“First man to die for the flag we now hold high was a Black man” (a line from Stevie Wonder’s song “Black Man”).
Crispus Attucks is widely regarded as the first person killed in the Boston Massacre in Massachusetts and is often described as the first American casualty of the American Revolutionary struggle. Beyond the circumstances of his death, however, little is known with certainty about his life. Despite this clarity, Attucks became an enduring symbol within early anti-Maafa thought. He was memorialized as a martyr of the American cause, alongside the others who were killed. By the early 19th century, as abolitionism gained momentum in Boston, he was increasingly celebrated as an African American who had played a heroic role in the nation’s founding.
Historians continue to debate whether Attucks was a free man or a freedom seeker, but there is broad agreement that he was of African and Wampanoag (Natick) descent. Two key eyewitness accounts of the Boston Massacre published in 1770 do not describe him explicitly as “Black,” suggesting that contemporaries of European descent perceived him as of mixed ancestry. A report in the Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia) described him as a “[mixed-race] man, named Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina…”
Attucks is believed to have been born around 1723 in Framingham, Massachusetts. He is thought to have been born into captivity, the son of Prince Yonger, an African man, and Nancy Attucks, a Natick Indian. Some accounts also suggest a familial connection to John Attucks, a man executed during King Philip’s War, though this lineage remains uncertain.
His legal status at the time of the massacre remains unclear. However, a widely cited document adds weight to the argument that he had escaped captivity. In 1750, William Brown of Framingham placed an advertisement in the Boston Gazette offering £10 for the return of a freedom seeker named Crispus: Many historians believe this refers to Crispus Attucks, suggesting he may have self-emancipated in his late twenties.
What can be more confidently stated is that Attucks became a sailor and spent roughly two decades at sea, often working on whaling vessels that required long and demanding voyages. It is also believed that he may have used the alias “Michael Johnson”. By early 1770, he appears to have been temporarily in Boston, possibly having just returned from a voyage to the Bahamas, and was preparing to depart again for North Carolina.
In 1768, British troops were stationed in Boston to enforce imperial authority, heightening tensions in the conflicts between soldiers and working-class Bostonians—including sailors, laborers, and people of African descent—became increasingly common. For men like Attucks, the situation was especially precarious: as a seaman, he faced the constant threat of impressment into the British Navy, while on land, competition with soldiers for work intensified resentment.
On March 5, 1770, these tensions erupted. A crowd gathered and confronted British soldiers. Attucks appears to have been among those at the front of this crowd. While later narratives would cast him as a central leader, historians caution that the exact nature of his role remains unclear.
What is certain is that violence broke out. Amid the confusion—bells ringing, insults shouted, and objects thrown—British soldiers fired into the crowd. Crispus Attucks was struck by two musket balls and died at the scene. Four others—Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr—were also killed, either immediately or from their wounds.
In the immediate aftermath, Attucks and the other victims were carried to Faneuil Hall, where they lay in state. In a notable departure from customary racial practices of the time, they were buried together in a public funeral at the Granary Burying Ground.
Over time, Attucks’s legacy expanded beyond the Boston Massacre itself. For abolitionists, he became a powerful symbol of Black presence and sacrifice in the founding of the United States. His memory was invoked not only to critique the Maafa but also to assert Black claims to citizenship and belonging.
In the years that followed, his commemoration took institutional form:
- In 1858, Boston abolitionists, including William Cooper Nell, established “Crispus Attucks Day,” which was observed on March 5, the anniversary of the Boston Massacre in 1770.
- In 1886, the locations where Attucks and Samuel Gray fell were marked on the pavement with circular designs.
- In 1888, a monument honoring the victims of the Boston Massacre was erected on Boston Common. Standing over 25 feet high, it features a bas-relief of the massacre, with Attucks depicted in the foreground. Above the scene stands the allegorical figure of Free America, holding a broken chain and standing over the British crown. The names of the five victims—Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr—are inscribed beneath thirteen stars.
*Photo Credit: Crispus Attucks via http://mgjansen.com/crispus-attucks-high-school/
Source:
“From Slavery to Freedom by John Hope Franklin
“Before The Mayflower” by Lerone Bennett, Jr.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispus_Attucks
