| Interment Location | Visited | |
|---|---|---|
| Boston, MA | July 6, 2007 |
March 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre. On the night of March 4th, my friend Chris Hall and I attended a presentation by Professor Serena Zabin that was hosted by the Massachusetts Historical Society. Zabin’s talk focused on the thesis of her new book, The Boston Massacre: A Family History. The following morning, I rode the subway into downtown to watch a graveside wreath-laying ceremony at Granary, put on by the Daughters of the American Revolution. These were the last events I attended prior to the closures and shutdowns instituted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fast Facts
Born: C. 1723 in Framingham, Massachusetts
Died: March 5, 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts
Age: Approximately 47
Interment: Granary Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts
"He is one of the most important figures in African-American history, not for what he did for his own race, but for what it did for all oppressed people everywhere. He is a reminder that the African-American heritage is not only African but American and it is a heritage that begins with the beginning of America."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
in his book Why We Can't Wait, published in 1964
On the coroner’s report, Attucks was listed under an alias — Michael Johnson. The document is in the collection of Revolutionary Spaces, an organization which formed in 2020 with the merger of the Bostonian Society and the Old South Association. When I took this photograph, the coroner’s report was being displayed in the Reflecting Attucks gallery on the second floor of the Old State House.
Sources Consulted and Further Reading
Fowler, Jermaine, host. “American Martyr: The Story of Crispus Attucks.” The Humanity Archive (podcast). January 3, 2020. Accessed December 12, 2022. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-humanity-archive/id1436450035?i=1000459346295.
Reflecting Attucks. Revolutionary Spaces, Boston, MA.
Wroth, L. Kinvin and Hiller B. Zoebel. Eds. Legal Papers of John Adams vol. 3. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965.
