion of those citizens resented their very presence in the city. The soldiers were soldiers, but they were also tenants, neighbors, friends, romantic partners, etc.
The Boston Massacre effectively decimates those relationships. The two regiments are sent out to New Jersey after the Massacre, severing their ties to the community of Boston. Marriages unravel. Husbands desert the military to be with their families or desert their families to remain with the military. Friends become bitter enemies in the coming years. Families are estranged from one another depending on which side they choose in the Revolution, oftentimes separated for life.
The author uses this pivotal moment in time to also showcase how the Massacre not only destroyed personal relationships, but also the American Colonies' relationship with Great Britain, using those personal relationships as a mirror to the larger severance looming in the near future.
I enjoyed reading this book a great deal, and I learned a lot of little facts about Colonial Boston, which always makes my brain happy. If you're looking for a detailed and linear accounting of the events of the Boston Massacre, however, I would suggest that you look elsewhere.
February 20, 2021
Every year for the commemoration of the Boston Massacre, I portray Isabella Montgomery, who Zabin mentions frequently in her text. My goal is always to tell the larger story of the Boston occupation and it’s affect on the women and children of Boston, both native born and transplanted.
Zabin’s incredible research and storytelling skills help to paint that picture so well I feel like I’ve been taken into a reality tv show. Often we forget that history has a real human element, and she is able to bring it to life brilliantly. Not only is this a refreshing take on a part of our history that has largely left out-women and children-but it brings a relatability that is so important to modern day readers and studiers of history. It is an honor to portray one of Zabin’s subjects, even more so now that I’m armed with this new information.
Zabin’s incredible research and storytelling skills help to paint that picture so well I feel like I’ve been taken into a reality tv show. Often we forget that history has a real human element, and she is able to bring it to life brilliantly. Not only is this a refreshing take on a part of our history that has largely left out-women and children-but it brings a relatability that is so important to modern day readers and studiers of history. It is an honor to portray one of Zabin’s subjects, even more so now that I’m armed with this new information.
September 11, 2020
Historians continue to assess the meaning of the American Revolution. But at first glance, what can one possibly say about the Boston Massacre that is new? The iconic event, immortalized 250 years ago in a famous engraving by Paul Revere, has been studied and written about exhaustively. The facts are well-known, even if interpretations have differed.
Through exhaustive sleuthing in British military records, official correspondence and Boston archives, Serena Zabin, a history professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., changes this familiar story into a familial one. The result is a lively gem of a book that expands our views of early-modern military life, pre-revolutionary Boston, and, in turn, the American Revolution.
Early modern armies were full of women. Married to privates and officers, they cooked, cleaned, nursed and laundered for soldiers while raising children. Though often derisively dismissed as “camp followers,” they provided crucial support. In recognition of their importance to the functioning of the army, many received rations, pay and even transportation when regiments got deployed. The 2,000 British regulars sent to Boston in 1768 to exercise riot control in the face of opposition to new imperial taxes were accompanied by close to 400 women and 500 children.
Unwilling to live in the barracks on distant Castle Island in Boston Harbor to which resentful Bostonians had relegated them, the soldiers were forced to rent warehouses, houses, and rooms in private homes all over town. About 3,000 Britons and 16,000 townspeople ended up sharing the roughly one-square-mile peninsula that comprised pre-revolutionary Boston. Not surprisingly, civilians and soldiers intermingled and communities connected, albeit uneasily.
Of course, there were tensions. As military custom required, soldiers challenged people walking by guard posts. Politicized Bostonians considered this an assault on their liberty. Their refusals to answer challenged army authority and created friction. Moreover, there were drunken brawls, curses, “indelicate threatenings” and regular violent clashes on city streets, some involving women.
But the landlords and tenants also exchanged coal and the proverbial neighborly cups of sugar, visited and worked together, and attended the same churches. To the horror of local patriots, soldiers and female Bostonians flirted and romanced. Some wed. One in four nuptials in Boston between 1768 and 1772 involved British soldiers and local women. Zabin’s in-depth research allows her to track a number of these couples. Although some Bostonians rejected these unions as a betrayal of the American cause, others publicly embraced the new “imperial” families. New Englanders also eagerly aided soldiers keen to escape from the army. Unusually large numbers of deserters absconded into the surrounding countryside, where they, too, became neighbors, friends, husbands, and fathers.
