Although he is widely remembered as the first American casualty of theAmerican Revolutionary War, 11-year-oldChristopher Seider was shot a few weeks earlier by customs officer Ebenezer Richardson on February 22, 1770.[4][5] Historians disagree on whether Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave, but most agree that he was ofWampanoag and African descent.[6][7] Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre published in 1770 did not refer to him as black or as a Negro; it appears he was instead viewed by Bostonians as being of mixed ethnicity. According to a contemporaneous account in thePennsylvania Gazette, he was a "Mulattoe man, named Crispus Attucks, who was born inFramingham, but lately belonged to New Providence, and was here in order to go forNorth Carolina."[8]
Attucks became an icon of theanti-slavery movement in the mid-19th century. Supporters of the abolition movement lauded him for playing a heroic role in the history of the United States.[9][10]
Early life and ethnic origins
Attucks was born inFramingham, Massachusetts. Town histories of Framingham written in 1847 and 1887 describe him as a slave of Deacon William Brown, though it is unclear whether Brown was his original owner. In 1750, Brown advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispas. The advertisement from the Boston Gazette states[11]:
Ran-away from his Master William Brown, of Framingham, on the 30th of Sept. last, a Molatto Fellow, about 27 Years of Age, name Crispas, 6 feet two Inches high, short curl'd Hair, his Knees near together than common; had on a light colour'd Bearskin Coat, plain brown Fustian Jacket, or brown all-Wool one, new Buckskin Breeches, blue Yarn Stockings, and a check'd woollen Shirt.
Brown promises a reward of 10 pounds to whoever finds and returns Attucks to him. As the Wampanoag typically had straight black hair[12], Attucks being described as having short, curly hair is not consistent with his being a full-blooded Indian, but it is consistent with his having a mixed African-Wampanoag ancestry. Attucks's status at the time of the massacre as a free person or arunaway slave has been a matter of debate for historians.[citation needed]
Attucks became a sailor and whaler, and he spent much of his life at sea or working around the docks along the Atlantic seaboard. In an 1874 article inThe American Historical Record, Jebe B. Fisher recounts a passage in the memoirs ofBoston Tea Party participantGeorge R.T. Hewes, which stated that at the time of the massacre, Attucks "was a Nantucket Indian, belonging onboard a whale ship of Mr. Folgers, then in the harbor, and he remembers a distinct war whoop which he yelled... the mob whistling, screaming, and rending like an Indian yell."[13] Attucks often went by the alias Michael Johnson in order to avoid being caught after his escape from slavery. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, having recently returned from a voyage to theBahamas. He was due to leave shortly afterward on a ship forNorth Carolina.[14][15]
Today, Crispus Attucks is commonly described as anAfrican American in popular culture as the term 'mulatto' is rarely used in the United States, unlike in the 18 century, and everyone with African ancestry is consideredBlack. In 1770, two major sources of eyewitness testimony about theMassacre did not refer to Attucks as "Black" or as a "Negro," but rather as a mulatto and anIndian. In an account from Philadelphia'sPennsylvania Gazette, a man who may have been Attucks was referred to as a "Mulattoe man, named Crispas, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina."[8] However, during Attucks's time, mulatto was often used to describe skin tone rather than ethnicity, and, in Spanish or Portuguese colonies, sometimes referred to full-blooded Native Americans.[16][circular reference] However, since 'Crispas' was known to have short curly hair, it is unlikely that he would have been a full-blooded Indian. InPotter's American Monthly published in 1872, the interchangeability of the two terms appears to be demonstrated by a short section of the court transcripts from the Attucks trial:
Question: Did you see a mulatto among the persons who surrounded the soldiers?
Answer: I did not observe... Question: Did they seem to be sailors or townsmen? Answer: They were dressed some of them in the habits of sailors. Question: Did you know the Indian who was killed? Answer: No. Question: Did you see any of them press on the soldiers with a cordwood stick?
