Transcripts For CSPAN3 Crispus Attucks In American Memory 20240713

Good evening, everyone. Im the director of outreach here. I want to welcome you to this talk. First nurseries of spring programs. You can find out more about these programs by picking up more at the front desk. You can fill out the information evaluation sheet. You can also pick one up at the front desk. We are a National Research library Whose Mission is to preserve and share the printed record of the United States, portions of canada, before the 21st century. We collect anything and everything in these parameters. From graphic prints to newspapers and periodicals and pamphlets and books. We use these collections as the basis for all of these programs. Together to it is death participate in a workshop, performances, and other things. Tonights lecture is part of a program we are operating connecting it is beyond midnight, paul revere. It is an two parts. The Wooster Art Museum and other at the museum in massachusetts. It will be on display from july 4 to october 26, 2020. I highly encourage you to see it if you can. Lauren, the chief curator, and director of fellowship here. The exhibition and its programming offer perspective on the legendary Midnight Rider by showcasing paul reveres Midnight Rider. We know him for his revolutionary activity. He was known as a canon maker and producer of copper sheets. We would like to thank the sponsor. Of this exhibition. The most complete collection, the most famous of these, is the bloody massacre, rendering of events that came to be known as the boston massacre, which marked its 250th anniversary last week. Tonights speaker will tell us about the shifting role attucks has played. Of the story of the american thelution and the story of nation. Mitch kachun is professor of history at western michigan university. Specializing in africanAmerican History, collective memory, and historical writing. He has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the humanities, the institute for the study of United States history of the United States department of education, among others. His publications include first martyr of liberty Crispus Attucks in american memory. Freedom. Of coeditor of and the slave bride, every discovered africanamerican novel, named an outstanding academic for 2007. Kachun has published numerous articles and book chapters such africanamerican played narrative. As 19thcentury black nationalism, and Michelle Obamas treatment in american media, among others. Please join me in welcoming mitch kachun. [applause] prof. Kachun thank you. Good evening, everyone. I want to thank you all for coming out tonight. This is an interesting time were living in. I am pleased to talk to you this evening about my book, first martyr of liberty Crispus Attucks in american memory. I want to thank all of the staff and Board Members here. I am truly honored to have been invited to make this presentation. One of the premier cultural and historical institutions in the nation. It is worth noting that over the next several years, we will all hear a lot about various events commemorating the American Revolution, perhaps especially in massachusetts where many of those events took place. The boston massacre is considered by many to be one of the early events link at the beginning of true revolutionary thinking. I have been participating in some of the regions around boston. I put in a plug for one of the exhibits i saw at a steakhouse i was consulted for, which deals with addicts in american memory. Please check it out. It will be there for a year. Is that better . Sorry about that. At the 250th anniversary commemoration, where does the american experiment brought us . We will hear a lot of different versions like the tea party, paul reveres ride, the writing of the declaration, and the intent of the founders, and so on. Part of what intrigued me as a historian was the way in which different versions of our shared history are constructed to disparate political, cultural, or ideological agendas. Everyone has their own take on events asked if her narratives resonate with different times. We all have our favorite stories. Something that tells members of that nation and others who they are as people. Stories americans like to tell themselves about their nation is one of freedom loving people seeking religious liberty. They grew and extended their request for freedom by throwing off the chains of british rule based on the ideals of individualism, equality, and upward mobility. Solely based on their efforts. The american nation is a unique nation, which grew at attracting immigrants across the globe. The american nation has become a melt where all who share the ideals and abide by the rules of the nation are welcome to share in the dream. There is some truth to the story but it leaves a lot out. It has been especially important for africanamericans to create their own story because mainstream american story has always ignored them and excluded them. Understanding how ive can americans have developed their own story of who they are and where they fit in the larger american story, it is one of the central questions that hit me. One of the main things i have tried to understand over the course of my career, it is one of the main themes and liberty. Members of society arrived at some shared understanding. How stories of the past constructed and who does this the constructing . Why do certain stories gain widespread credibility and familiarity and why do other stories get overlooked or forgotten. Why are certain stories honored as heroes and others are ignored completely . I tried to examine the many ways that attucks and African Americans in general, either made a part of were excluded from americas understanding of the story of the American Revolution. I want to read from the books opening pages. Some of the questions, i explored. From the introduction, the election of barack obama began march 5, 1717, with the death of attucks. Viewers are left to wonder how race, former slave during the first revolutionary clash between american colonist british soldiers. Led to the election of the first africanamerican president over two centuries later. While the connection between and attucks are at best, each man occupied that and emotional