As time wore on, relations between civilians and soldiers became progressively volatile. Zabin points out that such unpredictability was not peculiar to Boston. Explosive civilian-military relations were common, given the use of soldiers for crowd control in peace time throughout the British Empire. Increasingly resentful of military occupation, Bostonians were exquisitely sensitive to any slight or innocent misstep. “Every morning,” Zabin writes, “was a roll of the dice: Would this be another day of favors exchanged and drinks shared? Or would this be a day when a comment became a shove or a brawl became a riot?”
As to the actual events on the evening of March 5, 1770, we are still in the dark, despite the accounts of several hundred witnesses who said they had seen or heard something important. Their stories diverged widely, and the number of actual observers was in question. Were just a few dozen people in the immediate area or hundreds? Did restrained redcoats fire in self-defense as townspeople armed with clubs pelted them with sticks, ice and snow, or did they shoot willfully on well-behaving and unarmed folk? Did Capt. Thomas Preston order his men to fire or did he try to hold them back? Had it all been an unfortunate accident?
Although the fascinating testimonies Zabin details do not agree on how events unfolded, they do show that people encountered one another that evening as community members, rather than as faceless civilians and soldiers. It was the trials at the end of 1770, first of Preston and then of eight of his soldiers, she argues convincingly, that turned the familiar redcoats into anonymous strangers. For different reasons, lawyers on both sides erased any neighborly and familial ties and created a narrative of two separate and opposing camps of civilians and soldiers.
This “political spin,” Zabin points out, also contributed to the “disappearance” of the families and “all women, both civilian and military, associated with this event.” Their absence in the historical narrative extends well beyond the Boston Massacre and remains an issue for historians wanting to point out the centrality of family and gender in understanding the revolution and the War of Independence.
In the epilogue of her engaging book, Zabin observes that the Boston Massacre was a family brawl that broke down the familial relations between the mother country and her colonial children, just as the revolutionary conflict split actual families and friendships on both sides of the ocean. “We think of the American Revolution as a political event,” she concludes, “but it was much more like a bad divorce.”
Zabin’s writing is clear, even witty, as when she quotes a letter from a British commander remarking on his troops’ fondness for American women. “ ‘Debauch,’ ‘seducers’ — it seems the army had suddenly found itself inside a novel by Samuel Richardson,” writes Zabin, citing the “Pamela” novelist who was the 18th-century equivalent of Danielle Steel.
The result is a complex picture of a society where, yes, some were beginning to chafe under British rule but where others were happy to have that protection. Where, yes, officials told wives of the soldiers who were displaced after the massacre that the city was not obliged to provide for them since they weren’t citizens, but where the city ended up caring for some of them, anyway.
Through exhaustive sleuthing in British military records, official correspondence and Boston archives, Serena Zabin, a history professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., changes this familiar story into a familial one. The result is a lively gem of a book that expands our views of early-modern military life, pre-revolutionary Boston, and, in turn, the American Revolution.
Early modern armies were full of women. Married to privates and officers, they cooked, cleaned, nursed and laundered for soldiers while raising children. Though often derisively dismissed as “camp followers,” they provided crucial support. In recognition of their importance to the functioning of the army, many received rations, pay and even transportation when regiments got deployed. The 2,000 British regulars sent to Boston in 1768 to exercise riot control in the face of opposition to new imperial taxes were accompanied by close to 400 women and 500 children.
Unwilling to live in the barracks on distant Castle Island in Boston Harbor to which resentful Bostonians had relegated them, the soldiers were forced to rent warehouses, houses, and rooms in private homes all over town. About 3,000 Britons and 16,000 townspeople ended up sharing the roughly one-square-mile peninsula that comprised pre-revolutionary Boston. Not surprisingly, civilians and soldiers intermingled and communities connected, albeit uneasily.