Historians differ in opinion on Attucks's heritage: some assert his family had intermarried with African slaves, while others maintain he had no African heritage. It is widely acknowledged that Attucks had considerable Native American heritage.[18]
Biographer Mitch Kachun, as well as multiple 19th century Framingham town histories, have drawn a connection between Attucks and John Attuck ofFramingham, aNarragansett man who was hanged in Framingham in 1676 duringKing Philip's War.[19][20] The word for "deer" in the Narragansett language is "Attuck."[21][22] Kachun also noted a possible connection to a probableNatick woman and possible Attucks mother or relative named Nanny Peterattucks, who is described as a 'negro woman' in the 1747 estate inventory of Framingham slaveholder Joseph Buckminster and, along with Jacob Peterattucks, as 'probable descendant of John Attuck, the Indian' in an 1847 history of Framingham.[23][24] Other sources refer to their surname as Peter Attucks. In a 1747 history of the Hoosac Valley, an Africancolonial militiaman named Moses Peter Attucks, living in nearbyLeicester, is described as a 'negro slave of John White; elsewhere he is listed as Moses Attucks.[25][26] Jacob Peterattucks and Nanny Peterattucks are recorded as slaves with Joseph Buckminster in 1730, and in 1740 Jacob with Thomas Buckminster, who was appointed by Framingham in 1739 to lead a commission for the preservation of deer in the area.[27] HistorianWilliam C. Nell reported an 1860 letter from a Natick resident, also printed in an 1860 edition ofThe Liberator newspaper that read,
Several persons are now living in Natick who remember the Attucks family, viz., Cris, who was killed March 5th; Sam, whose name was abbreviated into Sam Attucks, or Smattox; Sal, also known as Slattox; and Peter, called Pea Tattox [...] my mother, still living, aged 89, remembers Sal in particular, who used to be called the gourd-shellsquaw, from the fact that she used to carry her rum in a gourd shell [...] the whole family are said to be the children of Jacob Peter Attucks... it has been conjectured that they are of Indian blood, but all who knew the descendants describe them as negroes.[28][29]
The letter continues, "his sister [Sal] used to say that if they had not killed Cris, Cris would have killed them."
Prince Yonger has been posited as the father of Attucks. However, according to Framingham town histories, Yonger did not arrive in Massachusetts until 1725, after Attucks was born, and did not marry Nanny Peterattucks until 1737[citation needed], after which point they had children, who are noted in multiple town histories but among whom Crispus is not mentioned: "a son, who died young, and Phebe, who never married." It is possible Yonger became Attucks' stepfather in 1737, though it is unclear whether Attucks had permanently left his mother's home by that point.[30] Neither Phebe nor the son are recorded with the Attucks or Peterattucks surname.
This 19th-centurylithograph is a variation of the famous engraving of theBoston Massacre by Paul Revere. Produced soon before theAmerican Civil War and long after the event depicted, this image emphasizes Crispus Attucks, who had become a symbol for abolitionists. (John Bufford after William L. Champey,c. 1856)[31]
In the fall of 1768,British troops were sent to Boston to maintain order amid growing colonial unrest which had led to a spate of attacks on local officials following the introduction of theStamp Act and the subsequentTownshend Acts. RadicalWhigs had coordinatedwaterfront mobs against the authorities. The presence of troops, instead of reducing tensions, served to further inflame them.
After dusk on March 5, 1770, a wigmaker's apprentice mistakenly accused a British officer of not paying a bill. The officer ignored his insults but a sentry intervened after the boy began physically assaulting the officer. Both townspeople and nine soldiers of the29th Regiment of Foot gathered. The colonists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers. A group of men including Attucks approached theOld State House armed withclubs and sticks. A soldier was struck with a piece of wood, an act some witnesses claimed was done by Attucks. Other witnesses stated that Attucks was "leaning upon a stick" when the soldiers opened fire.[32]
Five colonists were killed and six were wounded. Attucks took two ricocheted bullets in the chest and was believed to be the first to die.[33] County coroners Robert Pierpoint and Thomas Crafts Jr. conducted an autopsy on Attucks.[34] He was "felled by two bullets to his chest, one of them 'goring the right lobe of the lungs and a great part of the liver most horribly'."[35] Attucks' body was carried toFaneuil Hall, where itlay in state until Thursday, March 8, 1770, when he and the other victims were buried together in the same grave site in Boston'sGranary Burying Ground. He was approximately 47 years old.
Reaction and trials
Boston Gazette newspaper report, March 12, 1770, four days after the funeral. The illustration of the coffins shows the initials of the four victims buried March 8.
John Adams successfully defended most of the accused soldiers against a charge of murder. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. Faced with the prospect of hanging, the soldiers pleadedbenefit of clergy, and were insteadbranded on their thumbs. In his arguments, Adams called the crowd "a motley rabble of saucy boys,negros and molattoes,Irish teagues and outlandishJack Tarrs."[36] In particular, he charged Attucks with having "undertaken to be the hero of the night," and with having precipitated a conflict by his "mad behavior."[37]
Two years laterUnited States Founding FatherSamuel Adams, a cousin of John Adams, named the event the "Boston Massacre," and helped ensure it would not be forgotten.[38] Boston artistHenry Pelham (half-brother of the celebrated portrait painterJohn Singleton Copley) created an image of the event.Paul Revere made a copy from which prints were made and distributed. Some copies of the print show a dark-skinned man with chest wounds, presumably representing Crispus Attucks. Other copies of the print show no difference in the skin tones of the victims.[39]
The five who were killed were buried as heroes in theGranary Burying Ground, which also contains the graves ofSamuel Adams,John Hancock, and other notable figures.[40] Customs of the period discouraged the burial of black people and white people together, with "black burials relegated to the rear or far side of the cemetery.[41] Such a practice was not completely unknown, however.Prince Hall, for example, was interred inCopp's Hill Burying Ground in theNorth End of Boston 39.[42]
1858, Boston-area abolitionists, includingWilliam Cooper Nell, established "Crispus Attucks Day" to commemorate him.