juncture which americans understand how race affected our it meansstanding what to be a patriot, a citizen and an american. These questions challenge us first, to recognize the continuous black presence in in American History and culture from the 18th century 21st. Then, to consider how americans think about africanamericans in the nations story and finally to ponder the process heroes which national and myths are constructed. Whatines how a crispusally know about and his role in the boston massacre. He was born around 1723 near massachusetts, a praying town of west of boston. He was likely mixed african a ancestry. Can he was a slave owned by William Brown until he liberated himself around 1750. As a sailor in docks elsewhere. Began march 5, 1770 at the boston massacre with the death of Crispus Attucks. This provocative opening line from the 2009 documentary we the people is never fully explained. In single grave in boston ground. Patrick carr was placed in the grave with the others. Months after that the soldiers were tried for murder. All were acquitted in only two of them acquitted of manslaughter, lightly punished and sent home. Thousands of american colonists and hundreds of bostonians were direct participants in mob actions between the 1760s and the 1775 start of the revolution. Crispus attucks was one of those and he was no more important or significant that arrest. They all lead a role in moving disgruntled colonists toward a new struggle for independence. It is understandable the first person to be killed by british soldiers might hold a memorable place. But the fact that he was Crispus Attucks is happenstance. Had it been another part or some other confrontation, with that person be would that personally remembered . Person be remembered . It makes sense to consider these questions because his incorporation into the story of the revolution was not a foregone conclusion. It was a Conscious Campaign to construct an american hero, the first martyr of liberty. Just a bit from chapter one. When asked the famous question in his letters from the American Farmer what is the american, this new man . He was not thinking about people of color. Explain to a to european audience. The new man he saw coming into being was either a european or the descendent of a european. In other words, he was white. Yet during the era of the American Revolution, approximately 20 , one in every five people was of african birth or descent. Multiethnic people like Crispus Attucks were very much a part of 18thcentury america and embodied what was new and distinctive in the revolutionary nation. Attucks life experiences, as best can be surmised, allowed him to see the best and worst of 18thcentury america. The economic and social vitality of growing colonies, the oppression of slavery, the intermingling of peoples and languages, opportunities of life at sea, fluidity of identity. So, in looking at stories, the stories that have grown around Crispus Attucks over 250 years, ive looked into scholarly histories, juvenile literature, public monuments, works of drama in literature, visual arts, tv, movies, the internet, and so on. Because there is so little clear evidence about who he was, people have tended to make things up about him, details about his family, his education, his religion, politics and his patriotism, things of which we have no evidence. Excuse me. So, there are a lot of distorted stories about attucks floating around people have constructed to suit their own purposes. The construction of different meetings around him started almost immediately. Future United States president john adams, in his role as defense attorney for the british soldiers, succeeded in pretraining and as an outsider, a threat to the social order who led the riotous mob. Attucks claims he appears to have undertaken to be the hero of the night and to lead the army with banners and move them up to king street with clubs. Attucks cried, do not be afraid of them. They dont fire. Knock them over. He tried to knock their brains out. To have this reinforcement under the command of a mulatto fellow whose looks were able to terrify any person, what had the soldiers not to fear . He, with one hand, took a bayonet and knocked the man down. The dreadful carnage of that night is chiefly to be ascribed. Adams did his best to characterize the entire mob as a rabble that did not represent the people of boston. Identifying attucks, a racially mixed outsider, as the ringleader. Boston sees the memory to serve political agendas by portraying the victims as respectable, innocent citizens struck down by a tyrannical military power. The paul revere engraving, of course, is perhaps the best known piece of propaganda in this activity, showing respectable and apparently white colonists being mowed down by the abusive military. There are also annual march 5 commemorations from 17711783. With speeches. These speeches pay little attention to individuals. So, no mention of attucks, no mention of the racial makeup of the martyrs. They were referred to as our brethren, slaughtered innocents, and fellow citizens. The implication, of course, was that they were white. Between 1771 and 1850, the boston massacre remained a part of the nations collective memory. Some characterized it as a key event in forging colonial unity while others preferred to distance the revolution from what they considered a disorderly riot. In either case, attucks role in racial identity remained largely ignored, even among africanamericans. Only a few scattered references to attucks appeared in the 19th century, casting him not as a hero or a patriot like adams, but a ruffian. Samuel goodrich was of the most popular and prolific historians in the middle 19th century. In his first book of history for children and youth, which was published in numerous additions editions between 1831 and 1859, he described the boston mob led by a giant of a negro named attucks. They shouted and abuse them to fire. At the troops not fired, the had the troops not fired, the irritated and unreasonable populace would have torn the soldiers to pieces. It appears from this text and others that identified attucks racially, brought him to the first time to the attention of africanamerican abolitionists. Once they learned about