PAUL REVERE PRINT OF THE BOSTON MASSACRE
The inscriptions above and below the print add to its intrinsic interest. The passionate appeal for sympathy for the slain made by these inscriptions indicates the depths of feeling aroused by the massacre. Across the top is printed, “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.” Underneath the picture is the following remarkable effusion, probably
from the pen of Paul Revere himself, who frequently indulged in such attempts at literary effort:
Unhappy Boston! See thy Sons deplore.
Thy hallow’d Walks besmear’d with guiltless Gore.
While faithless P——n [Preston] and his savage Bands,
With murd’rous Rancour stretch their bloody Hands;
Like fierce Barbarians grinning o’er their Prey,