by Carol H. Morgan

Created on: August 23, 2009

Most people that learn about Crispus Attucks are surprised to find that the first casualty of the Revolutionary War was half runaway slave, and half native American. A lot of us will admit that it's not the image that we get in our heads when we hear stories like the ride of Paul Revere or Crossing of the Delaware. The paintings that exist of this event clearly do not attempt to show Attucks. But for those of us who stumble across his story, weare usually surprised that a man with so little power could have possibly had such a great influence, likely most that we will never know about. Even though he remains obscure to many in our day, at least some of us can appropriately appreciate his sacrifice, what affect it might have had on the war, and the hastening of the fight for civil rights that came afterward.

It was because he was so willing to get involved for a cause that initially ended up helping only white land owners, never to be enjoyed by himself personally, it likely put race relation discussions on the table in this country much earlier than they might have otherwise made it there. Thus perhaps by the Civil War era, more of us were ready to listen, too, to the principles of equality that actually formed the American Revolution, even if the war itself didn't instiitutionalize all of its own principles.. Through this man, the goals set out in the declaration of independence and the war that followed just may have been realized earlier than if he had never lived.

BIOGRAPHY OF ATTUCKS

The racial status, along with any other men without money, of Attucks means that very few of his activities before participating in the Massacre are known with certainty. One thing that makes it difficult to nail any definite information down about Attucks is that while some of us don't know him very well at all, for others he has become such a cult figure that legend has had a great amount of time to spring stories up around him. His mixed races are generally thought to be accurate but only folkore tells us the names of his parents, including that his father was an African-born slave and his mother a member of a tribe outsitde of Boston. Legend goes on to give Attucks every profession from rope maker to whaler to general tradesman, when there is no evidence to suggest any of these claims with certainty. Fortunately, none of this seemed to be what was memorable about him.

There seems to be a good deal of connection with Attucks and Brooklyn, whether or not he lived

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