In 1818 Pantias Rodokanakis and Nikolaos Milonas addressed to Demetrios Ipsilantis to ask him to help them liberate the island from the Turks.  Therefore, they asked for help from the islands of Spetses, Idra and Psara whose men in power agreed to help.  On the other hand, the majority of Chians disagreed with the idea of liberation because of the privileges they had been assigned by the Sultan.

On 27th April 1821 Iakovos Tompazis from the island of Idra reached Chios with twenty five (25) ships.  His goal was to turn the Chians against the Turks.  One of his men, coming from the island of Psara bore a letter to the inhabitants of the villages.  The message invited them to join the revolution and to rebel against the Turks.  Tompazis preferred to talk to the villagers first because he knew that the residents of the town would oppose to the idea of the rebellion.   Three elders went to the location, mentioned in the message, “the fountain of pasha” and met him in secret.  They explained the reasons for not being able to support the revolution.  They claimed that the majority of the population was unarmed, unprepared and inexperienced in matters of war.   They also said that the consequences of that revolution would be disastrous not only for the inhabitants of the island but also for Chians living in Constantinople and Smyrna).  So they asked Tompazis to leave the island.  And so it was done.  Three days after this meeting the fleet left the island empty-handed.

The Turks found out about the arrival of the Greek ships to Chios and called for the elders (Mikes Vlastos, Ioannis Patrikousis and Hatzis Polychrones Diomataris) to explain themselves.  The elders denied having known anything about it and they were asked to call for more elders.  Ten elders as well as the Metropolite bishop Platon with his deacon Makarios Garis turned out in the meeting.  They were all thrown to the prison of the castle.  The Turks also asked the Chians to hand in any weapons they possessed and to stop going about in the streets during the evening and night hours.

On October 1821 the Turks asked for help from the Sultan.  One thousand soldiers arrived from Constantinople and two hundred from Crete.  On January 1822 three Chian elders – Rallis, Skilitsis and Rodokanankis – arrived in Constantinople to be held in pledge and were thrown to prison.
On Saturday 11th March 1822 the leader of the revolution on the island of Samos, Lycurgus Logothetis got to Chios with the Chian Bournias and with two thousand five hundred to four thousand five hundred (2,500 – 4,500) men (the fleet consisted of 8 brigs and 30 auxiliary ships).  Logothetis’ army disembarked simultaneously in two different places: the gulf of Saint Helen and Angali.  In the meantime, many Chians had been informed about the disembarkation, and they rushed to join Logothetis’ army.  Pasha Vahit sent two troops, one to stop the landing and the other one to Kampos, as he wanted to flank the Greek army.   At first, the Greeks seemed to win the battles.  The Turks were forced to barricade themselves in the castle.  Bournias with his soldiers fought the Turks from the location of Palaiokastro (where the schools of Vounakiou are located today).  In the hillock called Panagia Tourlotis a group of Samians used some cannons against the town.  Other revolutioners dug themselves in the places “Psomi”, “Asomaton” and on the shore “Katos Gialos”.

The liberation of Chios was accepted by the Chians with a feeling of fear regarding the result of the revolution. As a matter of fact many rich Chians left the island.

As soon as the Turks in Constantinople were informed about the rebellion on the island, they sent their fleet whose admiral was Kara Allis.  On 22nd March 1822, the Ottoman fleet (forty six ships and seven thousand men) reached the northern part of the island.  A few hours later the Turks who had barricaded themselves in the castle joined them and they started burning down the town, pillaging and massacring.  Logothetis and Bournias moved to the inland of Chios, shouting “every man for himself”.

On Good Friday 31st March 1822 the temple of Panagia (Virgin Mary) Tourlotis was burnt down and the Turks were ordered to start the bloodshed and burning down the town.  Starting from that day and for four whole months Turks convicts from the Minor Asian coasts arrived in the island and they massacred, they looted and they plundered. It is estimated that forty thousand (40,000) irregular troops arrived in the island that period.  Pasha Vahit announced the sultan’s order for all the infants aged up to 3 years old, boys and men aged over 12 years old and women aged over 40 years old to be killed. He also ordered for girls and women from 3 to 40 years old and boys aged from 3 to 12 years old to be captured. Only those who accepted to be islamised did they manage to save their life.