Of course, there were tensions. As military custom required, soldiers challenged people walking by guard posts. Politicized Bostonians considered this an assault on their liberty. Their refusals to answer challenged army authority and created friction. Moreover, there were drunken brawls, curses, “indelicate threatenings” and regular violent clashes on city streets, some involving women.
But the landlords and tenants also exchanged coal and the proverbial neighborly cups of sugar, visited and worked together, and attended the same churches. To the horror of local patriots, soldiers and female Bostonians flirted and romanced. Some wed. One in four nuptials in Boston between 1768 and 1772 involved British soldiers and local women. Zabin’s in-depth research allows her to track a number of these couples. Although some Bostonians rejected these unions as a betrayal of the American cause, others publicly embraced the new “imperial” families. New Englanders also eagerly aided soldiers keen to escape from the army. Unusually large numbers of deserters absconded into the surrounding countryside, where they, too, became neighbors, friends, husbands, and fathers.
As time wore on, relations between civilians and soldiers became progressively volatile. Zabin points out that such unpredictability was not peculiar to Boston. Explosive civilian-military relations were common, given the use of soldiers for crowd control in peace time throughout the British Empire. Increasingly resentful of military occupation, Bostonians were exquisitely sensitive to any slight or innocent misstep. “Every morning,” Zabin writes, “was a roll of the dice: Would this be another day of favors exchanged and drinks shared? Or would this be a day when a comment became a shove or a brawl became a riot?”
As to the actual events on the evening of March 5, 1770, we are still in the dark, despite the accounts of several hundred witnesses who said they had seen or heard something important. Their stories diverged widely, and the number of actual observers was in question. Were just a few dozen people in the immediate area or hundreds? Did restrained redcoats fire in self-defense as townspeople armed with clubs pelted them with sticks, ice and snow, or did they shoot willfully on well-behaving and unarmed folk? Did Capt. Thomas Preston order his men to fire or did he try to hold them back? Had it all been an unfortunate accident?
Although the fascinating testimonies Zabin details do not agree on how events unfolded, they do show that people encountered one another that evening as community members, rather than as faceless civilians and soldiers. It was the trials at the end of 1770, first of Preston and then of eight of his soldiers, she argues convincingly, that turned the familiar redcoats into anonymous strangers. For different reasons, lawyers on both sides erased any neighborly and familial ties and created a narrative of two separate and opposing camps of civilians and soldiers.
This “political spin,” Zabin points out, also contributed to the “disappearance” of the families and “all women, both civilian and military, associated with this event.” Their absence in the historical narrative extends well beyond the Boston Massacre and remains an issue for historians wanting to point out the centrality of family and gender in understanding the revolution and the War of Independence.
In the epilogue of her engaging book, Zabin observes that the Boston Massacre was a family brawl that broke down the familial relations between the mother country and her colonial children, just as the revolutionary conflict split actual families and friendships on both sides of the ocean. “We think of the American Revolution as a political event,” she concludes, “but it was much more like a bad divorce.”
Zabin’s writing is clear, even witty, as when she quotes a letter from a British commander remarking on his troops’ fondness for American women. “ ‘Debauch,’ ‘seducers’ — it seems the army had suddenly found itself inside a novel by Samuel Richardson,” writes Zabin, citing the “Pamela” novelist who was the 18th-century equivalent of Danielle Steel.
The result is a complex picture of a society where, yes, some were beginning to chafe under British rule but where others were happy to have that protection. Where, yes, officials told wives of the soldiers who were displaced after the massacre that the city was not obliged to provide for them since they weren’t citizens, but where the city ended up caring for some of them, anyway.
February 25, 2020
A revelatory look at the events leading up to the American Revolution, but ultimately is forgettable by the end. The narrative lacks focus and feels jumbled a lot of the time. Zabin clearly writes with deep empathy for this time period, but the lofty promises that are set forth in the prologue/preface are sadly never met.
