Fri, Sat, & Sun
11AM & 3PM
Daily Starting June 19
Beginning at the
Old State House
Includes all-day General Admission to both the Old State House and Old South Meeting House.
All public tours allow a maximum of 20 people.
The Flame of Independence sparked in Boston
On March 5, 1770, a confrontation between British soldiers and Bostonians just outside the Old State House left five dead and many more wounded. This confrontation, soon to become known and immortalized as the “Boston Massacre,” forever altered the history of Boston and the American colonies.
What circumstances and events led to this deadly incident? How did the people of Boston respond to it at the time? And, how have later generations of Bostonians remembered and used the history of the Boston Massacre?
The Massacre and Memory Tour is a guided walking tour that explores these questions and more. Uncover how patriot and loyalist factions in town attempted to control the narrative surrounding the event through dueling reports circulated throughout the colonies and abroad. Discover how later generations of Bostonians used the Massacre to argue against slavery and teach the American public about Crispus Attucks, one of the Massacre’s first victims. You will also learn how Bostonians in the 1970s used the legacy of the Massacre in very different ways while debating how to address racial segregation in public schools.
Led by a member of the Revolutionary Spaces Visitor Experience team, the Massacre and Memory Tour covers a half-mile, runs for approximately 75 minutes, and is capped at 20 attendees. The tour will visit and explore the histories of the following locations:
- Site of the Boston Massacre
- Long Wharf
- Faneuil Hall
- Old State House
- Site of Boston’s 18th century court and jail
- Site of the Gray’s ropewalk brawl (Post Office Square)
- Old South Meeting House
- And more!
Tickets to the Massacre and Memory Tour also include all-day general admission to the Old State House and Old South Meeting House. Tours depart from the front desk located inside the Old State House museum store.
For groups of 10 or more people, please contact booking@RevolutionarySpaces.org.
More About the Boston Massacre
- Video | Liberty & Sovereignty in 18th Century New England
Examining the political conversations that were taking place around the time of the Boston Massacre among white colonists and the African- and Native-descended communities.Read more → - Reflecting Attucks
A virtual exhibit that examines the memory of Crispus Attucks, a man of African & Native descent who was the first to die in the Boston Massacre.Read more → - FROM THE BOSTON MASSACRE TO BLACK LIVES MATTER
Over the almost 250 years since his death, Crispus Attucks has remained a symbol for various movements advocating for African American rights, from Abolitionism to the Civil Rights Movement. 21st Century movements have been no different. Attucks’s identity has been yet again recovered by the grassroots Black Lives Matter movement.Read more →
What’s On at Revolutionary Spaces
- Polly Sumner Doll: Conventional & Controversial Cargo
Books, dolls, and other goods that connected Boston to the wider world were also on board the merchant ships carrying the tea that was destroyed on December 16, 1773.Read more →