The term "massacre" in this case is not a judgment of history.  It was selected as a part of a careful propaganda effort to suggest the British military presence was not simply unwelcome by the Bostonians, but abusive of their liberty and their lives.  Mr. Lister's labeling of Turner's murders as "genocide," presumably because people of one race were bent on killing those of another, is a judgment of history.  I don't happen to agree with it though, in part because of the scope -- like the term massacre, genocide suggests a large number of victims -- but more because of the definition of genocide itself: there is no evidence that Turner wanted to kill whites per se.   His targets were slaveholders, those who profited unjustly off the labor of those they held as property.  That Southampton County slveholders were white was merely circumstantial to turner's understanding of his mission.

David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
Chesapeake, Virginia 23322
757-822-5136
>>> Anne Pemberton <[log in to unmask]> 11/12/08 1:06 PM >>>
Folks,

The following is meat of the description of the "massacre" that led to the 
beginning of the Revolutionary War:

"A tense situation because of a heavy British military presence in Boston 
boiled over to incite brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually 
led to troops discharging their muskets after being attacked by a rioting 
crowd. Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting, and two 
died after the incident."

It is historically correct to refer to the above incident as "The Boston 
Massacre", yet the word "Massacre" seems as out of place here as the term 
"genocide" was in the post by Tony Lister in regard to Nat Turner. It is 
perhaps true that the victor write history, but it seems to me that the 
victor also bears some responsibility to provide accuracy and to show more 
than one side of an issue.
Anne

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