Best Known As: African-American Revolutionary War hero
Crispus Attucks is remembered as the first American to die in the colonists' fight for freedom from Britain. Attucks was an escaped slave of African and Native American descent, but not much else is known about him. He was part of an angry mob that surrounded eight British soldiers on 5 March 1770 outside the Boston customs house. The soldiers fired on the crowd and Attucks was killed, along with four others. The shootings were quickly dubbed the "Boston Massacre" and held up by angry colonists as a case of British brutality. John Adams, later the second president of the United States, defended the soldiers and won an acquittal, arguing that Attucks and the others were common thugs, not political freedom-fighters. After the trial, patriots said it proved that even a British soldier could get a fair trial in independence-minded Boston, and Attucks was called a martyr for defending political liberty.
Crispus Attucks reminisces towards the days of Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Faith was first brought to their native Washington DC in 1995. Accompanied by the angst of politically inspired, early-'80s hardcore, the line-up of Jamie (vocals), Mattucks (guitar) Hard Pat (drums) and Soft Pat (guitar) released their first self-titled full-length on their own in 1997. Soda Jerk Records eventually signed Crispus Attucks and put out their follow up album Destroy the Teacher two years later; First Album was issued in 2001. ~ Mike DaRonco, All Music Guide
(born 1723? — died March 5, 1770, Boston, Mass.) American patriot and martyr of the Boston Massacre. His early life is unclear, but he was probably a runaway slave of African and Natick Indian ancestry, and he may have served on whaling ships. He is the only one of the massacre's five victims who is widely remembered. In 1888 the Crispus Attucks monument was unveiled in the Boston Common.
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