attucks, they made him into a usable symbol. William cooper nells colored patriots of the revolution in 1855 showed attucks as the first martyr of the American Revolution, who was of and with the people and never regarded as otherwise. He was the most responsible for Crispus Attucks bursting onto the american scene in the 1860s as the fundamental example of black patriotism and citizenship. In mythology, black activists ignored his native american ancestry and presented him as a unequivocally black man who the first to sacrifice his life on the altar of American Freedom. His identification with the nations founding and mythic image as the first martyr of liberty was a careful historical reconstruction and intended to bolster morale. Virtually unknown to black activists before the 1840s, by the 1850s, he had become one of the most widely recognized symbols of the black patriotism and citizenship. Attucks prominence among black and white abolitionists grew as black men donned blue uniforms and risked their lives for the union and dismantle american slavery. So hes widely known in the 18th century and received attention through the reconstruction era. The errection of the attucks monument on Boston Common in 1888, also sometimes referred to as the boston massacre monument, was the most publicly visible honor attucks received up to that time. It was also a turning point. It was erected with black and white support but drew a lot of criticism from conservative bostonians. The leader of the Boston Historical Society declared the proposed monument was a waste of the publics money and these men were rioters, not patriots. Attucks, in particular, was a rowdy person, killed while engaged in defiance of the law. A few years later, one long time bostonian referred to him as i a half indian, half negro rowdy who shouldve been strangled the day he was born. As jim crow segregation took over, africanamericans faced a new and troubling reality. This next reading is from the start of chapter four, which is titled Crispus Attucks meets jim crow. On a chill january day in 1879, william h palmer, an africanamerican revenue inspector awaited the birth of his fourth child. We cannot know the conversations he and his wife and family may have had about naming the child. But when the baby boy came into the world, he became known as Crispus Attucks palmer. At the age of 21, crispus still lived in norfolk with his mother and his siblings. 10 years later, he was on his own and they have three young daughters. He had a son named Crispus Attucks palmer jr. A few years later, he registered for the world war i draft, although he did not serve. Then he was a widower and lived with his children to norfolk city, where he owned his home free and clear, and worked as a clerk at the post office. Later, crispus married again. He and his second wife provided for their family. The home was worth 3500. They purchased a radio and placed a high priority on education. Crispus still held his post Office Position and rose and his oldest daughter were schoolteachers. Crispus jr. Was soon off on his own achievements. He completed four years of college, an impressive achievement for a black man. He was working as a film editor in the Motion Picture industry until may 1942 when he enlisted in the army to help defend the country. He earned the rank of technician fifth grade and give his life. He never married or had children so we can only speculate whether he carried on tributes to the first martyr of the revolution. The Palmer Family personifies a culture of racial uplift among middleclass africanamericans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They placed a high value on family, education and economic advancement. William palmer was very likely a slave prior to 1865. In 1870, he was a domestic servant. While he could read and write, his wife annie could not. By 1880, annie was literate and he was a county revenue inspector. There is the post bellum black middle class, removed from the subservience of slavery and able to parent households in which the childrens education was a priority. They became homeowners and had the expectations the next generation would exceed their own accompaniments. In naming a male black child after a hero, two generations of palmers claimed their place as american citizens while illustrating and attention of pride of Crispus Attucks status in black communities across the nation. Despite the upward mobility of families like the palmers, black americans generally saw their stock decline after the civil war. Their hopes for equality, acceptance in American Society expanded briefly with because additional amendments and 18 six to five and 1870, abolishings a abolishing slavery and guaranteeing equal Citizenship Rights. But those hopes and eroded after the 1870s. When Crispus Attucks palmer was born, only 2000 black men have held Political Office in southern states, 16 in the congress. At the birth of his namesake in 1912, there were no africanamericans in congress and very few held elective offices at any level. The right to vote let alone hold office was undermined by convoluted voting rules, racially restrictive laws, intimidation, and violence. While black literacy climbed, black hopes to pursue education were slim. The passage of jim crow laws restricted africanamericans access to schools, jobs, libraries, and other public facilities. After the withdrawal of troops from the south in 1877 and the return to power of the white supremacist former slaveholders, even basic constitutional Legal Protections for black americans disappeared. In 1882, 49 lynchings of black americans were recorded, which climbed steadily over the next several decades, with the total over 3000 by 1920. Countless others, no doubt, went unreported. Its times like these where White America had all but abandoned its concern for the basic welfare and rights of its black citizens. Crispus attucks had little chance to enter the pantheon of the nation. While White Americans and mainstream Popular Culture erased him from the story of the revolution, just as black service in the civil war disappeared from the mainstream and conceptions of that conflict. As white northerners and southerners gradually left behind the hatred spawned by the civil war and reconciled