caption death_date death_place birth_place name birth_date image article_title birth_name occupation
speculative 19th-century portrait of crispus attucks march 5 , 1770 -lrb- age 47 -rrb- boston , massachusetts , british america framingham , massachusetts , british america crispus attucks 1723 crispus attucks.jpg crispus attucks
 crispus attucks dockworker
crispus attucks

crispus attucks -lrb- 1723march 5 , 1770 -rrb- may have been an native american slave or freeman , merchant seaman and dockworker of wampanoag and african descent .
his father was an african-born slave and his mother a natick indian .
he was the first casualty of the boston massacre , in boston , massachusetts , and is widely considered to be the first american casualty in the american revolutionary war .
aside from the event of his death , along with samuel gray and james caldwell , little is known for certain about attucks .
despite the lack of clarity , attucks became an icon of the anti-slavery movement in the 18th century .
he was held up as the first martyr of the american revolution , along with the others killed .
in the early 19th century , as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in boston , supporters lauded attucks as an african american who played a heroic role in the history of the united states .
historians disagree on whether crispus attucks was a free man or an escaped slave , but agree that he was of wampanoag and african descent .
two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the boston massacre , both published in 1770 , did not refer to attucks as `` black '' nor as a `` negro '' ; it appeared that bostonians of european descent viewed him as being of mixed ethnicity .
according to a contemporary account in the `` pennsylvania gazette '' -lrb- philadelphia -rrb- , 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 ... '' because of his mixed heritage , his story is also significant for native americans .
he was put into a foster home at a very young age .
