1. Read pp. 61 - 64 in your textbook.
2. Read pp. "Common Sense" pp. 100- 106 in For the Record
3. Word process the answers to the questions at the end of Common Sense.
4. Look at the picture on the link on the blog explain how it's a piece of propaganda.
Paul Revere's Engraving of the Boston Massacre
In what we've read about the Boston Massacre so far, the facts paint a completely different picture for the mind than this engraving depicts. The accounts of the event say that the troops were being constantly harassed and taunted by the Boston citizens, and that the killing of the innocents happened in a chaotic frenzy, where the British troops fired haphazardly and out of more fear and anxiety than savagery and with the intent to kill. In this engraving, it is apparent that the troops are meant to look as though they were in a professional formation, with another commander to their right giving the actual order to fire. This depiction makes it look like the British troops were completely calm and level-headed in their decision to fire on the crowd. The part of the engraving that contains the citizens also portrays the scene as being a bloody mess - with it spilling out of multiple holes and flooding the street around the people as their faces contort into horror and terror. The last piece that goes to show how this could easily be used as propaganda against the British is the title in the top left - THE BLOODY MASSACRE. With this embellished and bloody portrayal of the event circulating to people that had not seen the event in person and only have this engraving to trust, anger and outrage at the British for committing this tragedy would have been widespread and furious, which makes it an excellent piece of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Colby on all his points. This drawing portrays the Bostonians as purely victims. It appears as though they are demonstrating no violence, while the British militia all seem to be taking an aggressive stance. There’s no sign of the British being provoked, it is simply displayed as an unjustified attack on innocent Boston citizens. It is obvious who the victims and the perpetrators are. A definition of propaganda I got from dictionary.com determines propaganda to be, “information that is designed to mislead or persuade.” Significant details of the event are missing in the drawing. The fact that the so-called victims were originally throwing snowballs and stones at the British troop does not appear. In this way the drawing is misleading. Also, this sort of portrayal exercises an emotional response from the colonists. It sparks anger towards Great Britain and unity among the Americans. I believe the point was to trigger a more radical way of thinking among more of the colonists.
ReplyDeleteLike Olivia, I agree with Colby's statement. In the engraving, the British soldiers have a commander, as Colby said, who looks to be giving the order to fire; the British are also standing in an even line, in the same stance, wearing the same uniform and holding their muskets at the same height, while the colonists stand in chaotic and confused clump. This drastic contrast in organization causes the viewer to think that the British have planned and organized this attack ahead of time, while the colonists were unprepared and undeserving of such treatment. When looking at the facts of the event, however, it becomes evident that the colonists were not as innocent as they appear in the engraving. As Olivia mentioned, the colonists threw stones and snowballs at the British soldiers which provoked the firing--this detail is "conveniently" excluded from the engraving. In fact, the colonists are depicted with nothing to defend themselves against the British soldiers' weaponry, making them appear all the more innocent and undeserving. When someone from another colony saw the engraving and how helpless their fellow Americans were against the British, they became empathetic to the colonists in the picture because they felt a connection to them as Americans. The engraving drives home the idea of the British as the bad guys who are constantly inflicting unfair rulings on America, and colonists who saw the engraving would gain a sense of nationalism from it. Nationalism is a strong bonding force, and it not only united the colonies against Britain but solidified the colonist's feelings that they were a nation independent from England. It is because of this that I believe that the engraving is an extremely effective and influential piece of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the above points. The picture shown of Paul Revere's engraving of the Boston massacre is a piece of propaganda mainly because of the body positions of the people at the scene. The British soldiers are shown to be standing strong and in an organized line where all of the men have their right feet in front, meaning that the british were prepared and planned for this attack. The redcoats had the time to station themselves in a line, all in the same manor, and open fire on the colonists. The colonists are shown falling over, lying on the ground, and leaning back as if trying to brace themselves for the bullets or trying to flee the scene. The British are clearly the dominant force in the picture. The one redcoat on the far right, most likely the commander, is raising a sword as if giving the command to the organized line of redcoats to fire. Like Olivia and Sara mentioned, witnesses of the Boston massacre say that the shots were fired after the colonist had been throwing rocks and snowballs, but the picture does not show any sign of the things that sparked their attack. Paul Revere chose to leave these things out of the picture to make it seem as if innocent colonists were shot at during a planned attack by the redcoats. The colonists' faces show fear and worry, while the redcoats have straight faces while they shoot into a crowd of people. Also, the brightest colors in the picture are the blood of the colonists and the coats of the 'enemies'. The bright red pops out in the picture so that one associates the red coats with the colonists' blood being spilled, which are both bad things. The colonists want everyone to believe that they were targeted by the British and this engraving by Paul Revere, which depicts the colonists as the victims, is what they use as propaganda to prove their point.