Crispus
Attucks Biography
Folk Hero (c. 1723–1770)
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QUICK FACTS
NAME
Crispus Attucks
OCCUPATION
BIRTH DATE
c. 1723
DEATH DATE
PLACE OF BIRTH
PLACE OF DEATH
AKA
"Crispas"
FULL NAME
Crispus Attucks
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SYNOPSIS
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LEGACY
Crispus
Attucks was an African-American man killed during the Boston Massacre, making
him the first casualty of the American Revolution.
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Crispus Attucks is believed to have been born around 1723,
in Framingham, Massachusetts. His father was likely a slave and his mother a
Natick Indian. A 1750 ad in the Boston Gazette sought the
recovery of a runaway slave named "Crispas," but all that is
definitely known about Attucks is that he was the first to fall during the
Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. In 1888, the Crispus Attucks monument was
unveiled in Boston Common.
Born into slavery, Crispus Attucks was the son of Prince
Yonger, a slave shipped to America from Africa, and Nancy Attucks, a Natick
Indian. Little is known about Attucks' life, or his family, who resided in
Framingham, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.
What has been pieced together paints a picture of a young
man who showed an early skill for buying and trading goods. He seemed unafraid
of the consequences for escaping the bonds of slavery. Historians have, in
fact, pinpointed Attucks as the focus of an advertisement in a 1750 edition of
the Boston Gazette in which a white landowner offered to pay 10 pounds for the
return of a young runaway slave.
"Ran away from his Master William Brown from
Framingham, on the 30th of Sept. last," the advertisement read. "A
Molatto Fellow, about 27 Years of age, named Crispas, 6 Feet two Inches high,
short curl'd Hair, his Knees nearer together than common: had on a light
colour'd Bearskin Coat."
Attucks, however, managed to escape for good, spending the
next two decades on trading ships and whaling vessels coming in and out of
Boston. Attucks also found work as a rope maker.
As British control over the colonies tightened, tensions escalated
between the colonists and British soldiers. Attucks was one of those directly
affected by the worsening situation. Seamen like Attucks constantly lived with
the threat they could be forced into the British navy, while back on land,
British soldiers regularly took part-time work away from colonists.
On March 2, 1770, a Friday, a fight erupted between a group
of Boston rope makers and three British soldiers. Tensions were ratcheted up
further three nights later when a British soldier looking for work entered a
Boston pub, only to be greeted by a contingent of furious sailors, one of whom
was Attucks.
The details regarding what followed have always been the
source of debate, but that evening, a group of Bostonians approached a guard in
front of the customs house and started taunting him. The situation quickly
escalated. When a contingent of British redcoats came to the defense of their
fellow soldier, more angry Bostonians joined the fracas, throwing snowballs and
other items at the soldiers.
Attucks was one of those in the middle of the fight, and
when the British opened fire he was the first of five men killed. His murder
made him the first casualty of the American Revolution.
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Quickly becoming known as the Boston Massacre, the episode
further propelled the colonies toward war with the British. Flames were fanned
even more when the soldiers involved in the incident were acquitted on the
grounds of self defense. John Adams, who went on to become the second U.S.
president, defended the soldiers in court. During the trial, Adams labeled the
colonists an unruly mob that forced his clients to open fire.
Helping to lead the attack was Attucks, Adams charged,
though debate has raged over how involved he was in the fight. One account
claims he was simply "leaning on a stick" when the gunshots erupted.
Even so, Attucks became a martyr. His body was transported
to Faneuil Hall, where he and the others killed in the attack lay in state.
City leaders even waived the laws around black burials and permitted Attucks to
be buried with the others at the Park Street cemetery.
In the years since his death, Attucks's legacy has continued
to endure, first with the American colonists eager to break from British rule,
and later among 19th century abolitionists and 20th century civil rights
activists. In his 1964 book, Why We Can't Wait, Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. lauded Attucks for his moral courage and his defining role in American
history.
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Cite This Page
APA Style
Crispus
Attucks. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 11:00, Aug 31, 2015, fromhttp://www.biography.com/people/crispus-attucks-9191864.
Harvard Style
Crispus
Attucks. [Internet]. 2015. The Biography.com website. Available from:http://www.biography.com/people/crispus-attucks-9191864 [Accessed
31 Aug 2015].
MLA Style
"Crispus
Attucks." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 31 Aug. 2015.
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