February 12, 2020
The author of “The Boston Massacre: A Family History” presents an interesting thesis, that the amount of social interaction between the occupying British troops and American colonists turned the so-called “Boston Massacre” and the later Revolutionary War into “family conflicts”.
According to the descriptive blurb, “… the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political. […] 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. Serena Zabin’s The Boston Massacre delivers an indelible new slant on iconic American Revolutionary history.” In my view, this book fails to live up to its billing by never effectively displaying a causal relationship between the personal, social interactions which she describes in great detail, and the actual event – let alone the greater events that followed, and eventually led to American independence.
Ms Zabin fills the book with a plethora of anecdotes detailing social interactions between the occupying British troops of the 29th Regiment (and others) and locals – dalliances, marriages, births, business relationships, etc. – but does little to reinforce or defend her basic thesis. The event itself, which, though elevated to almost mythic status in American history, amounted to little more than a street brawl resulting in five deaths, is actually given rather short shrift in the text – to the extent that she never names the five men who were shot down by British troops in the incident.
According to the author’s afterword she spent approximately 10 years researching the material behind this book, including time that was funded by various grants. All I can say is that, if I were a decision-maker in one of the organizations that had funded her time, I would be reluctant to do so again.
According to the descriptive blurb, “… the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political. […] 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. Serena Zabin’s The Boston Massacre delivers an indelible new slant on iconic American Revolutionary history.” In my view, this book fails to live up to its billing by never effectively displaying a causal relationship between the personal, social interactions which she describes in great detail, and the actual event – let alone the greater events that followed, and eventually led to American independence.
Ms Zabin fills the book with a plethora of anecdotes detailing social interactions between the occupying British troops of the 29th Regiment (and others) and locals – dalliances, marriages, births, business relationships, etc. – but does little to reinforce or defend her basic thesis. The event itself, which, though elevated to almost mythic status in American history, amounted to little more than a street brawl resulting in five deaths, is actually given rather short shrift in the text – to the extent that she never names the five men who were shot down by British troops in the incident.
According to the author’s afterword she spent approximately 10 years researching the material behind this book, including time that was funded by various grants. All I can say is that, if I were a decision-maker in one of the organizations that had funded her time, I would be reluctant to do so again.
June 26, 2021
I love when an author shows me the humanity behind a historical event, and Serena Zabin does just that with The Boston Massacre.
Having grown up in Massachusetts, the Boston Massacre was taught and talked about, but always as a lead-in to the Revolutionary War. We knew it happened, though we never really understood why. The basic lesson was that the British were the bad guys and the Americans the good guys. The two sides clashed and we rebelled. End of story. Which is, of course, a whitewashed version that erases the social influence and human interactions leading up to the event.
The truth is a complex story of intertwined British and American families in a small city at the start of a turbulent era. Zabin brings this history to life, introducing us to the people involved and allowing us to experience the period as they lived it.
Zabin's narrative style is easy to read. This book taught me more than any of the dense textbooks of my school days. And, more importantly, it's an enjoyable read.
*I received a review copy from the publisher.*
Having grown up in Massachusetts, the Boston Massacre was taught and talked about, but always as a lead-in to the Revolutionary War. We knew it happened, though we never really understood why. The basic lesson was that the British were the bad guys and the Americans the good guys. The two sides clashed and we rebelled. End of story. Which is, of course, a whitewashed version that erases the social influence and human interactions leading up to the event.
The truth is a complex story of intertwined British and American families in a small city at the start of a turbulent era. Zabin brings this history to life, introducing us to the people involved and allowing us to experience the period as they lived it.
Zabin's narrative style is easy to read. This book taught me more than any of the dense textbooks of my school days. And, more importantly, it's an enjoyable read.
*I received a review copy from the publisher.*
October 17, 2022
Not going to lie. I picked up this book because the cover caught my eyes.
Some parts felt slightly repetitive, but I found this book to be very compelling and an overall easy read. The content was still approachable for someone who knew next to nothing about the Boston massacre without feeling entirely too 101.
It had me ugly cackling over my morning coffee with the passage about Nova Scotia being slightly less suicide inducing than another assignment and I can't remember the last time a history book had me cackling so for that reason alone I would recommend it warmly.
