While preparing for the teach-in about the Revolutionary War my group and I found some interesting information about the different perspectives of the Boston Massacre. One book I found had a quote from Captain Thomas Preston who was in charge of the British troops involved in the Boston Massacre. Here is the statement he gave in court while being tried for ordering his soldiers to fire at the colonists:
“The mob still increased and were more outrageous, striking their clubs or bludgeons against one another, and calling out, come on you rascals, you bloody backs, you lobster scoundrels, fire if you dare… fire and be damned, we know you dare not, and much more such language was used. At this time I was between the soldiers and the mob, parleying with, and endeavoring all in my power to persuade them to retire peaceably, but to no purpose. They advanced to the points of the bayonets, struck some of them and even the muzzles of the pieces, and seemed to be endeavoring to close with the soldiers. On which some well behaved persons asked me if the guns were charged. I replied yes. They then asked me if I intended to order the men to fire. I answered no, by no means, observing to them that I was advanced before the muzzles of the men’s pieces, and must fall a sacrifice if they fired; that the soldiers were upon the half cocks and charged bayonets, and my giving the word fire under those circumstances would prove me to be no officer. While I was thus speaking, one of the soldiers having received a severe blow with a stick, stepped a little to one side and instantly fired.”
– American Voices from the Revolutionary War by Susan Provost Beller
In my group we also talked about how this event was covered by the press and I learned that the colonist papers never even mentioned the colonists in
6 comments:
Shannon, I definitely agree with you in all aspects. I grew up learning that the British soldiers were the "bad guys" because they were the ones shooting and killing the innocent colonists. And from viewing visuals of British soldiers firing at the colonists does not help in showing multiple perspectives. Just as Shannon mentioned about propaganda, it can truly have an impact in the way people think. We cannot believe everything we see, hear, or read in the news. We have to gain a knowledge of many views in order to gain a great knowledge on a certain issue.
My group is also doing the Boston Massacre as part of our teach in. We are actually reading a passage that talks about how a colonist harasses a British soldier about not paying a bill. The soldier has to hit the young man with his gun to stop the frequent harassment of the colonist. This angers many colonists and a large mob starts to form. One of the British soldiers was struck down to the ground with a club by a colonist and he thought he heard someone say, "Fire!" and this began the first shot of the Boston Massacre. It is quite amazing to read about different viewpoints within historical contexts. As I read through a fifth grade textbook, it only mentioned that colonists called the British soldiers "redcoats and bloodybacks" and in return the British soldiers rode their horses through churches and did property damage on the colonists' town. And this was a reason in how the Boston Massacre began. So there is quite a bit of information that school textbooks leave out. I definitely am looking forward to teaching this lesson and seeing how students react to the passage we read to them. I really hope the students can think in many perspectives of either the colonists or the British soldiers. As future educators, I believe that it is important to stress that it is acceptable to have your own views or perspectives on certain topics, in this case, it would be the Boston Massacre.
This is a great example both of the importance of multiple perspectives, and of the fact that, as a teacher, you will often have to look outside traditional resources (especially those that you're given by your school) to find them. It also shows that the Columbus narrative is but one example of the ways history textbooks and children's books too often present narrow, biased, and at times erroneous information to children.
Of course, a 5th grade textbook can't tell the whole story of the Boston Massacre or Columbus's encounters with Native people or anything else. But it's important to note that what gets left out and what gets included are not decided at random; instead, such choices often lead the reader to view things from a pro-U.S., pro-government perspective. I think it's important, too, to distinguish between "different perspectives" on a historical event and outright misleading information. To say that Columbus came, traded beads for parrots, and took a couple Indians back to Spain with him is not a "perspective" -- it's a case of selective memory serving a particular purpose.
As I read Shannon’s post, I realized that the story she posted about the British soldier’s point of view is the same story my group is using in our American Revolution lesson on Friday. I am in Julianne’s group, and our group decided to have the students participate in a visualization activity of the Boston Massacre. In our visualization, we provide the students with both perspectives of this major historical event: the British soldier’s as well as the American colonists’ views. Like both Julianne and Shannon stated, I always learned about the Boston Massacre from the colonists’ point of view. Textbooks seem to “leave out” parts of events that may cause controversy. In my opinion, I think this is just as bad as lying to students. I have learned so much more about history from this course than any other class I have taken because I have been given an opportunity to hear other perspectives regarding historical events. I feel that throughout my education, I have only learned about historical events from one side. I do not want the fifth graders on Friday to learn about the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party from only the colonists’ point of view. If we were to teach strictly from the students’ textbooks, they would only be presented with information based on the colonists’ standpoint. It is important for these students to be given a wealth of information from a variety of stances in order to form their own opinions based on the information provided.
Both Shannon and Julianne discussed propaganda in their posts. After viewing many illustrations of both the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, I learned a lot about how the British as well as the colonists were portrayed in these events. The British were always made out to be the ones who started fights and shootings and the colonists were always shown as victims. These illustrations leave out important details, such as how the colonists jeered at the British soldiers before the shootings began. This made me think about how my students will react to events in their textbooks as well as the media. Propaganda is the reason that I will provide my students with information from every perspective.
Well, since I am the last group member of one of the groups that presented the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party, I felt it was only right that I made a post, too. I completely agree with everything you all have posted already. Since I'm posting after our lesson implementation, I thought I would reflect a bit. By the way, I was in Julianne and Katelyn's group.
Originally, we had planned to the visualization activity in a single reading. We found quite quickly that this was not the best idea when trying to have the students formulate different perspectives on the Boston Massacre. Greg suggested breaking the reading into two parts while asking the students questions regarding whom the students "feel for" in the middle and at the end of the reading. It was a great suggestion because the students really seemed to do well with this. The first half of our reading gave students mixed feelings. Some students felt it was the British soldiers that started the event initially because they were taking the colonists' jobs, which made the colonists mad. Others felt that it wasn't right of the colonists to harrass the soldier, so it was their "fault." Then, after reading the second half of the reading, the students' opinions started changing. Again, there were mixed opinions. I must say, I was quite suprised with some of the insights the 5th graders were presenting. They had ideas that I never considered myself. Even as Julianne went into a discussion with the students regarding propaganda, they were putting themselves in the colonists' and soldiers' perspectives. Depending on whose stance they took determined how they felt about the entire event. This truly demonstrated for them the idea of being persuaded by the media.
This simple visualization activity allowed students to take various perspectives and formulate opinions on their own. I was very pleased with how the activity played out. As everyone has already stated, presenting our future students with more than one perspective is extremely important. The students need to understand that there is more than one side to each story. We should not silence the views of those that are not often heard. We must give the students information from various sources and empower them to create their own ideas and opinions.
Shannon, I was shocked when I read the quote. Yes, this is a great example of how people's perspectives can influence history. I, too, was taught that the British were "horrible killing machines." I never did think about the perspective of the British. This situation of propaganda also reminds me that books are sold to be profitable. If that means taking out the other side of the story because that's what society believes is sad, but true. We must remember that history is pieces of events strewn together to create a story.
I would also like to comment on your group's teach-in. I observed you and your group. You truly did know your content, and taught it well! Great job.
I was responsible for presenting the word propoganda to the students. Of course, I was not completely confident about how to do this - goes to show how teaching helps us learn. I thought it totally helped providing visual examples of propoganda to help them understand what exactly it is. I have been familiar with the famous engraving by Paul Revere, but like many of you, I was unaware of the different perspectives of the Boston Massacre. As teachers, I think it is important to rememeber the idea of different perspectives in everything we teach, even beyond soical studies.
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