ABSTRACT
Jailed in Boston, facing prosecution in a Massachusetts court before a Suffolk County jury, Thomas Preston feared that he would be convicted and hanged. Desperate, perhaps, to soften local opinion, he made a statement to the Boston Gazette, which appeared in the same issue as its infuriated report of the massacre. Preston thanked “the Inhabitants in general of this Town—who throwing aside all Party and Prejudice, have with the utmost Humanity and Freedom stept forth Advocates for Truth, in Defence of my injured Innocence.” Exactly what Preston thought Pitt could do is unclear, except to hope that he would work behind the scenes to calm the atmosphere at Westminster.