Some parts felt slightly repetitive, but I found this book to be very compelling and an overall easy read. The content was still approachable for someone who knew next to nothing about the Boston massacre without feeling entirely too 101.
It had me ugly cackling over my morning coffee with the passage about Nova Scotia being slightly less suicide inducing than another assignment and I can't remember the last time a history book had me cackling so for that reason alone I would recommend it warmly.
September 8, 2020
This is how history should be written, learning about the details through an enjoyable yet informative narrative. It shows that the British troops are not an occupying force but are entangled in the lives of Boston residents in many ways, often marrying local women and also often having their families follow them living with them or nearby. Also, many of the Bostonians remain loyal to the crown so the incident isn't a simple us versus them. Even though John Adams was a patriot, he represented the soldiers in court, and there were conflicting accounts of whether or not the shots were a result of the captain's orders.
March 5, 2020
Fairly disappointing, unfortunately. This felt like a good essay that got stretched way beyond its narrative capacity in order to reach the length needed for a book. Many of the chapters are just slogs--endless carousels of names marrying each other with no narrative continuity and only the historical insight that the opening chapter provides.
February 6, 2025
you can tell it’s written by an academic for educational purposes, but the second half was actually quite entertaining even if i just had to read it for class. epilogue was so good.
February 25, 2025
i’m sure I might have appreciated more if i knew more about the Boston massacre going into it, but i like the human angle she’s going for and i LOVE that Boston has remained “unruly and ungovernable” for more than 250 years. go sox
December 15, 2020
To many people the Boston Massacre was an event that led to the Revolutionary War. There were numerous things that happened before the killing of five Bostonians by British soldiers that led up to the war but the Boston Massacre was something that will forever be tied the events culminating in a war. The author, Serena Zabin, has clearly researched public records to tell the story of how the British sent soldiers to live among the people of Boston in the 1760's and how the citizens of this town were forced to make room for these soldiers and, in many cases, their families. Over time they all seemed to settle in together and many women of Boston married soldiers. There were shared weddings, baptisms, church services and, though some were still not happy with the British invasion of their town, they seemed to settle in together as well as could be expected under the circumstances. Then on March 5, 1770 a group of colonists were arguing with British Private Hugh White. As the argument grew, sticks and snowballs were thrown and soon other soldiers came to the aid of Private White. It is unclear to this day exactly what happened to cause the soldiers to fire upon the colonists but five Bostonians were killed. A trial was to be held and it was feared that the soldiers could not get a fair trial in Boston, that is until John Adams stepped forward to defend Captain Thomas Preston who was charged with ordering the soldiers to fire. The book takes you through the time leading up to the trial and a bit of the trial itself. The story is an interesting one and it is well researched but much of it is clearly taken from public records and then put together as the author surmises it occurred. It is still a good read for anyone interested in this event.
May 20, 2020
The author researches a fascinating topic -- the social and familial connections between Bostonians and the occupying British troops in the city leading up to the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which five Bostonians were killed. Her viewpoint illuminates the muddied waters between the factions. Too often we have a simplistic view of the American Revolution as the Patriots vs. the Redcoats. It must have been heartrending to have to choose sides in that time and place.
That said, it seems like there wasn't enough material to stretch out into a book. The same points are repeatedly stated and much of the material is conjecture. I don't discount the book for that reason -- I know how hard it is to find sources from long-ago events, especially accounts of women's lives. Women are only now starting to make it into the history books. Because the author attempts to unearth stories about women, I'll grant another star.
I also would have appreciated reading more about the massacre itself. Maybe I'm the only one, but I didn't know much about it. The author starts in with little detail about the massacre and a long-winded description of Paul Revere's version of the original artist's woodcut of the event. The two versions aren't shown side-by-side, so right away I was lost, and I didn't even understand the importance of the details as I was unfamiliar with the event. I looked up the massacre online, so that I'd have some background and be able to finish the book without the distraction of missing information.
