The Patriot And The First Martyr Of The American Revolution

Submitted By Kayal44
Words: 346
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CRISPUS ATTUCKS
1723 - 1770 | |
|Attucks, Crispus, American patriot and the first martyr of the American Revolution. |
|His fame is attributable largely to a single fateful day in Boston, March 5, 1770, when |
|anticolonial patriot Samuel Adams urged dockworkers and seamen in Boston to protest the |
|presence of British troops guarding the customs commissioners. Attucks was among an |
|estimated 50 men who gathered that night to confront the British, and is alleged to have |
|rallied his comrades by declaring, "Don't be afraid" as he led the ranks. When British |
|soldiers fired on the protesters, Attucks was the first of five men killed in what became |
|known as the Boston Massacre. |
|The colonial protesters carried Attucks's body to Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston, where it|
|rested for three days before he and the other four victims were given a public funeral |
|attended by an estimated 10,000 people. At an ensuing trial, Attucks was blamed by the |
|defense for inciting the riot, and the British troops who fired into the crowd were |
|acquitted. Nonetheless, American patriots hailed Attucks's heroism in the skirmish, and |
|perceived it as the incident that sparked the American Revolution. |
|For more than a century, March 5 was celebrated as Crispus Attucks Day by blacks living in |
|Boston. African American leaders throughout the century have unsuccessfully lobbied the |
|government to create a national holiday on March 5. |

|CRISPUS ATTUCKS