The Fifth Of March: A Story of the Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre is the event around which The Fifth of March revolves, and it symbolizes The Importance of Seeing Both Sides. As Rinaldi describes in the book, the Boston Massacre took place outside the Boston Customs House on March 5th, 1770, when seven British soldiers fired into a crowd of civilians, killing five men and injuring six more. Within the novel, the Patriots and Crown loyalists each have a different perspective on the event and what caused it, and these differing viewpoints show how accounts are shifted to suit a given narrative. Prior to the Boston Massacre, the arrival of British soldiers inflamed already growing tensions between the colonists and the Crown. In the months leading up to the event, Patriots taunted the soldiers, who were ordered not to engage, though several escalated the insults to physical violence. During the event itself, Patriots hurled both objects and insults at the soldiers, who returned fire with their superior weapons. From the Patriot perspective, unarmed civilians were shot upon by the enemy. From the Crown loyalist perspective, the soldiers were provoked into attacking, and this attack was later spun as a vicious assault on defenseless citizens.