That said, it seems like there wasn't enough material to stretch out into a book. The same points are repeatedly stated and much of the material is conjecture. I don't discount the book for that reason -- I know how hard it is to find sources from long-ago events, especially accounts of women's lives. Women are only now starting to make it into the history books. Because the author attempts to unearth stories about women, I'll grant another star.
I also would have appreciated reading more about the massacre itself. Maybe I'm the only one, but I didn't know much about it. The author starts in with little detail about the massacre and a long-winded description of Paul Revere's version of the original artist's woodcut of the event. The two versions aren't shown side-by-side, so right away I was lost, and I didn't even understand the importance of the details as I was unfamiliar with the event. I looked up the massacre online, so that I'd have some background and be able to finish the book without the distraction of missing information.
April 14, 2020
For years I've taught students that the Boston Massacre was a watershed because it showed the deadly difference-in-interest between England and the United States. Zabin's incredible research and compelling prose convincingly show that, in fact, collectively and individually the "family" of the 18th-century British army sought time and again to find shared interest in Boston-- violence stemmed as much from an American refusal, rightly or wrongly to welcome this family into its own. Great history is able to turn your ideas on their head, peeling away whole new layers of the past beneath the strata of received wisdom. The Boston Massacre: A Family History is great history.
May 6, 2020
As someone who loves history, I enjoyed the way the author took a new look at the story of the Boston Massacre. For those not familiar, the Boston Massacre is the event in which a riot between townspeople and British soldiers left five townspeople dead and the rest calling for justice. But the story may not be as black and white as has been told.
In her book, Zabin explores the relationship between the townspeople and the British soldiers. She gave focus to the woman in the story and how life was like for them, which isn’t an angle often covered in history. Zabin does a good job at telling how life in Boston during the British occupation really was like for both sides.
In her book, Zabin explores the relationship between the townspeople and the British soldiers. She gave focus to the woman in the story and how life was like for them, which isn’t an angle often covered in history. Zabin does a good job at telling how life in Boston during the British occupation really was like for both sides.
September 21, 2020
This book takes a totally different tack than most books on the subject. Professor Zabin wants to detail the interrelationships of the people involved in the Massacre. Starting in Ireland, she details the passage of men bound for the British army in order to escape the harsh conditions in their native land. As you read this book, it becomes difficult to assign the good guy-bad guy connotations that have existed for centuries. In all fairness, the blame should be placed on the imperial policies of England which took advantage of both the American colonies and Ireland. This is a welcome addition to the historiography of this important event.
September 13, 2020
Serena Zabin approaches the conflicting accounts of the Boston Massacre from a novel approach. Through her research, she demonstrates the clear link between the British soldiers that were living in Boston with the inhabitants of the community. The soldiers involved in the Massacre were know to community members. Numerous soldiers were supported by their wives and other family members. In understanding these links, the reader is offered an entirely new way of understanding this tragic event in Boston.
June 26, 2020
I like historical fiction. Well researched about a little known aspect of out history. I wish I could remember why the powers that be thought it was a good idea to bivouac in downtown Boston. Seems like a bad idea right from the get go. I was very interested in the warning out aspect of dealing with the people who needed to use the resources of the town to survive. Guess we hav3 had this in society for a long time.
September 14, 2020
A Must Read!
This book is impeccably researched and a joy to read. The narrative is engaging, the argument is clear, and it will completely reframe your understanding of the Boston Massacre in a wonderful way. If you are interested in Colonial America and The American Revolution this is a must read!
This book is impeccably researched and a joy to read. The narrative is engaging, the argument is clear, and it will completely reframe your understanding of the Boston Massacre in a wonderful way. If you are interested in Colonial America and The American Revolution this is a must read!
April 24, 2020
Not well written
Inexperience of the author is evident immediately. I didn't get too far because her writing style was too simplistic and off-putting. I don't care how long your appendix is, if you can't tell the story well, it's no good.
Inexperience of the author is evident immediately. I didn't get too far because her writing style was too simplistic and off-putting. I don't care how long your appendix is, if you can't tell the story well, it's no good.