1886, the places where Crispus Attucks and Samuel Gray fell were marked by circles on the pavement. Within each circle, a hub with spokes leads out to form a wheel.
1888,a monument honoring Attucks and the other victims of the Boston Massacre was erected onBoston Common. It is over 25 feet high and about 10 feet wide. The "bas-relief" (raised portion on the face of the main part of the monument) portrays the Boston Massacre, with Attucks lying in the foreground. Under the scene is the date, March 5, 1770. Above the bas-relief stands a female figure,Free America, holding the broken chain of oppression in her right hand. Beneath her right foot, she crushes the royal crown of England. At the left of the figure is an eagle. Thirteen stars are cut into one of the faces of the monument. Beneath these stars in raised letters are the names of the five men who were killed that day: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr. Some men died a day later.Crispus Attucks Middle School,Sunnyside,Houston,Texas Although that year leaders of theMassachusetts Historical Society and theNew England Historic Genealogical Society opposed the creation of the Crispus Attucks memorial, since the 20th century both organizations have acknowledged his role and promoted interest in black history andgenealogy.
TheWellcome Library, in London, owns a notebook bound in what a note with it claims is Attucks' skin,[46] although the library believes the book's leather actually comes from camel, horse, or goat.[47]
In popular culture
"First man to die for the flag we now hold high was a black man" is a line fromStevie Wonder's 1976 song "Black Man".[48]
The poetJohn Boyle O'Reilly wrote the following poem when the monument was finally unveiled:
And to honor Crispus Attucks who was the leader and voice that day: The first to defy, and the first to die, with Maverick, Carr, and Gray. Call it riot or revolution, or mob or crowd as you may, such deaths have been seeds of nations, such lives shall be honored for aye [...]
Melvin Tolson begins his poem "Dark Symphony" with the lines: "Black Crispus Attucks taught / Us how to die / Before white Patrick Henry’s bugle breath / Uttered the Vertical / Transmitting cry: / 'Yea, give me liberty or give me death.'"
Martin Luther King Jr. referred to Crispus Attucks in the introduction ofWhy We Can't Wait (1964) as an example of a man whose contribution to history provided a potent message of moral courage.
In the successful sitcomThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,Will Smith names Crispus Attucks as one of many inspirational African-American figures in history when he tries to explain why he is failing history.
In theNetflix seriesLuke Cage, based on theMarvel Comics character of thesame name, there is a housing development called the Crispus Attucks Complex, named in honor of Attucks. Cage also explains Attucks' role in the Boston Massacre at the end of the second episode of the series.[50]
^"Africans in America: Crispus Attucks".PBS. Retrieved18 May 2022.In 1770, Crispus Attucks, a black man, became the first casualty of the American Revolution when he was shot and killed in what became known as the Boston Massacre. Although Attucks was credited as the leader and instigator of the event, debate raged for over as century as to whether he was a hero and a patriot, or a rabble-rousing villain.
^"Crispus Attucks".Biography.com. 26 March 2021. Retrieved18 May 2022.Crispus Attucks was an African American man killed during the Boston Massacre and believed to be the first casualty of the American Revolution.
^Kachun, Mitchell (2017).First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0190092498.[page needed]
^Kachun, Mitch (Summer 2009). "From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon: Crispus Attucks, Black Citizenship, and Collective Memory".Journal of the Early Republic.29 (2):249–286.doi:10.1353/jer.0.0072.S2CID144216986.
^Kachun, Mitch (2017).First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0199910861.[page needed]
^The Trial of William Wemms, James Hartegan, William M'Cauley, Hugh White, Matthew Killroy, William Warren, John Carrol, and Hugh Montgomery, soldiers in His Majesty's 29th Regiment of Foot, for the murder of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Patrick Carr, on Monday-evening, the 5th of March,1867 at the Superior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize, and General Goal Delivery, held at Boston, the 27th day of November, 1770, by adjournment, before the Hon. Benjamin Lynde, John Cushing, Peter Oliver, and Chris Metzler, Esquires, justices of said court (Boston:J. Fleeming, 1770); andA Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston (New York: John Doggett, Jr., 1849).
^The Trial of William Wemms; andA Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston.
^Hiller B. Zobel,The Boston Massacre. (W. W. Norton and Company, 1970).[ISBN missing][page needed]
^"Granary – City of Boston".Boston, Massachusetts: City of Boston. Retrieved4 August 2011.The gravestones' original haphazard configuration was rearranged into straighter rows over to [sic] the years to accommodate both nineteenth-century aesthetics and the modern lawnmower.
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Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Attucks, Crispus".The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 161.
