What the Data Say: Crispus Attucks

By Dr. Wornie Reed

Crispus Attucks (c 1723– March 5, 1770) was an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African American and Native American descent who is traditionally regarded as the first person killed in the Boston massacre, and as a result, the first American killed in the American Revolution. 

Historians disagree on whether Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave, but most agree that he was of African and Wampanoag descent. Attucks was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Town histories of Framingham, written in 1847 and 1887, describe him as a slave of Deacon William Brown. In 1750, Brown advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispas. The advertisement from the Boston Gazette states: 

Ran-away from his Master William Brown, of Framingham, on the 30th of Sept. last, a Molatto Fellow, about 27 Years of Age, name Crispas, 6 feet two Inches high, short curl’d Hair, his Knees near together than common; had on a light colour’d Bearskin Coat, plain brown Fustian Jacket, or brown all-Wool one, new Buckskin Breeches, blue Yarn Stockings, and a check’d woollen Shirt.

Brown promised a reward of 10 pounds to whoever found and returned Attucks to him. 

Attucks’s status at the time of the massacre as a free person or runaway slave has been a matter of debate for historians. Attucks became a sailor and whaler, and he spent much of his life at sea or working around the docks along the Atlantic seaboard. Today, Crispus Attucks is commonly described as an African American in popular culture, as the term ‘mulatto’ is rarely used in the United States, unlike in the 18th-century colonies, and everyone with African ancestry is considered black. 

Boston Massacre. In the fall of 1768, British troops were sent to Boston to maintain order amid growing colonial unrest, which had led to a spate of attacks on local officials following the introduction of the Stamp Act and the subsequent Townshend Acts. Radical Whigs had coordinated waterfront mobs against the authorities. The presence of troops, instead of reducing tensions, further inflamed them.

After dusk on March 5, 1770, a wigmaker’s apprentice mistakenly accused a British officer of not paying a bill. The officer ignored his insults, but a sentry intervened after the boy began physically assaulting the officer. Both townspeople and nine British soldiers gathered. The colonists threw snowballs and debris at the soldiers. A group of men, including Attucks, approached the Old State House armed with clubs and sticks. A soldier was struck with a piece of wood, an act some witnesses claimed was done by Attucks. Other witnesses stated that Attucks was “leaning upon a stick” when the soldiers opened fire.

Five colonists were killed, and six were wounded. Attucks took two bullets in the chest and was believed to be the first to die. County coroners conducted an autopsy on Attucks and concluded that he was “felled by two bullets to his chest, one of them ‘goring the right lobe of the lungs and a great part of the liver most horribly.” Attucks’ body was carried to Faneuil Hall, where it lay in state until Thursday, March 8, 1770, when he and the other victims were buried together in the same grave site in Boston’s Granary Burying Ground. He was approximately 47 years old.

The event was subsequently described as “a massacre” by Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and other leading Patriots who later became central proponents of independence during the American Revolution and Revolutionary War. In 1888, a monument honoring Attucks and the other victims of the Boston Massacre was erected on Boston Common. It is over 25 feet high and about 10 feet wide. The “bas-relief” (the raised portion on the face of the monument’s main part) portrays the Boston Massacre, with Attucks lying in the foreground. Under the scene is the date, March 5, 1770. . . Beneath these stars in raised letters are the names of the five men who were killed that day: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick, and Patrick Carr. Some men died a day later.

Crispus Attucks Day, observed on March 5th, commemorates the life of the first martyr of the American Revolution.