How did colonial leaders use the Boston Massacre as propaganda?

The day of the Boston Massacre, March 5 1770, was an unsettled day in Boston. The colonists resented there being British troops in their city to begin with, and the troops represented the King's effort to control the movement of the colonists in general. Plus, the troops were there to insure that English law, vis-à-vis the "Intolerable Acts," were carried out.

It was not unusual for groups of men and boys to taunt the British troops as they went about their business. On March 5th, a particularly unruly group of colonists were not only throwing epithets towards the British but just before the outbreak of violence, they were throwing snowballs and chunks of ice.

It was claimed by the colonists that the British commander yelled "fire" and that his troops opened fire upon the colonists. There is ample evidence that he never did make such command, and that if such a command was yelled, it came from the colonists themselves.

Ironically, John Adams defended Cpt. Prescott, commander of the troops, before a colonial tribunal. He was acquitted of wrong doing.

Colonial Boston and Massachusetts, however, used this incident as a rallying point until the Battles of Lexington and Concord to show the brutality of the British. In truth, then as now, the British troops were renown for their tolerance and restraint. Even at the Lexington green where the first shot of the revolution was fired, it is my belief that the shot came from one of the very nervous colonists.