Crispus Attucks

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Portrait of Crispus Attucks
The grave of Crispus Attucks on the Granary Burying Ground
The building Crispus Attucks Middle School in Sunnyside , Houston , Texas

Crispus Attucks (* approx. 1723 in British North America , † March 5, 1770 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was a dock worker with roots in Africa and with the Wampanoag . He was the first person to be shot by British troops during the Boston massacre and is therefore also known as the first martyr of the American Revolution .

background

Little more is known about Attucks than that he died on site with Samuel Gray and James Caldwell during the Boston massacre . Historians do not agree on whether he was a free man or an escaped slave , only his mixed origins are certain.

Although the actual extent of his involvement in the incident is unclear, Attucks became an icon of abolitionism and was consistently cited 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 themselves - died on the spot, while Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr only died later from their wounds.

In the early 19th century, the abolitionist movement grew in prominence, and its supporters highlighted Attucks as an African American who played a heroic role in United States history . Because Attucks had ancestors with the Wampanoag , his story also has a special meaning for the Indians .

The five victims of the massacre were as heroes on the cemetery Granary Burying Ground buried, where John Hancock and other personalities in US history are.

Heritage and Honors

  • 1858 - Boston area abolitionists , including William Cooper Nell , institute Crispus Attucks Day in memory of him.
  • 1886 - The places where Crispus Attucks and Samuel Gray died are marked by circles on the floor. In each circle there is a hub and spokes , each forming a wheel .
  • 1888 - A memorial to Attucks and the other victims is erected on Boston Common . It is over 25  ft (8  m ) tall and about 10  ft (3  m ) wide. The bas-relief portrays the Boston massacre and shows Attucks lying in the foreground. Below is the date March 5, 1770, above is a female figure named Free America , holding the broken chain of oppression in her hand. Under her right foot she smashes the royal crown of England, to the left of the figure there is an eagle. Thirteen stars have been engraved on one side of the monument with the names of the five men who died from aftermath on that day or in the following days in raised letters: Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr.
  • 1998 - The United States Department of the Treasury issues The Black Revolutionary War Patriots commemorative coin that features a picture of Attucks on the face. The proceeds from the sale of the coin are earmarked for the construction of a war memorial for fallen black Africans during the American Revolution.
  • 2002 - Afrocentric Molefi Kete Asante lists Attucks in the TOP 100 Greatest Afro-Americans .
  • Places named after Attucks include the Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis , the Attucks Middle School in Sunnyside , the Crispus Attucks Elementary School in Kansas City , the Attucks Theater in Norfolk , the Crispus Attucks Association in York , the Crispus Attucks Road in Spring Valley and the Crispus Attucks Center in Dorchester .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Crispus Attucks. In: Africans in America. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (English).
  2. ↑ Malinda Maynor Lowery: African and Native Americans in Colonial and Revolutionary Times. In: teachinghistory.org. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (English).
  3. ^ Crispus Attucks. Revolutionary War Figure. In: infoplease.com. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (English).
  4. ^ Isaac Kimber: The London magazine, or, Gentleman's monthly intelligencer . tape 39 . Printed for R. Baldwin, London, OCLC 9566438 , pp. 251 .
  5. ^ Margot Minardi: The Inevitable Negro . Making Slavery History in Massachusetts, 1770–1863. Harvard University, Boston 2007 ( PhD thesis ).
  6. ↑ W. Jeffrey Bolster: Black jacks . African American seamen in the age of sail. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-674-07624-9 .
  7. ^ David L. Silverman: Faith and boundaries . colonists, christianity, and community among the Wampanoag Indians of Martha's Vineyard, 1600-1871. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-521-84280-8 .
  8. ^ Daniel R. Mandell: Tribe, race, history . Native Americans in southern New England, 1780-1880. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2008, ISBN 978-0-8018-8694-2 .
  9. ^ Daniel R. Mandell: Behind the frontier . Indians in eighteenth-century eastern Massachusetts. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1996, ISBN 0-585-25378-1 .
  10. ↑ Plinky's Coin of the Month. In: United States MINT. Retrieved January 30, 2012 (English).
  11. ^ Molefi K. Asante: 100 greatest African Americans . a biographical encyclopedia. Prometheus Books, Amherst 2002, ISBN 1-57392-963-8 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Attucks, Crispus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION First victim of the Boston massacre
DATE OF BIRTH around 1723
PLACE OF BIRTH British North America
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1770
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts