Confrontation as moral drama: The Boston massacre in rhetorical perspective

Abstract

The rhetoric of the American Revolution can offer insights not only into the function of persuasion in that monumental social movement, but also into the function of confrontation within agitational movements. The Boston Massacre, like later confrontations in the civil rights movement, the student power movement, and the anti‐war movement, had a persuasive impact far out of proportion to the objective importance of the incident. Because it served as a moral drama, the Boston Massacre helped to define the larger conflict between America and England in terms of good versus evil, liberty versus tyranny. The real significance of the Boston Massacre is not to be found in the riot itself, but in the rhetoric it fostered.