their differences after 1865, blacks were left to preserve their own contributions in segregated spheres of public and personal memory. As both legal and effective segregation de facto separation kept the races separate, racially exclusive parallel paths. With few exceptions, africanamericans had to rely on their own written histories, public commemorations, and active memory, like having children, preserving a meaningful history of the races role in shaping American Society. In the period from the late 19th century into world war ii, Mainstream Society paid little attention to the role Crispus Attucks and other africanamericans played in American History and culture. There was erasure from the story and textbooks. Textbooks are official documents that basically tell children this is what you need to know. This is the true story of your nation. While attucks appeared, sometimes as a hero and sometimes as a villain in many history schoolbooks prior to the civil war, i havent been able to find a reference to him in American History textbooks published between the 1880s and 1950s. Africanamericans ramped up their own efforts to promote black history and critique black omission. Africanamerican historical writers in the late 1800s countered this omission with a noble and heroic Crispus Attucks. Unfortunately, one problem with those attempts to tell his story was that practically nothing was known or can be known about the man. In many cases, writers simply made stuff up about attucks to suit their purposes. While many presentations held close to the historical record, by between the 1880s and 1930s, some of the stories had grown preposterous. 19th century writers like George Washington williams and william j. Simmons invented an attucks who was goodlooking, literate, well read in political philosophy, a man who was a prominent member of boston sons of liberty, good friend of paul revere and sam attucks, whose actions became a rallying cry. For black and white patriots. He was clearheaded and loyal hearted, a man who saw himself as an american citizen and was determined to avenge oppression in every form. All of this is fabrication or conjecture, with no connection to any historical evidence. After world war i, africanamericans intensified their attention to attucks and other race heroes as they made other efforts to incorporate africanamerican achievements into the National Historical narrative. So were authors writing books for Young Readers in the 1920s, even presented the highly unlikely image of attucks giving speeches to the admiring boston public and exchanging ideas with the people who were thrown around him. Crispus attucks was also honored by africanamericans who named Community Institutions after him, including schools, public parks, housing projects, hotels, movie theaters, American Legion posts, and more, including at times the naming of children after him. And his name was invoked more and more frequently by public spokespersons and organizations calling attention to the disregard for black Citizenship Rights during the jim crow era. And you might be able to read the sign being held there, the first blood for american independence was shed by a negro, Crispus Attucks. Interest in promoting him as a National Hero was redoubled as africanamericans once again presented opportunities to sharpen activists arguments for black inclusion and full Citizenship Rights. And there was much broader attention given to attucks from the American Government and White Americans more generally, expanding why we require more time than we have tonight. So youll just have to read the book to find out. [laughter] as a hint, the war had a lot to do with it. It should be no surprise things began to change as the postwar Civil Rights Movement focused attention on africanamericans. In the 1960s, some School Districts outside the south made efforts to rectify the neglect of the black past. By 1963, Community Activists in detroit, los angeles, washington, d. C. , chicago, and other cities were successfully moving School Systems towards including africanAmerican History into the curriculum. By middecade, attucks again to begin to appear in history textbooks, albeit as a token. One good measure of the change can be seen in a Popular High School text by john kraut. The adventure of the american people. The 1960 editions cover of the boston massacre refers to a mob of ruffians, taunting the troops and the patriots, using the memory of the event to keep the flames of discontent high. There we also learn one of the victims was Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave who was the leader of the mob. The others also point to the story of the irony of a black who is less than free becoming a martyr to the cause of freedom. By the 1980s and 1990s, it was difficult to find a textbook that did not at least mention attucks. And many featured him prominently as a hero and patriot. Some text gave into repeating fabricated biographical details. He is still widely represented and mr. Presented in textbooks today, as well as other things like documentaries and public addresses and so on. Attucks is also getting attention in juvenile literature, juvenile biographies and comic book histories, what we might call today graphic novel histories. And the authors usually pay little attention to historical accuracy, continuing the pattern of making up stories, family members, and attitudes, which bears little resemblance to the historical record. This book here is based on some solid historical research, but it also embellishes quite a bit. This was not without its critics. Since textbooks can only contain so many pages, the inclusion of blacks, women, native americans, and others who were starting to get more attention, meant that some white men would get less attention. According to historian lewis speer, in the 1970s, the average College Freshmen was expected to have been taught some version of the following. Crispus attucks was the first person to die for american independence. Speer argued Crispus Attucks was seeking wanton amusement by harassing the soldiers and that students will carefully rethink the negros role and find better leaders with which to identify. And Thomas Bailey complained in his president ial address, that it was