Crispus Attucks

Hero

• Born: 1723
• Birthplace: Framingham, Massachusetts
• Died: March 5, 1770
• Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts

Activist and escaped slave

Attucks is one of the most enduring symbolic figures of the American Revolution, an escaped slave who was killed in the Boston Massacre and portrayed as a martyr for the cause of liberty. He is the most famous participant in one of the events that triggered the Revolutionary War.

Areas of achievement: Military; Social issues

Early Life

Most historians agree that Crispus Attucks(KRIHS-puhs AT-tuhks) had African and American Indian ancestors and that he was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 1723. His father is believed to have been Prince Yonger, an African brought to the colonies as a slave. His mother was Nancy Attucks, a member of the Wampanoag tribe in Natick, Massachusetts. Some historians believe Attucks’s ancestry can be traced back to John Attucks, an American Indian who was executed for treason during King Philip’s War; however, the surname Attucks was common among the Wampanoag tribe, and it is possible that Crispus was not a direct descendant.

Attucks’s parents were slaves in the household of Colonel Buckminster, who made his living buying and selling livestock. Attucks was trained to raise cattle. However, Buckminster apparently became unhappy with Attucks and sold him to William Brown of Framingham. It is believed, based upon an advertisement that appeared for several weeks in The Boston Gazette in 1750, that Attucks subsequently escaped from Brown. The name Crispus was fairly common and it is difficult to be certain that the advertisement refers to Attucks. However, the ad’s description of a mulatto (a term used to describe slaves of mixed ancestry), twenty-seven years of age, standing at the unusual height of six feet, two inches with short, curly hair fits later descriptions of Attucks. The advertisement also is the basis for the approximate date of Attucks’s birth.

Many believe Attucks escaped to Nantucket, Massachusetts, and worked as a harpooner or in some other capacity on a whaling ship. Others believe he may have also worked as a rope maker in Boston. It has been confirmed that Attucks was in Boston during March of 1770, working on the docks. By then, he was probably concealing his identity as an escaped slave by using the alias Michael Johnson and claiming to be from the Bahamas.

Life’s Work

By 1770, tensions in Boston between colonists and the British troops occupying the city had reached a breaking point. The city had been occupied since 1768, with troops quartered throughout Boston. To make matters worse, off-duty British soldiers frequently served as part-time dockworkers or rope makers, often for lower wages than the colonists were willing to accept.

On March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered around a British sentry post on King Street. When the sentry was joined by other soldiers under the command of Captain Thomas Preston, the crowd began to taunt them by throwing snowballs and any other items they could find.

Attucks had just finished a meal at a restaurant maintained by Thomas Symmond. During the exchange, he left the establishment and joined a group of men from the docks who were coming up King Street. Eyewitnesses claimed Attucks grabbed a large piece of cord-wood from a woodpile. The dockworkers were yelling and whistling, and one eyewitness later recalled that Attucks was swearing at the soldiers.

At that moment, the soldiers had their guns in position to fire into the crowd. Taunting the soldiers, the crowd yelled for them to fire, and it is believed that the soldiers thought they were being given an order by Captain Preston and began firing into the crowd. Some accounts claimed Attucks had just struck one of the soldiers with his stick, while others later recalled that he was merely leaning on the stick when the troops opened fire. In any event, Attucks was struck by two bullets and died instantly. Two other men in the crowd were also killed, and six men were wounded in the incident.

Attucks lay in state in Faneuil Hall in Boston and was later buried in a common grave with the other victims of the “Boston Massacre.” His burial at the Old Granary Burial Ground in Boston was unusual in that cemeteries were mostly segregated.

When the British soldiers were put on trial for murder, future U.S. president John Adams, who had been retained to defend them, claimed that Attucks had behaved senselessly and was a troublemaker who had struck the first blow. Adams also used the fact that Attucks was from Framingham to claim the incident was the result of outside agitators, giving the jury an opportunity to find the soldiers not guilty without having to blame their fellow Bostonians for provoking the shooting. Preston and his soldiers were eventually acquitted.

Following his burial and the trial, Attucks became a symbol for those who supported the idea of independence and revolution. March 5 was celebrated as Crispus Attucks Day until the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. However, Attucks’s role was disputed. When black abolitionists revived the celebration of Crispus Attucks Day on March 5, 1858, others protested that Attucks was a mere troublemaker. After the Civil War, a monument to Attucks was placed on Boston Common in 1888 over the objections of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the New England Genealogical Society, who claimed he was more villain than hero.

Significance

Although Attucks remains a disputed figure, the fact that his death played a critical early role in the American Revolution makes him an important symbol nonetheless. As a martyr to the cause of liberty while escaping the horrors of slavery, Attucks embodies the contradictory nature of the Revolution itself: a slave-holding society championing the cause of liberty and equality.

Bibliography

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem. Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African American Achievement. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. A readable compilation of stories, including a chapter on Revolutionary War-era African Americans with a focus on Attucks.

Browne, Stephen H. “Remembering Crispus Attucks: Race, Rhetoric, and the Politics of Commemoration.” The Quarterly Journal of Speech 85, no. 2 (1999): 169-187. An excellent article on the use of Attucks as a symbol for the Revolutionary War and later social movements.

Egerton, Douglas R. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Describes in detail the role of African Americans in colonial society and during the American Revolution.

Kachun, Mitch. “From Forgotton Founder to Indispensable Icon: Crispus Attucks, Black Citizenship, and Collective Memory, 1770-1865.” Journal of the Early Republic 29, no. 2 (Summer, 2009): 249-286. Examines the controversy surrounding Attucks, how perceptions of him have evolved over time, and the role of collective memory in creating “race heroes” in order to evoke pride and patriotism and serve political agendas.

Zobel, Hiller. The Boston Massacre. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Zobel’s book is the definitive account of the Boston Massacre, providing a useful background and account of the shooting and subsequent trial.