TOW #7 - Boston Massacre (visual text)

This image was created right after the Boston Massacre by Paul Revere. The Boston Massacre resulted in the deaths of 5 colonial civilians that were shot at by British redcoats. Paul Revere the creator of this image was an engraver and a very prevalent character of the American Revolution. He was the man who warned the colonists that the redcoats were coming after the first battle of the revolution. In this image Revere is  trying to recreate the scene of the Boston Massacre. He is doing so in a very dramatized way. Many things are incorrect about the image but Revere uses this medium as a form of propaganda to get Americans even more riled up about revolution and even angrier towards the British. Through his art work he uses hyperbole and plays with his audiences emotions. First of all the event took place at night but Revere makes it look as if the killing happened in broad day light. This change of scenery changes the context and the emotions conveyed. Violent behavior tends to break out at night and considering in reality the colonists involved had spent the night at the bar getting drunk and riled up, changing the scene to daylight ignores this whole truth and subtracts out a major contributing factor. Also he makes the colonists appear innocent and shows the redcoats cynically killing the colonists in a way that seems to be without cause. Revere was aware of the true context of the event but he was serving a greater purpose. He wanted colonists far from the Boston scene to have a cruel idea of the redcoats so that it would increase their want to fight. America was just delving into the idea of revolution and this is one of the events that kicked it off. Revere was a patriot during the time and he wanted to do his part by convincing the colonists that they could no longer rely on Britain. This image shows the redcoats being killers to achieve just that.

http://www.earlyamerica.com/image/review/winter96/massacre.jpg