The United States of America will celebrate its semiquincentennial anniversary on July 4, 2026, marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence — a tremendous milestone in world history.
The heroes of the American Independence range from Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech to Paul Revere’s “Midnight Ride” to George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, a turning point for the Continental Army. However, the first igniter for the American Revolution and the first martyr for liberty was a man most Americans know nothing about.
Crispus Attucks was born in Natick, MA, in 1723. The son of a Native-American mother and an African-born enslaved person, Attucks was born into slavery. He would go on to become the head of a rebel group of patriots that protested against British soldiers in Boston and became the first adult fatality of the American Revolution. This event in history would be known as the Boston Massacre.
The early life of Attucks is somewhat mysterious. The records show that he was a slave to William Brown of Framingham, MA, until he emancipated himself in 1750. Master Brown offered a 10-pound reward in the Boston Gazette, looking for a “Mulatto Fellow, about 27 years of age, named Crispas, six feet, two inches high, short curl’s Hair…”
In Colonial America, Crispus was not a common household name. The name derives from Julius Caesar, as it was traditional for enslavers to name their slaves after Roman gods. The name Attucks appears to be a surname from Petterattuck, a well-documented last name in Framingham’s history. Also, the name Attuck, when translated from the native language into English, means “deer” according to theologian Roger Williams’s journal describing his experience with native tribes in Rhode Island.
As it turns out, Attucks used the alias Michael Johnson to avoid capture and enslavement again. He worked as a whaler and a sailor, spending much of his career sailing the Atlantic and working the docks in Boston. His career as a seaman made him a target to be drafted into the British Royal Navy, which sailors like Attucks strongly disliked.
It should come as no surprise that Attucks did not enjoy being in the presence of British soldiers. After all, British sailors were notorious for taking jobs away from resident Bostonians in their off-time, which negatively affected the local workforce. Tensions between Attucks’ companions and red coats were so bad that they chased a British soldier out of a bar and got into a donnybrook with three other red coats just a week before the massacre.
Moreover, relations between the Boston colonists and the British Crown were at a boiling point. The Navigation Acts gave the British Navy control over trade vessels to the American colonies, and the colonies taxed without representation, a major source of contention for the colonists.
New England harbors were a focal point of contention due to the Stamp Act of 1765, which imposed new taxes on printed materials. Sailors were at the frontlines of protests, so Crispus Attucks understood the plight for freedom, liberty, and less taxes.
Unfortunately, these circumstances led to violence. On Feb. 22, 1770, a protest formed outside a British Customs house. A man named Ebenezer Richardson, who worked there, fought to disperse the crowd. As rabble-rousers were throwing rocks, Richardson shot a musket into a crowd that wounded and murdered an 11-year-old boy named Christopher Seider.
It’s unclear where Crispus Attucks was when the events unfolded. However, on Mar. 5, 1770, less than two weeks before the murder at the Customs house, Attucks and four white colonists berated a British soldier looking for work. What started as a shouting match led to a redcoat striking a colonist with a musket over the head.
A gathering of Boston colonists began to form, and the soldiers of the 29th regiment came to the aid of the soldier. The crowd began throwing snowballs and ice cubes at them. Crispus Attucks brandished a wooden stick and grabbed a soldier’s bayonet, which led to him being shot twice in the chest.
A few eyewitness accounts reported that Attucks died instantly. He was the first one murdered, but also preeminent in resisting. A local newspaper described his wound as “goring the right side of his lungs, and a great part of the liver most horribly.” Crispus Attucks’ death, along with four other colonists, in what is now known as the Boston Massacre, became the unifying event that led to the American Revolution against the Crown.
The Declaration of Independence would not exist for another six years, so revolutionaries used the symbol of Crispus Attucks’ death in print media to rally the colonists. Samuel Adams, the leader of the Sons of Liberty, used the massacre as a rally cry for rebellion. In contrast, Paul Revere used his painting of Attucks, “The Bloody Massacre,” as anti-British propaganda.
Even though there were certain laws forbidding the burial of blacks with whites, Crispus Attucks’ burial is in Park Street Cemetery with the other dead from the massacre. Future President John Adams remarked in hindsight that the Boston Massacre served as the “foundation of American Independence” from British rule.
Even today, figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Stevie Wonder have paid homage to Crispus Attucks, a Black man who paved the way for America’s founding. Though less known than other founding figures, Attucks remains a hero of the American Revolution and a symbol of freedom and liberty for all.
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