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone has commented on so far. This is truly a piece of propaganda attempting to depict the British as harsh and organized. If I had seen this engraving of the Boston Massacre prior to learning about this event, I would have thought that the British had started shooting random American citizens without rhyme or reason. However, because I know that the Americans were aggravating and provoking the British I know that Paul Revere has twisted the events shown in the engraving in order to create American support. In other words, Paul Revere has engraved a great example of propaganda. He showed the British as harsh and organized by their stance. They are all wearing the same outfit, they are all shooting their guns, and they all the same cold expressions on their faces. Meanwhile, the Americans are depicted as victims shown by the bloody people dying on the ground and the other people attempting to save them. The Americans are shown as being surprised, while the British look like they previously knew what they were going to do. Even though the Americans were harassing the British, there is no evidence of that whatsoever in this engraving. Like Olivia explained, there are no snowballs or rocks on the ground. By looking at this engraving, you can get a completely different feel for what took place that day. Its purpose was to gain American support and unity. It's biased nature is why it can be called a piece of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteI would also have to agree with all of the previous comments. Throughout history, propaganda has always been used to influence people. People who are issuing the propaganda are using it to sway viewers to their side. In the Bloody Massacre by Paul Revere he is trying to rally the colonists. He is making the British out to be the school yard bully picking on a weaker opponent. The British appear to be a well organized highly trained unit. While the American citizens are viewed as a very weak, unorganized, disarmed group. Also the Americans look to be a mix of both young and old. The faces of the citizens are worried, and terrified seeing some of the men dead on the ground. The blood was what caught my attention when first looking at this piece of propaganda. The blood was used to really drive home the point that the Boston Massacre was a terrible mess. The British are all firing their guns at the same exact time, with expressions of confidence on their faces. They seem to be fearless and calm. Olivia brings up a good point that American citizens were throwing snowballs and stones at the British troops, but in the picture there is absolutely no sign of weapons or protection for the American citizens. Knowing what really happened during the Boston Massacre, and seeing this picture by Paul Revere truly demonstrates that this is a notable piece of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteTaylor
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone before me had said. The picture of the Boston massacre is a piece of propaganda because it is being used to convert colonists to rebels and to hate the British. The title of the picture is "The Bloody Massacre" when in reality only five american were killed in a state of confusion. Like what others said, the British are depicted as being prepared for the attack and intent on trying to kill many people. The clouds of smoke around the British give the idea that they have fired off a lot of shots continously under the command of a general. The picture also shows a lot of americans standing around inncoently when in reality they were throwing snowball with rocks inside them at the soldiers. This engravement is a piece of propaganda because it gives off the illusion that the British randomly stared shooting innocnet americans and killed many of them when in reality that did not happen.
I completely agree with everything my classmates have stated before me. This engraving by Paul Revere is a clear piece of propaganda, trying to sway the colonists to support the movement for independence, rather than keeping their loyalty to the British government. I noticed many of my classmates made the point that the engraving highlights the amount of blood lost by the colonists killed in the “massacre”. This is obviously highlighted to show the colonists what cold-blooded killers the British militia are. I did notice one thing that differed from the picture we are viewing than the one in our textbook. On page 60 of America Past and Present is the same picture. The only difference between the two pictures was the amount of blood. In the textbook version, the blood is not highlighted as much, not as bright, and there is not as much blood in the streets or on the people as there is in the picture off the website. I wonder if this was part of the progression of the propaganda and done on purpose. That perhaps originally Paul Revere made the drawing with less blood, as shown in the text book, but as more and more people were hearing of the Boston Massacre, more gory-ness was added to the drawing in order to attract the attention of the colonists. If this was the case, then the gorier the picture became, the more likely colonists would see the British army in a negative light. That rather than seeing them as two sides fighting in a scrum, the colonists would see the British as killers of defenseless patriots, as an act of hatred towards everything that wasn’t British. If this was true, then this piece of propaganda would be bold enough to rally colonists who might not have viewed the British as a bad presence before now.
ReplyDeletePropaganda is a political advertisement that uses falsehoods or hyperbole in order to influence public opinions. The engraving fits this definition well. In the engraving, there are several details that make the British look like the agressors and the Americans the innocent victims. First of all, in the engraving, the Americans are peaceful. In reality, the Amercians were attacking the British with stones and snowballs. Secondly, the engraving shows the British officer holding his sword up as if to give the command to fire. In reality, the firing was purely accidental. Finally, There is no indication that the British were hugely outnumbered by the mob. In the real event, the soldiers were merely defending themselves against a large angry mob as any sensible person would do. In the engraving, the soldiers are portrayed as being agressive and using unnessary force. The engraving is propaganda because it grossly misrepresented the reality of what happened in the Boston Massacre
ReplyDeleteThomas
ReplyDeletePaul Revere’s picture of the Boston massacre should be considered propaganda because of the use of exaggeration. In the image, two colonist lay dead in the center of the image. Even though only five citizens actually died, Revere made it seem like the British were absolutely mowing down the entire group of colonists with their fire. This exaggeration displays that Revere knew that in order to reach the public, he needed to create an image that would be glued into the minds of the colonists. The purpose of anti-British propaganda was to make the colonists realize the negative effects of Great Britain on the colonies. In order to achieve this goal, Revere had to make the shooting seem much worse than it actually was in real life. That way the event to resonate with the colonists on a personal level. The intention of propaganda was to motivate the public to do something about presence of Great Britain. In order to obtain action from the public as a whole, Revere had to allow the colonists to see the damage that the British had caused. In order to make this damage more convincing to the colonists, Revere exaggerated the effects of the Boston massacre.
