National myths set a foundation for a country’s character. One of my favorites is how John Adams defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. His actions show that everyone, even people that we despise. In the United States, the law is the supreme arbiter, and we all are equal under the law. But myths also gloss over the negatives and prop up incorrect beliefs, like all Americans are equal under the law. Digging into the roots of the myth turns out to be enlightening. Myths gloss over the human parts of the story. They fail to take into account that all participants are human, which means that there really isn’t a bad and a good guy. In my opinion, this makes their actions, their sacrifices, and their story all the more impressive. In John Adams Under Fire, Dan Abrams and David Fisher take an in depth look at Adam’s actions that established an American ideal.
TL;DR
From the Publisher
Honoring the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre
The New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln’s Last Trial and host of LivePD Dan Abrams and David Fisher tell the story of a trial that would change history.
History remembers John Adams as a Founding Father and our country’s second president. But in the tense years before the American Revolution, he was still just a lawyer, fighting for justice in one of the most explosive murder trials of the era.
On the night of March 5, 1770, shots were fired by British soldiers on the streets of Boston, killing five civilians. The Boston Massacre has often been called the first shots of the American Revolution. As John Adams would later remember, “On that night the formation of American independence was born.” Yet when the British soldiers faced trial, the young lawyer Adams was determined that they receive a fair one. He volunteered to represent them, keeping the peace in a powder keg of a colony, and in the process created some of the foundations of what would become United States law.
In this book, New York Times bestselling authors Dan Abrams and David Fisher draw on the trial transcript, using Adams’s own words to transport readers to colonial Boston, a city roiling with rebellion, where British military forces and American colonists lived side by side, waiting for the spark that would start a war.
Review: John Adams Under Fire
Abrams and Fisher start the book by setting the scene of the Boston Massacre. They write detailed descriptions events surrounding the massacre and introduce the participants quickly but accurately. At the same time, they provide a quick professional bio of John Adams. Then they move quickly into the first trial, which surprised me, but I liked it. They balanced enough detail and description to accurately set the scene without overdoing it. This section covers a lot of early U.S. legal norms. I learned that the lawyers and justices actually had a circuit that they traveled to administer justice.
Then the trial gets going. We learn who the witnesses for the prosecution were. We get to see Adams in action. Adams defends Captain Preston not just in the courts but in such a way that the public didn’t carry out its own justice. The lead up to the Revolutionary War is the background to the whole trial. The Sons of Liberty are agitating the citizenry. The authors do a lot with what little is known about the Preston trial. No transcription of Captain Preston’s trial has ever been found.
Preston’s trial lasts for about forty percent of the book. Then they get into the trial of the soldiers. This is more in-depth than the first section because a transcript of the soldier’s trial is available. Testimony and trial allows us to see into the courtroom. The authors give background on some of the witnesses to explain why their testimony is important. It felt very much like reading a transcript but better. Their explanations and analysis make it easier to read, though. I appreciated the commentary. As a non-lawyer, the commentary helped flesh out the trial and make it more immediate.
Not Just History, Legal History
Before this book, I hadn’t read any of Abrams and Fisher’s work. I was expecting history mixed in with legal analysis, but Abrams and Fisher include the history of how legal traditions came about.
The intricacies of Captain Preston’s trial are laid out here, well, from what can be known about the trial. I never thought about the strategy between the two different trials: Captain Preston and his soldiers. One party’s defense could implicate the other. So, how does Adams and his colleagues defend Preston without throwing Preston’s soldiers under the bus?
With the transcript of the second trial available, the authors guide the readers through the trial. Commentary, historical notes, and analysis of legal terms used in the trial spice up the transcript. But it is a legal history based around the testimony and the trial.
Slow But Worth It
One side effect of being so detailed and thorough is the book reads a bit slow. This slow burn is worth it. The first section read like a history book to me, but when I got to the second trial, the book slowed. There’s a lot of information, a lot of testimony, but it remained interesting.
Conclusion
Dan Abrams and David Fisher’s John Adams Under Fire describes an iconic moment in U.S. history and a defining moment in John Adams history. The Boston Massacre is an important part of American history, and the trials that followed it are as important for what they meant to protection under the law. Abrams and Fisher provide the facts and let the witnesses tell the stories for themselves.
John Adams Under Fire is available from Hanover Square Press on March 3rd 2020.