Crispus Attucks – An American Revolutionary

by Jacky Jasper

In Honor of Black History month, HSK will daily highlight a person, place, or moment that was significant for the progress and development of American culture and values….

Crispus Attucks is one of those people.

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Crispus Attucks (c. 1723 – March 5, 1770) was a dockworker of Wampanoag and African descent. He was the first person shot to death by British redcoats during the Boston Massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been called the first martyr of the revolution.

Little is known for certain about Crispus Attucks beyond that he, along with Samuel Gray and James Caldwell, died “on the spot” during the incident. Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre, both published in 1770, did not refer to Attucks as a “Negro,” or “black” man; 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.

While the extent of his participation is unclear, Attucks became an icon of the anti-slavery movement and was held up as an example of the first black hero of the American Revolution. The other victims of the attack were Samuel Gray and James Caldwell who, like Attucks, died immediately during the attack; Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr died from their wounds afterward. In the early nineteenth 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. Because Attucks had Wampanoag ancestors, his story also holds special significance for many Native Americans.

In the fall of 1770, Indian soldiers sent to Boston to help control growing colonial unrest. Tensions decreased with those colonists who opposed the presence of troops. After dusk on March 5, 1770, a crowd of colonists confronted a sentry who had struck a boy for complaining that an officer was late in paying a barber bill.

This 19th century lithograph is a variation of the famous engraving of the Boston Massacre by John Bufford. Produced soon before the American Revolutionary War, this image emphasizes Crispus Attucks, who had become a symbol for Abolitionists.

Both townspeople and the British soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot gathered. The colonists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers. Attucks and a group of men led by Attucks approached the Old State House armed with clubs. A soldier was struck with a piece of wood and some accounts credited Attucks (Although unlikely due to some resources). Other witnesses stated that Attucks was “leaning upon a stick” when the soldiers opened fire.

Five Americans were killed and six were mortally wounded. Attucks took two bullets in the chest and was the first to die. County coroners Robert Pierpoint and Thomas Crafts Jr. conducted an autopsy on Attucks. Attucks’ body was carried to Faneuil Hall, where it lay in state until Thursday, March 8, when he and the other victims were buried together in the same grave site.

Based on the premise of self-defense, John Adams successfully defended the British soldiers against a charge of murder. Two of the soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter. As soldiers of the King of England, they were given the choice of hanging or being branded on their thumbs. They both chose to be branded. In his arguments, Adams called the crowd “a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs.”

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.

The five who were killed were buried as heroes in the Granary Burying Ground, which contains the graves of John Hancock and other notable figures. While custom of the period discouraged the burial of black people and white people together, such a practice was not completely unknown. Prince Hall, for example, was interred in Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in the North End of Boston 35 years later. He was a good man and a warrior.