From St. George's Fields to the Boston Massacre

No Wonder Bostonians Were Nervous About Soldiers in Their Midst

Sep 14, 2009

When Britain sent soldiers to Boston to enforce tax laws in 1768, Bostonians were on edge because of soldiers firing on civilians in London months before

The Boston Massacre, when British soldiers in 1770 fired on a crowd of civilians in Boston, was a pivotal event in the years leading to the American Revolution. The shootings shattered the waning trust Americans had in British authorities. The wounds from that event never fully healed and Americans finally declared their independence six years later.

This is why Americans are taught about the Boston Massacre. Rarely are they also taught about an oddly parallel event in London less than two years before that had a bearing on the killings in Boston.

That event was the St. George's Fields Massacre. St. George's Fields in London was a grassy area between Southwark and Lambeth where, from time to time, people picnicked, soldiers drilled, and ceremonies took place. In the spring of 1768, crowds started gathering in St. George's Fields in ever greater numbers. They were drawn to the place because of John Wilkes, a prisoner in nearby King's Bench Prison. King George III and his ministers despised Wilkes because of Wilkes's ferocious criticism of the ministry in Wilkes's publication, The North Briton. One particular issue of the paper, North Briton No. 45, published in 1763, brought libel charges against Wilkes. After years in exile, Wilkes finally began serving the sentence in 1768.

Wilkes's attacks on the king's ministers, and various legal battles related to The North Briton, made Wilkes a hero in Britain and America among those who thought authorities were trampling traditional rights. In going to prison, Wilkes became a martyr, and his popularity soared. The popularity of the king at the same time plummeted, especially among working people who had endured a difficult winter with high bread prices and rising unemployment. So the people on St. George's Fields were a mix of Wilkes supporters and poor, hungry, and frustrated workers.

Day by day that spring, the crowds outside the prison grew larger. Authorities became alarmed. Might those people attack the prison and free Wilkes? The noise from the crowd became worrisome: shouts of "Wilkes and liberty" mingling with complaints about the price of bread and beer.

On May 6, soldiers were dispatched to the area to control the crowds. At first, the people reacted to the presence of the soldiers with good humor.

Insults, Bullets, Death of an Innocent Man

But on May 10, the crowd was especially large and more raucous than usual. Many people pressed close to the entrance of the prison. People shouted insults at soldiers. After one man, wearing a red coat, was particularly obnoxious, a group of soldiers went to apprehend him. In their pursuit, the soldiers entered a barn. The soldiers saw a man in a red coat and shot him. It turned out to be a perfectly innocent man who happened to be working in the barn.

Meanwhile, back at St. George's Fields, justices of the peace spoke to the crowd, ordering the people to disperse. But this seemed to only inflame the mob. Some shouted: "Damn the king, damn the Parliament, damn the justices!" Stones started to fly. Then soldiers started to fire. Some soldiers fired into the crowd. Most fired over the heads of the crowd. But five or six people fell, including distant passersby struck by bullets fired over the crowd.

Riots in London

The crowd finally dispersed. But word of the killings quickly spread, triggering fierce riots. Benjamin Franklin, in London at the time, reported of "sawyers destroying saw-mills; sailors unrigging all the outward bound ships...Watermen destroying private boats and threatening bridges..." The crisis was so severe that the king contemplated abdication.

On October 1, that very same year of 1768, British soldiers stepped ashore in Boston to enforce the collection of taxes on goods imported into Boston's port. Americans were no strangers to the presence of British soldiers. They had come before, but always to fight wars or defend the colonies. This was different. This was law enforcement, something solders were not trained to do. When the British soldiers arrived in 1768, the memory of St. George's Fields was fresh. Bostonians resented the presence of soldiers, but they also feared them.

Blood on Boston's King Street

Relations between soldiers and civilians in the streets of Boston were rocky from the start with many small confrontations and incidents. Military authorities did their best to ease tensions by ordering soldiers posted around the city to be especially cautious. However, this policy may have helped bring about the bloody events on Boston's King Street. Soldiers became so passive that many civilians assumed that under no circumstances would the soldiers actually fire on civilians. That was part of the reason the crowd that gathered on King Street on the evening of March 5, 1770, was so brazen in taunting a cluster of British soldiers and in throwing snowballs at them. The people were wrong. The soldiers panicked and fired.

Cash, Arthur H. John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2006.

The copyright of the article From St. George's Fields to the Boston Massacre in Georgian/Victorian Britain is owned by Brian Deming. Permission to republish From St. George's Fields to the Boston Massacre in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.