Gratuitous Historickal Posting

Today is the anniversary of the "Boston Massacre" in 1770.

This episode represented one of the first inklings to me of the power of propoganda in shaping both then-current opinion and historickal myth.

As with most school kids, I had accepted the sadistic-Lobsterbacks-firing-on-a-helpless-crowd story as depicted in Paul Revere's engraving of the incident:

This was the version of events that swept through the Colonies at the time and still more or less colors the average 'Murican's view, I would suspect. In fact, the soldiers essentially panicked in the face of a violent and threatening mob.

Even though only two of the soldiers were convicted of what amounted to involuntary manslaughter and all the rest were acquited, the propoganda damage was done. I don't recollect exactly when I heard of this, but I do remember being quite surprised by the revelation.

WHAT SHE SAID UPDATE: Sheila, as usual, gets it in one.