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Secondary sourcePainting1856

The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770 (Champney/Bufford lithograph)

William L. Champney · 1856

An 1856 colored lithograph depicting the Boston Massacre, showing a Black Crispus Attucks as the central heroic figure.

Depicts Attucks as the heroic central figure of the massacre, reflecting his later reinterpretation as a Black patriot icon.

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Colored lithographic print of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770. Redcoat soldiers fire muskets in a crowded street before Boston's Old State House. Civilians, some with clubs, scatter and fall; a man in a dark jacket and red sash lunges forward while a fallen man lies in the foreground.
William L. Champney (artist), J. H. Bufford (lithographer), The Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770, 1856.

About this source

What it is

This lithograph, drawn by William L. Champney and printed by J. H. Bufford in 1856, shows British soldiers firing into a crowd outside Boston's Old State House on the night of 5 March 1770.

Why it matters

Made decades after the event, during a time of growing abolitionist activism, the print visually reinterprets the massacre by placing a Black Attucks at its dramatic center. It reflects how artists and reformers reshaped the memory of the event to highlight Black participation in the Revolution.

Look closer

  • Who is placed at the center of the image, and what might that choice tell us about the artist's purpose?
  • Why might an image made in 1856 differ from earlier depictions of the same event?
  • What does the print leave out about the other victims or the causes of the conflict?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Crispus Attucks on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Hand-colored engraving of the Boston Massacre on King Street: British soldiers in red coats fire volleys through smoke at a crowd of colonists, with people wounded and dead on the ground, a church steeple and Butcher's Hall in the background, and a verse and caption printed below.Painting

Primary source

The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street

Paul Revere · 1770

Scanned page of the Boston Gazette, March 12, 1770, reporting the funeral of Boston Massacre victims. Four coffin illustrations labeled SG, SM, JC, and CA, each with a skull and crossbones, appear beneath the printed text.Newspaper article

Primary source

Boston Gazette Report on the Boston Massacre Funeral

12 March 1770

A mostly black scanned cover of a book with a white Library of Congress label at bottom left showing a barcode and number 00005705010, and red stamp; top left reads E 215 .4 .B75 in white call number text.Book

Primary source

A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston

James Bowdoin, Samuel Pemberton, Joseph Warren · 1770

Scan of a newspaper column of text with four coffin illustrations in a row, each with initials (SG, SM, JC, CA), a skull and crossbones, and a skull over crossed bones. The coffins are dark with white outlines. Text above and below describes the funerals of victims of the Boston Massacre.Painting

Primary source

Four Coffins of Men Killed in the Boston Massacre

Paul Revere · 12 March 1770

Photograph of a dark gray slate headstone with a rounded top edged with small stones, in a shaded graveyard with grass and other gravestones behind it. The inscription lists the remains of Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks and Patrick Carr, victims of the Boston Massacre, March 5th 1770, interred by order of the Town of Boston. It also notes Christopher Snider, aged 12, killed February 22nd 1770, and carries partly worn lines about independence and a 1876 date.Photograph

Secondary source

Boston Massacre Victims Grave

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