{"id":651,"date":"2011-02-04T15:40:54","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T20:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thequicksliver.wordpress.com\/?p=651"},"modified":"2011-02-04T15:40:54","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T20:40:54","slug":"2-4-11-mysterious-martyr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/2-4-11-mysterious-martyr\/","title":{"rendered":"2.4.11 Mysterious Martyr"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

About the only thing we know for certain is how he died.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/a>The details of his birth are completely unknown.\u00a0 And much of his background is subject to debate.\u00a0 The only two surviving documents that refer to him describe him as “mulatto,” “Indian,” “a tall man,” and “stout.”\u00a0 Some historians point to a notice in the local paper that stated, “Ran away from his Master William Brown of Framingham on the 30th of Sept. last a mulatto Fellow, about 27 years of age, named Crispus, 6 Feet and 2 inches high, short curl’d Hair, his Knees near together than common<\/i>,” as evidence that he was perhaps a former slave.\u00a0 And his last name was common among the Wampanoag Indians, and may have come from their word, “ahtug,” meaning “little deer.”\u00a0 From all the evidence, most historians have concluded that he was a sailor, and possibly a former slave, of mixed race. <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>What we DO know is that he was on the streets of Boston on March 5, 1770.\u00a0 He may have gone to join the protest, or he may have been, as some eyewitnesses later described him, passively “leaning on a stick” minding his own business.\u00a0 Either way, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.\u00a0 American colonists got into a scuffle with British soldiers, the situation got tense, and muskets were fired.\u00a0 He was hit twice in the chest and died instantly, along with rope maker Samuel Gray, and mariner James Caldwell.\u00a0 The incident became known as “The Boston Massacre” and was the flash point of the American Revolution.\u00a0 He was laid in state in Faneuil Hall for three days, and then was buried as a hero with the other victims in Granary Burying Ground, which would later contain other notables like John Hancock<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>He’s a favorite of elementary school teachers during Black History Month.\u00a0 But he really embodies the entire American experience.\u00a0 African Americans surely look to him as a symbol of struggle, success and sacrifice.\u00a0 But Native Americans also claim him as their own.\u00a0 White abolitionists long used his story to shame southern slave-holders, ensuring his name would become as much a part of the Civil War story as it had of the Revolution.\u00a0 And today, he is celebrated by all who visit his grave and the 25-foot-tall marble monument in Boston Common that honors the victims of the Massacre.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>He remains a mystery.\u00a0 But he will forever be remembered as “The First Martyr of the American Revolution.”\u00a0 And his name, certainly, was Crispus Attucks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About the only thing we know for certain is how he died. The details of his birth are completely unknown.\u00a0 And much of his background is subject to debate.\u00a0 The only two surviving documents that refer to him describe him as “mulatto,” “Indian,” “a tall man,” and “stout.”\u00a0 Some historians…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47,166,302,574,790],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-6","tag-american-revolution","tag-boston-massacre","tag-crispus-attucks","tag-history","tag-martyr"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}