The people of Massachusetts had more power over their own government than anyone else in the British empire. These independent minded colonists increased in their feelings of bitterness and resentment as the crown raised taxes on American goods and sent soldiers to enforce the new policies. These building tensions eventually led to outward expressions of resistance. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party made the American Revolution inevitable.
Dr. Robert J. Allison
Dr. Robert J. Allison is chairman of the history department of Suffolk University in Boston and teaches courses in American Constitutional history and the history of Boston at Harvard Extension School. His books include The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815 (2000); A Short History of Boston (2004); Stephen Decatur, American Naval Hero (2005); The Boston Massacre (2006); and The Boston Tea Party (2007). He was a consultant to the Commonwealth Museum at the State Archives in Boston, and he is on the board of overseers of the USS Constitution Museum in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He is vice president of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, an elected fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and president of the South Boston Historical Society. He lives in South Boston and summers in Provincetown on Cape Cod. His newest book, A Short History of Cape Cod, is published by Commonwealth Editions.
Boston historian and American history professor Robert J. Allison discusses Paul Revere's famous engraving of the Boston Massacre. Allison declares that Revere's perspective should be judged critically today, because many historical actors have skewed events to mislead audiences.