Lauren Chin
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the aforementioned comments. Paul Revere’s Engraving of the Boston Massacre is a prime example of propaganda since—like Olivia mentioned-- it is designed to mislead or persuade. According to the textbook, the colonists provoked the attack by throwing snowballs and rocks at the soldiers, like Olivia said. However, there are no snowballs or rocks to indicate they initiated the attack. There is not even snow in the picture. I agree with Sara’s point of how there is a huge contrast in the depiction of the colonists and the British. The colonists look vulnerable and appear defenseless, while the British are lined up to make it seem like they planned the attack. Like Colby said, the British shot out of fear and anxiety rather than purposeful and deliberate attack. The picture overdramatizes real history because the textbook says that even before the Boston Massacre the red coats in Boston were “ill-treated and underpaid.” Thus, the colonists are not entirely innocent. Revere is determined to prove his point, thought, and shows a sign saying “Butcher’s Hall” above the redcoats in the picture to further suggest that they are the colonists' enemy. Paul Revere is trying to sway the general public against the British and bring colonists together through their common enemy. This picture is propaganda omits specific details of the event on purpose in order to criminalize the British.
Kelly
ReplyDeleteThe definition of propaganda as defined by the Oxford Dictionary: is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view. I agree with all the previous points before me and the idea that this piece of art was meant to rile up the American Colonists. This engraving clearly support the bias that the American Colonist were completely defenseless as the British shot them. It depicts the Colonist defenseless with out and weapons trying to defend them self. One Colonist is actually shown with his handout out, palm up in a show of fear. Others are trying to carry off a wounded man. Many of the Colonists also seem to have fearful expressions. While this is going on the English seem to be uniformed, military like, as they shoot at he colonists. The expressions on their faces either seem to be neutral or almost gleeful. The engraving does a very good job of making it seem like the English were pointlessly shooting the Colonist, and the colonists had no power to fight back. Even in the tilted of the engraving, there is a clear bias. It is called “The Bloody Massacre”, describing to the reader the gore and the horrible things that happened that day. This picture is a clear show of propaganda due to is bias towards the events that happened during the Boston Massacre.
I agree with the aforementioned statements that the above engraving done by Paul Revere is a significant piece of propaganda meant to shed the British soldiers in an unflattering light. To add to Olivia and John's definition, propaganda, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is the spreading of ideas, information, or rumors for the purpose of damaging an opposing cause. Looking at the picture, although we know from the reading that the colonists were provoking the British soldiers with snowballs and taunting them, we see no agitation from the colonists whatsoever. We see them looking very distressed and holding the fallen Americans in their arms. Seeing fellow Americans being so visibly attacked by the British soldiers immediately victimizes them which, although the positioning is not completely valid, does put the sympathies of the viewers with the Americans and against the British. Looking at the alternative and how the British are presented, there are clearly more British soldiers than the American colonists, when, in reality, there were only five soldiers being harassed by a mob of angry Bostonians. The other major piece that I noticed was the facial expressions of the soldiers were very apathetic to the colonists as they shot into the crowd. Seeing this apathy towards shooting and killing other people easily portrays the British as the antagonists of the situation. Relating back to my definition given above, this piece of engraving does both spread ideas about the situation that happened in Boston while portraying a certain side, the side of the British soldiers, in a negative light. All of these minor factors do point toward the conclusion that this is a piece of propaganda.
ReplyDeleteHyuk Jin
ReplyDeletePaul Revere's engraving of Boston Massacre is a piece of propaganda because it is not factual, but opinionated and exaggerated in favor of the colonies. During the Boston Massacre, only five people were killed and the English soldiers were not just completely murdering Americans. The Americans were resisting using stones, sticks and other weapons as well, however, the engraving exaggerated the aggression of England and diminished the violence of Americans. It made Americans look innocent and non-violent. Moreover, the picture shows how every single English soldier is shooting at the Americans and the smoke that came out of the guns is just covering half of the picture. This creates a negative image of the British people and encourages the Americans to go against the mother country. Basically, it was a final strike that had created the reason to protest. The image infuriated the American nation to attack England which is one of the definitions of propaganda, which states that propaganda is ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.