This program will be held in-person at the Newberry and livestreamed on Zoom. The online version of this event will be live captioned. Please register below.
The story of the Boston Massacre—when on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to death—is familiar to generations. But from the very beginning, many accounts have obscured a fascinating truth: the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political.
Join us as Serena Zabin, in conversation with Susie An, discusses her book, The Boston Massacre: A Family History, in which she draws on original sources and lively stories to follow British troops as they are dispatched from Ireland to Boston in 1768 to subdue the increasingly rebellious colonists. The book reveals a forgotten world hidden in plain sight: the many regimental wives and children who accompanied these armies. We see these families jostling with Bostonians for living space, finding common cause in the search for a lost child, trading barbs, and sharing baptisms. Becoming, in other words, neighbors. When soldiers shot unarmed citizens in the street, it was these intensely human, now broken bonds that fueled what quickly became a bitterly fought American Revolution.
The Colonial History Speaker Series is cosponsored by the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Illinois, in partnership with the History Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Speakers
Serena Zabin is a professor of history and chair of the history department at Carleton College. She is the author of Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York and The New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741: Daniel Horsmanden’s Journal of the Proceedings. She is also the co-designer of a serious video game about the Boston Massacre, Witness to the Revolution.
Susie An is a reporter for WBEZ and covers state and suburban education. She also serves as an occasional news anchor and show host on WBEZ. She’s directed shows like Schools on the Line, a past WBEZ call-in show focusing on education in Chicago. Her work has also been heard on NPR, CBC and BBC. Susie joined WBEZ as a news desk intern in September 2007. Prior to joining WBEZ, Susie worked at the Peoria Journal Star newspaper and worked as an acquisitions editor for Publications International, Ltd. Susie’s work has won awards from the Associated Press and Chicago Headline Club. She has a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, Susie has been a Chicago resident since 2006.
Cost and Registration
This program is free and open to all. Advance registration required.
Registration opens March 1.
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