deplorable, especially when significant white men are bumped out to make room for significant black men for harmony. To bailey, Crispus Attucks and his fellows were guilty of hooliganism. And africanamericans were not always of the same mind about treating attucks as a hero either. Even as early as 1860, john s rock said that hed rather honor ted turner or john brennan rather than Crispus Attucks because attucks fought for the revolution that maintained slavery. And a black power spokesperson argued on the one hand the black man who goes out and throws a brick at a white cop is taking part in an uprising while crispus, while he shoot rocks. But on the other hand, carmichael also argued attucks exemplified blacks fundamental problem of always trying to be american first and black people all the way down the end. And thats why we catching hell the way we catching it today. He also lifted heroes who thought should be part of the school curriculum, nat turner, Frederick Douglass, malcolm x and others, and he thought George Washington Carver Carver received attention. He took a Seattle High School audience by surprise in 1967 when he told them the very first man to die for the war of of independence was a black man named Crispus Attucks. Crispus attucks, yes. There was applause and carmichael went on. He was a fool. Yes. He died for white folk country. He should have been fighting instead of dying for white folk. That has been our history as black people who had always dying for white folk. The 1976 bicentennial brought greater attention from the mainstream to Crispus Attucks and black dissipation in participation in the revolution more broadly as well as increasing opportunities to disseminate interpretations of attucks and other black heroes in schools and the everexpanding mass media. Sometimes commercialization was involved, as with this commemorative bottle of 100 proof jim beam. In 1998, the u. S. Mint featured Crispus Attucks on a commemorative coin honoring africanamerican veterans of the revolution with this portrait, even though we have little evidence as to what he looked like. Moving into the 21st century, we can see lots of ways he is discussed or mentioned in songs, movies, television shows, and on the internet. In the 1990s, three maryland teenagers named their metal band Crispus Attucks after learning about him in school and identifying with his resistance to oppressive authority. Im actually wearing my Crispus Attucks tshirt. I will refrain from showing it to you. [laughter] black musicians Stevie Wonder to others referenced him in some of their works and Tv Documentaries included him in their works. More recently, some rightwing political organizations have chosen attucks to represent their causes. In 2006, black los angeles activists founded a Crispus Attucks brigade of the socalled minuteman movement, which urged government and civilian action to secure americas border with mexico. The brigade embraced the first black to die in defense of the american nation as inspiration for 21st century africanamericans to take their rightful and dutiful role to stop illegal immigration into the United States. Another africanamerican group aligning itself with a far right Political Movement devoted itself to the ideals of the nations founders, the Crispus Attucks tea party, established in houston, texas in 2011. The group aspired to teach the history of blacks in america and to help blacks gain control of their lives and the destiny of their children. During the 21st century, attucks became even more a part of school textbooks, black History Month presentations, juvenile biographies and histories, and academic scholarships even though misinformation about him abounds. By the year 2000, he had become widely expected a part of the nations story but mainly as a token presence. He was merely the black guy from the revolution. Crispus attucks has always been a malleable figure in american memory because there is so little documentary evidence about his life. He is a blank slate upon which different people at different times have inscribed a wide variety of meanings, from patriotic hero in first order of liberty to an unsavory ruffian, threatening the social order, to an uncle tom who sold out his race to fight alongside white slavers to an irrelevant nobody worth remembering at all. His connection with black men and violence in the public streets has not gone unnoticed and that when he first century. In the 21st century. In 2000, during a debate over whether to name a bridge for attucks in his probable hometown of framingham, historian associated him with an all too common image. Attucks is said to have gone out into the street waving a stick about the thickness of a mans wrist leading a crowd of about 20 soldiers. Sounds like a thug to me. Jimmy goodman had a different take, connecting him with the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in ferguson missouri. From Crispus Attucks to Michael Brown 245 years later, goodman wrote, two things remain clear. We never know what sparks a revolution and black lives matter. His place is decidedly mixed. He clearly has had an impact on a sizable number of individuals and organizations, yet remains unknown or forgotten by the vast majority of americans. To me, this raises questions about why certain figures stick so easily in americanspopular conceptions of the National Story while others fail to make a lasting impact. Part of the answer is straightforward. For generations prior to the 1960s, mainstream american schoolbooks systematically excluded black heroes, black accomplishments, and black participation in the construction of the american nation. Since the 1960s, black collective inclusion in the american narrative has left a lot to be desired. Rarely are africanamericans presented as serious contributors to the making of the nation. For the most part, theyre still shunted aside for the main narrative i summarized earlier. What im trying to do in the book is examine the different ways the past 250 years that hes either been made part of or excluded from americas understanding of the story of the American Revolution and the nation. Im interested in these questions of who gets included and who gets ignored in textbooks. Whos honored with monuments, who belongs