Watershed moment in U.S. history gets a woke rewrite
oston is known as the “Cradle of Liberty,” as the American Revolution that gave birth to the United States began here. The Old South Meeting House, where the Sons of Liberty denounced British rule and the Boston Tea Party began, and the Old State House, site of the Boston Massacre, are two of Boston’s most significant historical landmarks.
Managing and operating these two special sites is Revolutionary Spaces, an organization whose mission is “bringing people together to explore the American struggle to create and sustain a free society.” In 2019, before the pandemic, I helped create the “Reflecting Attucks” exhibit that honored Crispus Attucks, the first martyr for the cause of independence in America. Historians from many backgrounds worked together to assemble this singular installation, and we made something very special: an exhibit that put the past front and center, untarnished by partisanship or political correctness.
On March 5, 1770, colonists attacked British soldiers in retaliation for the military occupation of Boston, the loss of civilian employment to soldiers, and the soldiers’ contempt for and misuse of power. This act of defiance against the British Crown served as the flame that ignited the American Revolution. To honor the occasion and provide tourists and locals with a unique glimpse into the past, a reenactment has been held annually for the better part of a decade.
Revolutionary Spaces, who traditionally sponsored and organized the reenactment, skipped this year. But it didn’t leave us empty-handed. Assistant Director of Visitor Experience Lou Rocco posted a piece called “The Boston Massacre and Modern Police Violence” on the organization’s website. Rocco refers to the Boston Massacre as “The most famous incident of gun violence in American history… But violence perpetrated by the state didn’t end with British rule; we are all too familiar with it in the 21st century.”
Depicting the Boston Massacre where nine British soldiers defended themselves against a mob of three to four hundred drunk, angry Bostonians who threw shells, snowballs with rocks in them, and beat them with clubs is as state and gun violence is ridiculous. Rocco proceeds to blame the Boston Massacre on the “inappropriate training that British troops were given to police cities raise intriguing questions. What skills should armed agents of the state be trained in? How much responsibility do they bear if they aren’t trained properly for what society asks of them?” During that historical period, British soldiers had the highest standards of training and discipline of any army in the world. Soldiers were sent to maintain order in Boston and repress the open rebellion against Britain.
Rocco’s comparison between the British soldiers who occupied Boston over 250 years ago and today’s police brutality is outlandish. The exhibit “Training the Force, Then and Now” is supposed to answer many of the questions Rocco raises in his historically inaccurate piece. It is sad to see that Revolutionary Spaces is drinking the Kool Aid of the woke left who wish to cancel or manipulate the narrative of our history to fit their political viewpoints.
Revolutionary Spaces has succeeded in offending reenactors, historians, police officers, locals, and tourists with their PC take on our nation’s past.