Attucks, Crispus, -1770

Crispus Attucks (d. March 5, 1770, Boston, MA) was an American of African and Native American descent, widely regarded as the first person killed in the Boston massacre and thus the first American killed in the American Revolution.

Historians disagree on whether Crispus Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave. Despite the lack of clarity over whether he was a slave, Attucks became an icon of the anti-slavery movement in the mid-19th century. In the 1850s, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in Boston, supporters lauded Attucks as having played a heroic role in the history of the United States.