in this country and this countrys story and who is not . Who can claim to be a citizen, patriot, hero and american . Increasingly, especially since the last president ial election, american seem to be discussing these sorts of issues more publicly and with more passion. As we listen to increasingly White Supremacists who want to take our country back, as we hear fellow citizens wanting to keep certain people out of the United States based on certain religion or culture. As we face violent public confrontations over what statues statutes and monuments represent, i cant help but think the first martyr of liberty and other works like it are coming out at the right time. We are facing a crisis of historic understanding and national identity. I certainly dont claim to have clear answers on how we should proceed, but i do argue the broader American Public would be very well served to consult the work historians do to have informed and civil public conversations and debates over these important questions of what america means and of who belongs in this country and in this countrys story. Thank you very much. [applause] and im very happy to take any questions or listen to any comments you might have. Theres a microphone on the side here. I believe they like you to come up to the microphone to make any points you have or ask any questions. This may sound strange, but when i was in fifth grade, which wouldve been 1960 sure. In 1960, i was in the fifth grade. He was just a little footnote in our history books. He was included in the history books and our teacher, who was relatively young at the time, she was 28 because we all thought she was an old maid. [laughter] she led a discussion afterwards about the conflict between dying for the American Revolution and then slavery continuing so long afterwards. Was at a complete abnormally . Mitch im not sure. In my research because ive covered roughly 250 years of history and had to do some superficial looking, i didnt look at every single American History textbook during the 20th century. I looked at sort of a wide variety of places like columbia teachers college, which has a nice election, repositories around the country. But the earliest textbook i came across was in 1963 mentioning attucks. So your experience, i doubt it was unique. So it was right around that time. Id be surprised to find any during the 1950s. Thats great to hear it was earlier. Also great that your teacher took advantage of that to have that conversation in 1960. That i think was a pretty unusual circumstance. Yeah. Thank you. Just fascinating, splendid talk. Ill try not to touch this with my actual hand. I was very struck by the descriptions of atticus leading the mob and john adams account and in the woman who didnt want the bridge named after hims account. And in those accounts, positioning him as a leader was used to discredit the mob. But adams is pretty close to the historical moment. And even with his defense attorney rationale for wanting to do that, i guess i would like to hear you talk some about that notion of him as a leader of a largely white mob and whether you think of that as another fiction about him or something that there seems to be some historical evidence for. And if so, what you make of it . Mitch thats a good question. A lot of it comes down to, what do we mean by a leader . That can have a lot of different meanings in different context. In terms of the evidence about attucks participation in that mob, there are a number of eyewitness testimonies that make it clear he was not an innocent bystander. He was noted as coming up corn hill toward the custom house on king street. He was holding two clubs and gave one to another person i think Patrick Eaton testified to this he said come on, lets get them. He was obviously very vocal. Several witnesses had him shouting at the troops and during them to fire and so on. He was right in front of the british soldiers. And one witness, and only one witness, placed him as an individual who actually used the club he was holding to strike at a british soldier. Some people discredit the witness credibility. But he was not an innocent bystander. Was he a leader . We have an unclear understanding of what really happened in the first place. How many people were in the streets . Some people said 40 or 50. Some people said 200 to 300. I have a sense that there were at least 100 people there. And he was not in the background. He was at the front, being very vocal. So in that sense, maybe he can be described as a leader. But that doesnt really get to his mindset, his motivation. Maybe this guy you have to keep in mind in 1770, no one was talking about independence. Theres no way a desire to separate from the British Empire and declare america to be a new and distinctive country without a monarch maybe sam adams and a couple people. But nobody was really thinking about that. So youre inscribing ideals of patriotism onto attucks in an ahystorical way. That wasnt really part of the conversation at that time. But again, these folks in boston who were trying to agitate against the British Empire, even in 1771, there their goals still werent really to separate from the empire but to call attention to british abuses in order to substantiate the american case for some kind of remediation, i guess, from the empire. So, was he a leader . One can make that argument, but its hard to get to his motivations, mindset and so on. Hopefully that answers your question. [indiscernible] if he is a leader, does that mean that [indiscernible] mitch and again the question was, if he is a leader in the that context, can we consider the white people in that crowd to have been following him as a leader . And again, thats a very difficult question to answer. We dont have evidence after the fact when the massacre martyrs are commemorated in these march 5 commemorations dozens of years later, theyre rarely mentioned by name and never is any one of them really singled out as someone to hold up as a hero. So some of these people that people put into their textbooks or arguments about his role that he was an inspiration to black and white revolutionaries after the fact, theres just no evidence to support that. So again, its hard to get in the mindset of those people, but the depositions