Crispus Attucks (1723 – 1770) went down in history as the first black man to fight for the independence of America from the hands of the British. Little is known of this man, except for one certainty – that he led without fear the fateful event known as The Boston Massacre on 5 March 1770. This event is thought of by many as the backbone of the American Revolution, which paved the way for an independent America.

Attucks was born in 1723 in Framingham, Massachusetts to parents who were slaves belonging to Colonel Buckminster. Attucks had two siblings, an older sister named Phebe and a younger brother who died from a fever when Attucks was seven years old. Attucks and his father toiled in the vast plantation fields and farms, while his mother and sister cleaned the Colonel’s house. They received no education, because the Colonel feared that literacy would eventually lead to rebellion.

Attucks abhorred the fact that he was a slave. He began shirking his daily duties, daydreaming instead of the day he would escape his life of servitude. The Colonel became increasingly frustrated with Attucks' lack of responsibility and finally sold him to Deacon William Brown, also from Framingham. Attucks was 16 years old then.

Attucks worked diligently for Brown, trading cattle and traveling to seek new business. A decade later, he escaped to freedom when he took a job as a harpoonist on a whaling ship. Despite a fugitive slave notice in the Boston Gazette, Attucks was never caught. The next twenty years of his life remain a mystery to this day.

The American political scene changed in 1767, when the British Parliament introduced the Townshend Acts. Much to the wrath of American businessmen, these Acts incurred taxes on certain imported goods like tea and paper. Tension rose even higher when 4,000 British soldiers were deployed in Boston in October 1768. The sight of British redcoats fueled the Americans’ anger.

In February 1770, a redcoat shot into a crowd of mocking Americans and inadvertently killed a young boy. This prompted Attucks’ reappearance in Boston and his first glorious moment in history. He rose onto a mounted platform and spoke to the American crowd. There he stood, as a man treated unequally in America, yet passionate about fighting for freedom and justice for his country. From that day forth, he was the unequivocal leader and voice of American liberty.

On 5 March 1770, Attucks called upon Americans to march against imperial authority. His action was spurred by an event that had occurred earlier that day. An argument between a redcoat and a barber’s apprentice grew heated when the soldier refused to pay for services rendered. This finally ended in the soldier striking the apprentice with the butt of his musket.

Attucks led a group of almost 60 patriots in a march towards King Street. They stood face to face with Captain Thomas Preston and his eight troops of the 29th Regiment. Muskets and bayonets were drawn as Attucks and his loyal followers attacked the soldiers with snowballs and sticks. When a soldier was struck down, someone cried “Fire!” and shots rang out immediately, killing Attucks and four others.

The American public commemorated Crispus Attucks in many ways. A funeral procession to the Old Granary Burial Ground was attended by 10,000 people. Paul Revere (1734–1818) engraved ‘The Boston Massacre’ to create propaganda for the American Revolution. Poet John Boyle O’Reilly (1844–1890) described Attucks as being ‘the first to defy, and the first to die’ in his poems.

In 1888, the Crispus Attucks Monument was built on Boston Common. The Black Patriots Coin Law was enacted in 1996, followed by the production of the Black Revolutionary War Patriots Silver Dollar coin in honor of all African American patriots who played a role in the foundation of America.