Four Queens Block

Crispus Attucks was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, in (or near) 1723. He was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre of March 5th, 1770, and is widely considered to be the first casualty of the American Revolutionary War. Attucks was a sailor who'd spent much of his life at sea aboard whaling vessels. The day he died he’d recently returned from a trip to the Bahamas, and was scheduled to set sail shortly for the Carolinas. Attucks was in a crowd of Bostonians harassing a single British sentry. Eight additional soldiers came to the sentry’s aid, but the crowd only got nastier. Soldiers fired into the crowd, killing Attucks and two other men instantly. Two more of the wounded died later. If you paid attention in 5th grade history, you’ve heard all this. But you might not have heard that Crispus Attucks’ mother was a Wampanoag Indian and his father was an African-born slave.