that were taken, most of the people didnt know who he was. I dont think people saw themselves as following him. People in this mob were coming from a lot of different directions. He was said to have led 20 or 30 people up the hill. They were following someone else or the sound of church bells or what have you. So, hard to say. Yes, i have two comments, or questions perhaps. One, great when you mentioned other black leaders, nat turner and john brown, but you forgot to mention the ladies. You dont mention harriet tubman, Sojourner Truth. Seems there are is a few people, a lot of these people have remain nameless throughout history, but it might have been a nice point. The second thing is, theres recently been a book published about john adams, and about his as a lawyer, representing the soldiers and winning for them. I havent read it. I have it on order from my library. But i thought one should read your book and that book, that they might make an interesting contrast, dichotomy. Would you suggest or say that might be a good idea . Mitch i think that everyone should buy my book. [laughter] and the book on john adams and make the comparison. Do you know who the author is . I dont know, but he has been on several talkshows, articles, there have been reviews in the boston globe and the new york times. Mitch i havent read any. Unfortunately im old and poor, so i had to order it from the library. Mitch libraries are great. Im a big fan. Thank you. Yeah, in terms of the women, i didnt mention them. But certainly what im talking about my focus is on Crispus Attucks. But its important to note that he was not the only person used by africanamerican spokespersons trying to reorient, reconstruct the central narrative of American History. And they did use people like tubman and Sojourner Truth and over the years, others Like Mary Church Terrell and mary mcleod bethune. And on through the decades in order to try to inscribe africanamerican contributions to the construct of the american nation. So yeah, i didnt mention them tonight. And really, dont spend a lot of time talking about either them or Frederick Douglass or nat turner or others in my book because im using attucks to represent the movement to reorient and recenter the narrative around black contributions. Ok, thank you. Thank you for a great lecture. Question is, do we know much about the other four in the mob who were killed that day . And can we make any inference about Crispus Attucks sort of biography from knowledge of the other four . Mitch i really havent looked too much into the biography of those other four. Again, my focus is on attucks. Im trying to cover a quarter of a millennium here. I have to keep the blinders on in certain respects. One thing i do, although we cant really reconstruct biography of Crispus Attucks, i tried to use other historians work in the 18th century atlantic world, the world of sailors and seaports, to get a sense of what kind of possibilities there were for Crispus Attucks. One of the other victims was also a sailor. The others were young people, practices, leather tanners, ivory workers. So, we can look at that crowd and see that there were a lot of younger people out there, especially among the victims. There were a lot of people certainly of the working classes. There were many townspeople of various social levels, a lot of the middling and even uppercrust folks on the streets. Some of them did get wounded, most of them, to my knowledge, were not at the forefront. Again, that sort of helped feed into adams characterization of making trouble. Again, i dont have a lot of information. Thats one of the fascinating things. The reason stories about Crispus Attucks are so prominent is because he became a useful symbol in black abolitionists work to advance their own agendas for pursuing Citizenship Rights for themselves and abolition of slavery. The others didnt really werent really utilized in that way by other constituencies. Thank you very much. Mitch yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for your presentation. I have a question, actually two part question. Its related. The first would be what if Crispus Attucks was indeed not enslaved, which is one question, because you used the term lightly. And i dont think its a given that he was indeed a slave. And secondly, when nell does his work on colored patriots in 1850s, he includes a good deal of information on the Indigenous People and their participation of the revolutionary struggle. So my question becomes what is the significance of erasing or obliterating the complexity of who attucks was as an individual in making him only a black man . And nell doesnt use the term black. He used the term colored, because colored includes africanamericans, ethiopians, Indigenous People, and all of the other terminology at that time. But i have to ask you, does anything change if attucks is indeed a free person of color and not a slave . Mitch thats an interesting question, yeah, and its part of the speculation. There was circumstantial evidence that identifies there was a runaway advertisement that was published in 1750. Youre probably aware of this, but identifies i forget the exact language, but a runaway slave named crispas, instead of us, from framingham, who was six feet two inches tall, wellbuilt, mulatto. And then in 1770, we have a newspaper account of this victim of the boston massacre. He was initially identified as a man named Michael Johnson, and theres speculation whether that was an alias or misidentification, but he is eventually identified as crispus, six feet tall, wellbuilt, from framingham, described as eight as a mulatto. Its not ironclad, absolutely. Does it change the narrative if indeed he was not an enslaved man . In fact, nell and the other black abolitionists who were using attucks in their activism, i dont believe nell was aware of the runaway ad until about 1860. He starts writing about attucks. Hes certainly aware of attucks by 1839. Hes communicating in 1841, writing letters with randall phillips, white abolitionist, a mentor in some ways, about attucks. To the 1840s, his first writings in the 1840s and then 1850s, he does not identify i might be wrong but i dont think he identifies him as someone who might be enslaved. So, i dont think it would