The Boston Massacre P3

Last week I ended talking about the Crown-appointed Governor Francis Bernard dissolving the legislature, resulting in widespread protests from citizens and the growing tension along Boston’s King Street between the British soldiers and the Americans.

One of the frustrated crowd members tired of the oppressive British behavior was Crispus Attucks. Few records exist about his birth or early life but it is believed that he was an escaped slave who became a sailor. He likely had a shared Native American and African American ancestry, but today Attucks is celebrated as a black patriot who firmly opposed British tyranny.

The crowd, then several hundred, continued to yell at the British soldiers, and many began throwing snowballs and rocks; some even approached the soldiers with clubs.

One soldier struck by a thrown stick, angrily fired into the crowd. Other soldiers, fearful for their safety, joined him and fired a volley. Three colonists were killed instantly, with eight others wounded, two of whom died shortly thereafter. Crispus Attucks was one who died during the volley and his blood was regarded as the first spilled in the cause of liberty. Paul Revere produced an engraving of this event, which became known as the “Boston Massacre,” and other images featuring Attucks appeared across the decades.

Content Sourced From The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.