Editing Crispus Attucks (section)

== Reaction and trials ==
[[File:Boston Massacre, Boston Gazette newspaper clipping, 1770-03-12.png|thumb|''Boston Gazette'' newspaper report, March 12, 1770, four days after the funeral. The illustration of the coffins shows the initials of the four victims buried March 8.]]
[[John Adams]] successfully defended most of the accused soldiers against a charge of murder. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. Faced with the prospect of hanging, the soldiers pleaded ''[[benefit of clergy]]'', and were instead [[Branding persons#As punishment|branded]] on their thumbs. In his arguments, Adams called the crowd "a motley rabble of saucy boys, [[negro]]s and molattoes, [[Taig|Irish teagues]] and outlandish [[Jack Tar]]rs."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr046.html|title=The Murder of Crispus Attucks.|website=[[Library of Congress]] }}</ref> In particular, he charged Attucks with having "undertaken to be the hero of the night," and with having precipitated a conflict by his "mad behavior."<ref>{{Appletons'|wstitle=Attucks, Crispus|year=1900|inline=1}}</ref>

Two years later [[Founding Fathers of the United States|United States Founding Father]] [[Samuel Adams]], a cousin of John Adams, named the event the "Boston Massacre," and helped ensure it would not be forgotten.<ref>Fradin, Dennis B. Samuel ''Adams: The Father of American Independence''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998. pp. 63–66 {{ISBN?}}</ref> Boston artist [[Henry Pelham (engraver)|Henry Pelham]] (half-brother of the celebrated portrait painter [[John Singleton Copley]]) created an image of the event. [[Paul Revere]] made a copy from which prints were made and distributed. Some copies of the print show a dark-skinned man with chest wounds, presumably representing Crispus Attucks. Other copies of the print show no difference in the skin tones of the victims.<ref>"Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre, 1770", description of item in collection of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, accessed August 22, 2016 at http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/road-revolution/resources/paul-revere%E2%80%99s-engraving-boston-massacre-1770</ref>

The five who were killed were buried as heroes in the [[Granary Burying Ground]], which also contains the graves of [[Samuel Adams]], [[John Hancock]], and other notable figures.<ref name=bostongranary>{{cite web|url = http://www.cityofboston.gov/parks/hbgi/Granary.asp|title     = Granary – City of Boston|publisher = City of Boston|location = [[Boston, Massachusetts]]|access-date = 4 August 2011|quote = The gravestones' original haphazard configuration was rearranged into straighter rows over to [sic] the years to accommodate both nineteenth-century aesthetics and the modern lawnmower.}}</ref> Customs of the period discouraged the burial of black people and white people together, with "black burials relegated to the rear or far side of the cemetery.<ref>{{cite book|last=Knoblock|first=Glenn|title=African American Historic Burial Grounds and Gravesites of New England|publisher=McFarland|date=2016|page=91|language=en|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R-07CwAAQBAJ&q=black+burials+relegated&pg=PA91|isbn=978-1476620428}}</ref> Such a practice was not completely unknown, however. [[Prince Hall]], for example, was interred in [[Copp's Hill]] Burying Ground in the [[North End, Boston, Massachusetts|North End]] of Boston 39.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cityofboston.gov/parks/hbgi/CoppsHill.asp|title=Copp's Hill {{!}} Historic Burying Grounds {{!}} City of Boston|website=cityofboston.gov|date=14 July 2016 |language=en|access-date=2017-06-08}}</ref>