And while this is a pretty evenhanded account of the affair, a review of the trial of the soldiers (in which John Adams took a leading role in defense of Captain Preston and the enlisted men) is very instructive.
In trial testimony, Attucks was described as behaving 'like a madman' - he actually attempted to grab a soldier's musket and was wrestling with him for it when it discharged. A prominent Boston physician who attended one of the victims on his deathbed testified to the man's statement (admissible as a dying declaration) that he should have known better to hang around the Custom House, because he was from Ireland and he had seen riots there, 'and had never known troops to stand so much before firing'.
Adams very cautiously avoided eliciting testimony that Sam Adams's right hand man was leading the rioters, but that information was in the statements given by witnesses.
In other words, this was a put up job, a provocation pounced upon by the news media for their own purposes.
It is a good thing that Adams and other respectable Bostonians recognized the danger inherent in King Mob, and shuffled Sam Adams and his gang out of the way as soon as war appeared inevitable.
An excellent history of the American Revolution is “George Washington’s War” by Robert Leckie. It is a very enjoyable, easy read.
Other books by Leckie that I have read:
None Died in Vain - Civil War
Delivered From Evil - WWII
The Wars of America - All wars from the French & Indian to the Gulf War.