Book review by Anna Fitzpatrick Layer

On the night of March 5, 1770, British soldiers in Boston opened fire in a moment of confusion, fear, and anger. Whether the soldiers’ actions were in response to a superior’s command, from fears of the gathering civilian mob, or a reaction to mysterious taunts, the immediate result was the wounding and death of local civilians (153-157). This event, emblazoned in national memory as the Boston Massacre, defined and dictated much about not only the coming American War of Independence, but also how soldiers and civilians viewed and interacted with each other. It is this latter point that makes Serena Zabin’s The Boston Massacre: A Family History such an engaging and informative work. Zabin argues that the Boston Massacre is not a simple story of soldiers against civilians, but is rather a social and familial tale, one in which the relationships between the British soldiers and Bostonians are just as important as the massacre itself. It is these complex relationships and their breakdown that foreshadowed much about the American Revolution as a civil war (xvi, 222, 228).

Zabin’s focus on the relationships in Boston adds a significant contribution to the scholarship on the Boston Massacre. While other scholars have thoroughly addressed this event, Zabin’s attention to the ties of friendship and family between the soldiers and civilians sheds new light on the years leading to the Revolution. Rather than viewing the soldiers as disagreeable villains, or as completely innocent young men, Zabin shows a far more complex reality. The reader is encouraged to see the soldiers as complete people – men with families, dreams, and goals far beyond the war (xvi). Zabin presents the Bostonians as equally complex. Some Bostonians socialized regularly with the soldiers, even while embracing anti-British government ideas, while others were appalled by their new military family neighbors. Through this focus on the interactions between soldiers and Bostonians, the reader is presented with the often-overlooked stories of women on both sides of the conflict. These women’s stories are partly what makes Zabin’s work such a compelling addition to the scholarship on the Boston Massacre.

The difficulties and pleasures women and soldiers faced while integrating into Boston society come to life through The Boston Massacre’s personal and chronological approach. On the personal front, Zabin begins her monograph with the story of Jane Chambers, the Irish wife of Matthew Chambers, who belonged to the 29th Regiment of Foot. Their story, which would eventually lead them to Boston in 1770, provides a framework for the story of the massacre. By following the Chambers and other military families, Zabin illuminates the daily struggles British Army wives faced in the 18^th century. She chronicles their heartbreaking separations from their families, the discrimination they faced in the army, the hardships of rural postings, and the resentment felt for them by some Bostonians (12, 5, 6-7, 35-37, 74-78). However, not all locals abhorred the soldiers; indeed, many civilian women were excited by the presence of the soldiers, leading to the chance of matrimony for more than a few of them (96-97). These ties between Bostonians and soldiers also resulted in a more problematic issue for the British: desertion. In many cases, desertion was the direct result of the friendships and families the soldiers formed with the locals (122). At times, local inhabitants even protected these deserters when army officials hunted them down (124-125). Sadly, the close ties formed between the soldiers and civilians declined with the massacre, and even more dramatically with the Revolution.

This tragic breakdown of relationships is made clear with Zabin’s chronological account of the events leading up to the massacre. The book primarily follows the 29th and 14th Regiments, but other regiments quartered in Boston (the 64th, 65th, and 59th) are also addressed. By the time Zabin describes the events of March 1770, the reader has already learned of the regiments’ experiences in Ireland and Nova Scotia, their travels to Boston, and the hardships they faced when finding quarters in the town. The cramped conditions the soldiers experienced in Boston led to conflicts between them and the locals, in addition to the positive relationships some of them created. However, prior to the massacre, Zabin argues that the sharp division between loyalists and patriots, soldiers and civilians did not exist (161). Rather, it was the massacre itself and the subsequent trials of the soldiers that destroyed the social ties between the two groups (176, 217-221). During the trials, relationships were obscured in an attempt to paint the soldiers as innocent parties in the massacre, while also acquitting the town’s citizens of blame (213). John Adams, the defense attorney and future President, skillfully created just such a picture of mutual innocence by claiming that the mob that had aggravated the soldiers was composed not of peaceful, rational Bostonians, but of immigrants and outcasts - the town’s “outsiders” (216-217). While this narrative achieved Adams’s goals, it erased the connections between soldiers and Bostonians, thereby showing “Americans that British soldiers stood on one side of a chasm and colonial civilians on the other” (219). Sadly, the Revolution, which Zabin says was “more like a bad divorce” than “a political event,” only deepened this divide (223).

Zabin’s argument that the massacre created the chasm between soldiers and civilians is grounded in the historiography of the Boston Massacre, and in a wealth of secondary and primary sources. Zabin, a professor of history at Carleton College, is well versed in the subject, as her research focuses on the early American period. She cites classic texts on the Boston Massacre and on British soldiers, such as works by John Shy (234, 238). Moreover, in her social focus, Zabin’s argument is strengthened by her careful research of slavery in Boston, women’s history, the history of marriage, sexual relations, emotion, and even fashion. Zabin’s work relies extensively on primary sources. She draws from muster rolls, enlistment papers, letters from government officials and officers in the British army, newspapers, and ships’ logs. To create a picture of the soldiers’ relationships, Zabin weaves together stories from town records, marriage and baptismal records, divorce petitions, and depositions from the trials of the British soldiers. The depth of Zabin’s research and the variety of sources cited creates a strong foundation for her compelling argument.

The Boston Massacre is a fascinating account of a defining moment in American history. Through her excellent use of sources, her mastery of the content, and her compelling writing, Zabin presents a convincing argument that the Boston Massacre was as much a social affair as a military and political one (xvi, 222-223). The book’s numerous stories of the loving and contentious relationships between the British soldiers, their families, and the town’s people prove Zabin’s thesis. Consequently, the massacre hinted at the emotional and social strife that would characterize the coming American Revolution as a civil war (222-223, 228). This argument and the supporting evidence make the book’s utility for the reenacting community multifaceted. For those portraying British soldiers, reading The Boston Massacre will provide tremendous insights into how soldiers interacted with local patriots and loyalists, and how the soldiers behaved while garrisoned in Boston. The book also provides useful information on the soldiers’ marriages and officers’ views of their relationships. For women, Zabin’s skillful telling of British army wives’ stories is of immense value in creating a persona. The reader learns of what these women endured, who they were, what they sacrificed for the army, and how they fared in Boston. While the book is focused on Boston, such specific information is useful as an example of the more general conditions and struggles of soldiers and their families before and during the Revolution. Anyone in the AWI reenacting community, or anyone interested in this time period, would benefit from reading this excellent work.

Zabin, Serena. The Boston Massacre: A Family History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020. Pp. xvi, 320. $15.99. Available on Amazon here.