[BOSTON MASSACRE]. -- [REVERE, Paul (1735-1818), illustrator]. Boston Gazette and Country Journal. No. 779. Monday, March 12, 1770. Boston: Edes & Gill, 1770.
4 pp., folio (view of single page, 14 ¼ x 9 ¾”), old folds with small spots of separation at folds, some spotting, evenly wrinkled, framed and matted. 3-column text, second and third pages bordered with woodcut mourning bands, woodcut vignette at center of masthead and 4 wood-engraved coffins of the four victims by Paul Revere.
THE RARE BOSTON MASSACRE ISSUE with a lengthy account of the massacre on the second and third pages, published just seven days after the events that greatly shaped further relations between the American colonies and Great Britain. On 5 March 1770, a group of nine British soldiers openly fired into a crowd of over 300 colonists forming around a British sentry, killing five and wounding six. The mob was fueled by a growing unrest in Boston over a series of acts passed by the British Parliament that raised revenue through duties on lead, glass, paper, paint, and tea. Afterwards, John Adams wrote that the “foundation of American independence was laid” and was heavily publicized as a “massacre” by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams thus laying the groundwork for later rebellions, most famously the Boston Tea Party, effectively launching the American Revolution. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES PUBLISHED IN THE COLONIES PRIOR TO INDEPENDENCE. Brigham I:298; Evans 11578.