July 8, 2020
Book of the year
This work is a fascinating exploration of the intimate relationship between the British military and the civilians of Boston. It's a fascinating glimpse into real life at that time. A must read
This work is a fascinating exploration of the intimate relationship between the British military and the civilians of Boston. It's a fascinating glimpse into real life at that time. A must read
August 2, 2020
Book does great job of placing the Boston Massacre in context: wives and children with the enlisted and officers, housing protocols, etc. Much detail about the aftermath leading up to the trials of the British Army members.
August 11, 2024
The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena R. Zabin
First published February 18, 2020. I found a copy of this book at my library's booksale.
Summary -
A dramatic, untold “people’s history” of the storied event that helped trigger the American Revolution. 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 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 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.
My thoughts -
Talk about putting flesh on the bones of historical events, this well researched work of nonfiction really brought the lives of Bostonians and the occupying British soldiers to life. When I read nonfiction, I like details and the author delivers. Nearly anyone with a passing interest in history can identify events such as the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre as having some historical significance leading to the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, but how much do we really know about the colonists or the British soldiers? This book provides that understanding and has given me a greater appreciation of those times and people involved. It's as much of a sociological study of that pre-war period in Boston as it is an outright historical account. Easily garners four stars on my rating scale - Very Good - better than most.
First published February 18, 2020. I found a copy of this book at my library's booksale.
Summary -
A dramatic, untold “people’s history” of the storied event that helped trigger the American Revolution. 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 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 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.
My thoughts -
Talk about putting flesh on the bones of historical events, this well researched work of nonfiction really brought the lives of Bostonians and the occupying British soldiers to life. When I read nonfiction, I like details and the author delivers. Nearly anyone with a passing interest in history can identify events such as the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre as having some historical significance leading to the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, but how much do we really know about the colonists or the British soldiers? This book provides that understanding and has given me a greater appreciation of those times and people involved. It's as much of a sociological study of that pre-war period in Boston as it is an outright historical account. Easily garners four stars on my rating scale - Very Good - better than most.
January 15, 2022
While the coffins on the cover might be misleading, the title of this book is not. This was most definitely a family history, more so of a community that experienced the Boston Massacre as a shared moment, as opposed to two clashing forces that erupted in unprecedented violence.
Zabin's examination focuses heavily on the journey of the Fourteenth and Twenty-Ninth Regiments, and their families, as they make their way from Britain to Canada to Boston, where the fateful event would occur. What I love about this book is how many women are brought to the forefront. Their contributions to American history as patriots, wives, mothers, workers, and witnesses is made plain by the extensive research the author painstakingly collected. The author also recognizes at several points in the book that the exclusion of Black women from the historical narrative leaves a gaping hole in our nation's understanding of its history.
Yes, the victims of the shooting are mentioned and the last few chapters are dedicated to the trials that followed, but the real substance of the book is the social connections that paint the occupation of Boston in a brand new light. I enjoyed the journey from Ireland, to Nova Scotia, to Massachusetts all arranged in an easy-to-follow narrative. Although I did struggle a bit keeping all of the "Johns" straight.
If you're looking for an in-depth look at the event itself and those directly involved, this is not the book you're looking for.
Zabin's examination focuses heavily on the journey of the Fourteenth and Twenty-Ninth Regiments, and their families, as they make their way from Britain to Canada to Boston, where the fateful event would occur. What I love about this book is how many women are brought to the forefront. Their contributions to American history as patriots, wives, mothers, workers, and witnesses is made plain by the extensive research the author painstakingly collected. The author also recognizes at several points in the book that the exclusion of Black women from the historical narrative leaves a gaping hole in our nation's understanding of its history.
Yes, the victims of the shooting are mentioned and the last few chapters are dedicated to the trials that followed, but the real substance of the book is the social connections that paint the occupation of Boston in a brand new light. I enjoyed the journey from Ireland, to Nova Scotia, to Massachusetts all arranged in an easy-to-follow narrative. Although I did struggle a bit keeping all of the "Johns" straight.
If you're looking for an in-depth look at the event itself and those directly involved, this is not the book you're looking for.
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