have made a difference because the identity of someone who was a self liberated former slave was not really part of the narrative that nell started to construct in the 1840s. Does that make sense . Of course, but the advertisement that youre referring to doesnt use the word slave in the notice. And theres an earlier advertisement for fugitive named Michael Johnson. And some of us would argue that johnson is actually jonason, which the typographer in boston reduced to johnson. Because his father was prince jonah. But if his mother is indeed a free, native woman, he would not have been born a slave. Mitch based on the family most people seem to place him in and im not familiar with that Michael Johnson ad. Id like to talk to you. The family most people place him in was this and a woman named nanny peterattucks. She is identified as someone who is an indian descended from a person killed in king philips war. But in the estate of William Brown, or colonel buckminster im blanking on which one it is. But in this statement, the gentleman died in 1847, i believe. Shes identified as a negro and as a slave as part of his estate. She was valued at 80 pounds. So whether she was misidentified her status as a free or indentured or enslaved person is unclear. Since she had a value of 80 pounds, it seems like she was not a free and clear free person. She was bounded to this person in some way. The fact she is identified as a negro maybe suggested while she was enslaved and she is of native american ancestry, she is negro by association because of her marriage to a gentleman apparently born in africa. So theres so much we dont know about the details of this family life and so on. Not sure if i missed other parts of your thats it. Thank you. But i did want to know if you thought the narrative changes, because it is an appeal to a white audience to argue that the first person to die for American Freedom was an enslaved african. And that flattens out this story. Mitch yeah, but again, i dont think that was the argument i was making. This was a person of color. Ill have to look more closely at nells full language as to whether he uses the term black or negro. But clearly colored patriots is a broader term. But hes clearly seen by black abolitionists as a black man and others who picked that up, including Martin Delaney and woody johnson. They identified him as an unequivocally black man. So theres some ambiguity there. You tilted your head. You might look at other sources, as well. I dont want to monopolize this, but when you have people in the 1850s, we now call africanamerican using the term colored, and you have nell rewriting entire chapters on Indigenous People who fought in the revolution, im not so sure that they were ignoring the complexity of who this attucks person was. Mitch ok. Yeah, im going to stick to my guns on that, though. But its worth thinking about. The term colored, of course theres been an evolution of the way africanamericans are referred to by the Broader Society and the way they refer to themselves. In the 1880s, whether to identify in the revolutionary era, the term african was widely embraced. So you have the free African Society, the african methodist episcopal church, the African Society in various cities, the term was embraced by free black communities as they were beginning to form in the aftermath of the revolution. But by the 1830s, increasingly that term colored became adopted by many africanamerican people today, who today we call africanamericans. A famous newspaper was called the colored american. Someone went so far as to say we should get rid of any qualifying adjectives and simply refer to ourselves as americans. Those were conversations. The term was free people of color. Those were terms widely used by the communities in the north in identifying themselves with the american context. So im not sure how much time we have left here. Maybe one more question. Just a comment, actually, on what you said, you said free people of color. In its common usage you hear now, people of color. Its interesting that transition. Im looking at the picture, you brought along another sailor. You sort of alluded to it before. But i was just wondering, if he didnt exist, if he wasnt there, but this would this still have been the boston massacre . Was he that prominent . We dont know. And i had another question. The newspapers of the time, how they reported it . Mitch yes, i think the boston massacre would have played the role it played even if he or another person of color were not involved. For the most part, his racial identity was kind of erased in the coverage after the fact. He was identified in newspaper accounts immediately first as Michael Johnson, but always as a mulatto, a person of mixed racial background. So they werent hiding that originally. But the rations at the First Anniversary and beyond that, in 1771, there was no racial identification of any of the victims, which would lead them and again, the purposes of the patriot cause, it would serve their purposes well for the public to assume that these were all respectable, upstanding, white citizens, members of boston society, who were struck down by a tyrannical power. So yeah, i think thats how that would play out. Thanks. [applause] thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who Lizzie Gordon is . Cause where we will find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. We will talk about both sides of the story, the tools, the techniques of slaveowner power. We will talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv. It is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. This month, we are featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan 3. Tuesday, smithsonian associates, a constitutional law professor and a great great grandson of theodore roosevelt. Thetalk is called constitution and declaration of independence, a contrary view. American history tv, this weekend, every weekend on cspan 3. Next, while the from cspans book notes series, Goodwin Doris kearns talks about Franklin Roosevelts presidency and his relationship with his wife eleanor. Shes the author of no ordinary time franklin and eleanor roosevelt, the homefront and world war ii. This interview in cspans 2019 ook the president s a compilation of