02/10/2022
Cowpens National Battlefield is honoring Black History Month, by celebrating African Americans that made their mark on our history, during the American Revolution.
Let’s get started with a man, who turned out to be the first victim of the “Boston Massacre”, none other than Crispus Attucks.
Crispus was born around 1723, in either Framingham or Natick, Massachusetts. His father was an enslaved African, and his mother was a Native American from the Wampanoag tribe. Crispus spent most of his early life enslaved to a man named William Browne. Wearing a bearskin coat and breeches, Crispus ran away from slavery when he was approximately 27 years old.
Running into life away from slavery, he found work as a sailor on a whaling ship. Additionally, he worked as a rope maker. When the British were sending soldiers over to the colonies to enforce the King’s rule, many soldiers took part-time jobs, to offset the low pay, and Crispus and other sailors found themselves competing with soldiers for their wages. Parliament also authorized the Royal navy, to stop American ships, and seize experienced seaman into the Royal Navy. This scared and angered experienced seamen, like Crispus.
In Boston on March 5th, 1770, after drinking with some other colonists at a pub in Boston, a group of colonists, including Crispus, began taunting a soldier standing guard at the Customs House. As verbal taunts and insults were shouted at the soldier, bells rang out and additional soldiers gathered. During the confrontation, the verbal assaults turned into physical violence; snow and ice balls were thrown at the soldiers, which prompted the soldiers to open fire, killing 5 colonists. The first colonist to perish from a British musket ball that night was was Crispus Attucks.
Image: Color picture of the bronze plaque, honoring Crispus Attucks. The plaque is in Boston, Massachusetts. The plaque shows a bust of Crispus, with words below the bust.
