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Crispus Attucks (1723March 5, 1770) was the first casualty of the Boston massacre, in Boston, Massachusetts,〔Lowery, Malinda Maynor. "(African and Native Americans in Colonial and Revolutionary Times )." (Teachinghistory.org ). Accessed 13 July 2011.〕 and is widely considered to be the first American casualty in the American Revolutionary War. Aside from the event of his death, along with Samuel Gray and James Caldwell, little is known for certain about Attucks. He may have been an African American slave or freeman, merchant seaman and dockworker of Wampanoag and African descent. His father was an African-born slave and his mother a Native American. Despite the lack of clarity, Attucks became an icon of the anti-slavery movement in the 18th century. He was held up as the first martyr of the American Revolution, along with the others killed. In the early 19th century, as the abolitionist movement gained momentum in Boston, supporters lauded Attucks as an African American who played a heroic role in the history of the United States.〔Margot Minardi, ''The Inevitable Negro: Making Slavery History in Massachusetts, 1770–1863'' (Harvard University: PhD Dissertation, 2007);〕 Historians disagree on whether Crispus Attucks was a free man or an escaped slave, but agree that he was of Wampanoag and African descent. Two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Boston Massacre, both published in 1770, did not refer to Attucks as "black" nor as a "Negro"; it appeared that Bostonians of European descent viewed him as being of mixed ethnicity. According to a contemporary account in the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'' (Philadelphia), he was a "Mulattoe man, named Crispus Attucks, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina . . ."〔"Boston, March 12," ''Pennsylvania Gazette'' (March 22, 1770), p. 2〕 Because of his mixed heritage, his story is also significant for Native Americans.〔W. Jeffrey Bolster, ''Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997); David J. Silverman, ''Faith and Boundaries: Colonists, Christianity, and Community among the Wampanoag Indians of Martha's Vineyard, 1600–1871'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005); as well as two histories by Daniel Mandell, ''Tribe, Race, History: Native Americans in Southern New England, 1780–1880'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008); and ''Behind the Frontier: Indians in Eighteenth-Century Eastern Massachusetts'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996).〕 == Early life == Attucks appears to have been born a slave from Framingham, Massachusetts. His father married a woman who originated from the Natick Tribe during 1723,〔"Crispus Attucks." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.〕 possibly on Hartford Street. Framingham had a small population of black inhabitants from at least 1716. Attucks was of mixed African and Native American parentage and was descended from John Attucks, of Massachusetts who was hanged during King Philip's War.〔Parr & Swope, p. 44.〕 In 1750 William Brown, a slave-owner in Framingham, advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispus. In the advertisement, Brown describes what Attucks looked like and was wearing when he was last seen. He also said that a reward of 10 pounds would be given to whoever found and return Attucks to him. Attucks's status at the time of the massacre as either a free black or a runaway slave has been a matter of debate for historians. However, his descendants maintain he was a slave and ran away sometime in his late 20s. What is known is that Attucks became a sailor and he spent much of the remainder of his life at sea often working on whalers, which involved long voyages. Many historians also believe that he went by the alias Michael Johnson in order to avoid being caught. He may only have been temporarily in Boston in early 1770, having recently returned from a voyage to the Bahamas. He was due to leave shortly afterwards on a ship for North Carolina.〔Parr & Swope, p. 45.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Crispus Attucks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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