The LuLac Edition #5, 566, February 7th, 2026

 

THE FIRST CASUALTIES

OF THE NACANT

REVOLUTION

Crispus Attucks

Chris Seider

Crispus Attucks was an American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent who is traditionally regarded as the first adult 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 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.

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. In the advertisement, Brown describes Attucks and his clothing when he was last seen. He also said that a reward of 10 pounds would be given to whoever found and returned Attucks to him. 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 Attacks often went by the alias Michael Johnson in order 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.

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, served to further inflame 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 soldiers of the 29th Regiment of Foot 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 ricocheted bullets in the chest and was believed to be the first to die.[31] County coroners Robert Pierpoint and Thomas Crafts Jr. conducted an autopsy on Attucks. 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.

In an ironic twist, the future most vociferous of enemies against Britain, John Adams successfully defended most of the accused soldiers against a charge of murder. Two were found guilty of manslaughter. Faced with the prospect of hanging, the soldiers pleaded benefit of clergy, and were instead branded on their thumbs. In his arguments, Adams called the crowd "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negros and molattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish Jack Tarrs."In particular, he charged Attucks with having "undertaken to be the hero of the night," and with having precipitated a conflict by his "mad behavior."

Two years later United States Founding Father Samuel Adams, a cousin of John Adams, named the event the "Boston Massacre," and helped ensure it would not be forgotten. Attuck’s death was also cemented in the history books as the first adult to be killed in the conflict.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Christopher Seider (or Snider) (1758 – February 22, 1770) was a boy who is considered to be the first American killed in the American Revolution. He was 11 years old when he was shot and killed by British customs officer Ebenezer Richardson in Boston on February 22, 1770. His funeral became a major political event, with his death heightening tensions that erupted into the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770.

 Seider joined a crowd outside the house of Ebenezer Richardson in the North End. Richardson was a customs officer who had tried to disperse a protest in front of the shop of Loyalist Theophilus Lillie. The crowd threw stones that broke Lillie's windows and struck his wife. Richardson fired a gun into the crowd and wounded Seider in the arm and the chest. The boy died that evening.

Samuel Adams arranged for the funeral, which was attended by more than 2,000 people. Seider was buried in Granary Burying Ground, and the victims of the Boston Massacre are buried nearby.