The majority of Chians moved to the inland so as to save themselves from the fierceness of the Turks.  At first, their refuges were the villages of Karees and Saint George Sikousis, the monasteries of Nea Moni and Saint Minas as well as the mountain Aipos.  On Good Saturday, 1st April 1822 the school of Chios was burnt down and almost everyone was massacred, even the lepers.  Pasha Vahit had issued an order according to which the more tongues and ears were brought to him, the more money he would offer.

On 2nd April 1822 (it was the orthodox Easter) fifteen thousand (15,000) Turks soldiers burst into the monastery of Saint Minas through an opening in the precinct and massacred three thousand (3,000) Chians who had found refuge in the monastery.  The same day the Turks burst into the monastery of Nea Moni too and they killed everyone who had found refuge in it.  The massacre spread to every village of Chios.  The Samians abandoned the island and sailed to the island of Psara.

On Wednesday 5th April 1822 Kara Allis announced that he would set free (amnesty) those Chians that would hand over their weapons and return to the town.  In fact, the Turks convinced the prisoners, Metropolite bishop and the elders to sign a letter which stated that they meant well.  The Consul General of England, Austria and France took the initiative to inform the Chians about this initiative and to try to convince them.  The Chians showed confidence in the Consul Generals and started to return to the town and hand over their guns.  As it was expected, the Turks went back on their word and started massacring every Chian returning to the town.  The unbelievable massacre expanded to the central Chios (Vrontados, Pitios, Thimiana and then to the northern villages).  In the cape of Kavos Melanios, which is opposite the island of Psara, ten thousand (10,000) Chians found a shelter and waited for the ships from Psara to take them to the island.  Unfortunately, the ships never arrived at their destination and almost everyone was massacred by the fierce Turks.  The bloodshed was of such extension that the sea around the care and the beach turned into red.

On 18th April, in Constantinople, three Chians hostages (Rallis, Slilitzis and Rodokanakis) as well as sixty (60) more eminent Chians were massacred.  On 23rd April 1822, the Metropolite bishop Platon, his deacon and nine elders were hanged in the moat of the castle. The elders who were imprisoned were also hung ten per ten and their bodies were thrown into the sea.

A few days after burning down the town and massacring almost every Chian, an attack of the fleet of the three Greek naval power islands (Spetses, Idra and Psara) was planned against the Ottoman fleet which had anchored in the strait of Tsesmes.  On 18th May, they tried their first attack.  The Greeks managed to cause damage to the enemy’s fleet, but they failed to set Kara Allis’ flagship on fire.  On 1st June 1822, Konstantinos Kanaris with Andreas Pipinos and forty men from Psara set off from the island with two fire ships and four patrol ships.  After receiving the Holy Communion, they entered the strait of Chios in north wind.  They hid and waited the moment it would get dark.  At that time, the Turkish Ramadan was towards its close and the celebration of Bairam was about to start. A lot of guests and some unfortunate women taken as prisoners were on board, approximately two thousand (2,000) people, and they were all celebrating.  The two fire ships managed to sail among the Turkish ships.  Kanaris’ ship headed for Kara Allis’ flagship, while Pipinos’ ship headed for the rear-admiral’s one.  Kanaris succeeded in setting the flagship on fire, while Pipinos failed his goal as he forced his pace and he was seen by the Turks.  But the flagship was set on fire and it was blown up.  Kara Allis was killed.  On 7th June, the fierce Turks started a new assault, the third one, in the Mastihohoria and so now the island was completely destroyed.

The island was depopulated.  The Turks brought six hundred (600) Christians from Tsesmes to collect the crop of the mastic.  But they didn’t know how to do it and so the Turks were forced to set free some villagers from Mastihohoria so that the mastic crop could be collected.

After the massacre of the island, one thousand eight hundred to two thousand (1,800 – 2,000) people remained on the island – a very small population considering that the original Christian population of Chios was 117,000.  Twenty one thousand (21,000) people left the island and they took refuge in Psara, Tinos, Syros, Andros, Ancona, Trieste, Malta, London, and Odessa. Fifty two thousand (52,000) people were the prisoners and it is estimated that fifty two thousand (52,000) Chians were massacred.

The massacre of Chios shocked not only the Greek nation but also Europe.  The newspapers had articles which expressed the European’s abhorrence for the massacre.  There were books about this matter in England, France and Germany and the philhellenes tried to render the public opinion sensitive so the victims would be helped. The great French painter Delacroix as well as Victor Hugo in his poem “The Greek Child” were both inspired by the massacre of Chios.