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.
Although he is widely remembered as the first American casualty of the American Revolutionary War, 11-year-old Christopher Seider was shot a few weeks earlier by customs officer Ebenezer Richardson on February 22, 1770. Historians disagree on whether Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave, but most agree that he was of Wampanoag and African descent. Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre published in 1770 did not refer to him as black or as a Negro; it appears he was instead viewed by Bostonians as being of mixed ethnicity. According to a contemporaneous account in the Pennsylvania Gazette, he was a "Mulattoe 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 became an icon of the anti-slavery movement in the mid-19th century. Supporters of the abolition movement lauded him for playing a heroic role in the history of the United States.
Attucks was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Town histories of Framingham written in 1847 and 1887 describe him as a slave of Deacon William Brown, though it is unclear whether Brown was his original owner. 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. As the Wampanoag typically had straight black hair, Attucks being described as having short, curly hair is not consistent with his being a full-blooded Indian, but it is consistent with his having a mixed African-Wampanoag ancestry. Attucks's status at the time of the massacre as a free person or a 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. In an 1874 article in The American Historical Record, Jebe B. Fisher recounts a passage in the memoirs of Boston Tea Party participant George R.T. Hewes, which stated that at the time of the massacre, Attucks "was a Nantucket Indian, belonging on board a whale ship of Mr. Folgers, then in the harbor, and he remembers a distinct war whoop which he yelled... the mob whistling, screaming, and rending like an Indian yell." Attucks often went by the alias Michael Johnson to avoid being caught after his escape from slavery. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, having recently returned from a voyage to the Bahamas. He was due to leave shortly afterward on a ship for North Carolina.
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 18
century colonies, and everyone with African ancestry is considered Black. In 1770, two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Massacre did not refer to Attucks as "Black" or as a "Negro," but rather as a mulatto and an Indian. In an account from Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Gazette, a man who may have been Attucks was referred to as a "Mulattoe man, named Crispas, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina." However, during Attucks's time, mulatto was often used to describe skin tone rather than ethnicity, and, in Spanish or Portuguese colonies, sometimes referred to full-blooded Native Americans. However, since "Crispas" was known to have short curly hair, it is unlikely that he would have been a full-blooded Indian. In Potter's American Monthly published in 1872, the interchangeability of the two terms appears to be demonstrated by a short section of the court transcripts from the Attucks trial: Question: Did you see a mulatto among the persons who surrounded the soldiers?
Question: Did they seem to be sailors or townsmen?
Answer: They were dressed some of them in the habits of sailors.
Question: Did you know the Indian who was killed?
Question: Did you see any of them press on the soldiers with a cordwood stick?
Answer: No. Historians differ in opinion on Attucks's heritage: some assert his family had intermarried with African slaves, while others maintain he had no African heritage. It is widely acknowledged that Attucks had considerable Native American heritage.
Biographer Mitch Kachun, as well as multiple 19th century Framingham town histories, have drawn a connection between Attucks and John Attuck of Framingham, a Narragansett man who was hanged in Framingham in 1676 during King Philip's War. The word for "deer" in the Narragansett language is "Attuck." Kachun also noted a possible connection to a probable Natick woman and possible Attucks mother or relative named Nanny Peterattucks, who is described as a 'negro woman' in the 1747 estate inventory of Framingham slaveholder Joseph Buckminster and, along with Jacob Peterattucks, as 'probable descendant of John Attuck, the Indian' in an 1847 history of Framingham. Other sources refer to their surname as Peter Attucks. In a 1747 history of the Hoosac Valley, an African colonial militiaman named Moses Peter Attucks, living in nearby Leicester, is described as a 'negro slave of John White'; elsewhere he is listed as Moses Attucks. Jacob Peterattucks and Nanny Peterattucks are recorded as slaves with Joseph Buckminster in 1730, and in 1740 Jacob with Thomas Buckminster, who was appointed by Framingham in 1739 to lead a commission for the preservation of deer in the area. Historian William C. Nell reported an 1860 letter from a Natick resident, also printed in an 1860 edition of The Liberator newspaper that read,
Several persons are now living in Natick who remember the Attucks family, viz., Cris, who was killed March 5th; Sam, whose name was abbreviated into Sam Attucks, or Smattox; Sal, also known as Slattox; and Peter, called Pea Tattox [...] my mother, still living, aged 89, remembers Sal in particular, who used to be called the gourd-shell squaw, from the fact that she used to carry her rum in a gourd shell [...] the whole family are said to be the children of Jacob Peter Attucks... it has been conjectured that they are of Indian blood, but all who knew the descendants describe them as negroes.
The letter continues, "his sister [Sal] used to say that if they had not killed Cris, Cris would have killed them."
Prince Yonger has been posited as the father of Attucks. However, according to Framingham town histories, Yonger did not arrive in Massachusetts until 1725, after Attucks was born, and did not marry Nanny Peterattucks until 1737, after which point they had children, who are noted in multiple town histories but among whom Crispus is not mentioned: "a son, who died young, and Phebe, who never married." It is possible Yonger became Attucks' stepfather in 1737, though it is unclear whether Attucks had permanently left his mother's home by that point. Neither Phebe nor the son are recorded with the Attucks or Peterattucks surname.