A silversmith by trade, Revere also produced copperplate engravings for book and magazine illustrations, portraits and political drawings that supported the nascent Patriot movement. Reveres most effective piece of anti-British propaganda was "The Bloody Massacre," a full-color rendering of the 1770 melee that came to be known as the Boston Massacre. Printed just weeks after British troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd of rabble-rousing Bostonians, Revere's one-sided depiction of the Boston Massacre likely lit a flame under the Patriot cause and stoked anti-British sentiment throughout the restless colonies.