So what really happened?

So what really happened March 5, 1770? Sam Adams named the event the Boston Massacre but was it a massacre? Did the British soldiers fire randomly into the crowd or were they provoked? Was Crispus Attucks the first to fall? We asked ourselves these and other questions as we read through multiple sources in an effort to try to understand the significance of an event that appears in every American history text. In your reflections, one student remarked that we should also have read an account by Captain Prescott, the leader of the British soldiers. Definitely, so check out the link. Another student brought in John Pufford’s rendition of the Boston Massacre, a great example of how artists see events from different perspectives.

This historical exercise shows you the necessity to look at multiple sources and perspectives and to ask the hard questions about events. Don’t believe everything you read in your text!

This exercise also gave us the opportunity to practice the habits of mind. Working in your group, you communicated, discussed, reflected, and persisted as you grappled with the guiding questions. “A habit of mind is knowing how to behave intelligently when you don’t know the answer.” (Costa and Kallick) We will be talking more about what you can do when you don’t know an answer over the next few weeks.

American Experience: John and Abigail

American Experience, on PBS, will be running a mini-series, “John and Abigail Adams,” starting in late January. American Experience has won numerous awards for their quality productions. This biography series will feature “a trio of formidable actors,” and award winning historians including David McCullough and Joseph Ellis. The couple’s story will be based on the more than 1,000 Adams letters that survive and are housed in the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. So get your video tape or TiVo set to record what should be an insightful story of two remarkable people.

1621

While Thanksgiving Day has evolved into a day of family, friends, food, and football, I hope all of us take a moment to remember the hardy folks who arrived in New England in 1620 to create a new community. After a year of struggle, death, famine, and moments of doubt, they took the time to celebrate and to give thanks for survival as well as a bountiful harvest.