Crispus Attucks
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This article is about Crispus Attucks. For other uses, see Crispus Attucks (disambiguation).
| Crispus Attucks | |
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Speculative 19th-century portrait of Crispus Attucks
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| Born | Crispus Attucks c.1723 Framingham, Massachusetts,British America |
| Died | March 5, 1770 (age 47) Boston, Massachusetts, British America |
| Occupation | Dockworker[1] |
Crispus Attucks (c.1723—March 5, 1770) may have been an American slave or freeman, merchant seaman and dockworker of Wampanoag and African descent. His father was likely a slave and his mother a Natick Indian.[2] He was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts,[3] and is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War.
Little is known for certain about Attucks beyond that he, along with Samuel Gray and James Caldwell, died "on the spot" during the incident.[4] Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre, both published in 1770, did not refer to Attucks as a black man or "Negro"; it appeared that Bostonians accepted him as mixed race. Historians disagree on whether Crispus Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave; but agree that he was of Wampanoag and African descent. He was put into a foster home at a very young age.
While the extent of his participation in events leading to the massacre is unclear, Attucks in the 18th century became an icon of the anti-slavery movement. He was held up as the first martyr of the American Revolution along with the others killed. In the early 19th century, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in Boston, supporters lauded Attucks as a black American who played a heroic role in the history of the United States [5] Because Attucks had Wampanoag ancestors, his story also holds special significance for many Native Americans.[6]
Contents
[hide]Early life[edit]
He appears to have been born a slave from Framingham, Massachusetts. His father married a woman who originated from the Natick Tribe during 1723,[7] possibly on Hartford Street. Framingham had a small population of black inhabitants from at least 1716. Attucks was of mixed African and Native American parentage and was descended from John Attucks, of Massachusettswho was hanged during King Philip's War.[8]
In 1750 William Brown, a slave-owner in Framingham, advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispus. Attucks's status at the time of the massacre as either a free black or a runaway slave has been a matter of debate for historians. However, his descendants maintain he was a slave and ran away sometime in his late 20s.[citation needed] What is known is that Attucks became a sailor and he spent much of the remainder of his life at sea often working on whalers, which involved long voyages. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, having recently returned from a voyage to the Bahamas. He was due to leave shortly afterwards on a ship for North Carolina.[9]
Reaction and trials[edit]
Arguing the soldiers fired in self-defense, John Adams successfully defended most of the accused British soldiers against a charge of murder. Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter. Faced with the prospect of hanging, the soldiers pled benefit of clergy, and were instead branded on their thumbs. In his arguments, Adams called the crowd "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs."."[10] 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."[11]
Two years later, Samuel Adams, a cousin of John Adams, named the event the "Boston Massacre," and helped assure that it would not be forgotten. Boston artist Henry Pelham (half-brother of the celebrated portrait painter John 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.
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