Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812

by William C. Nell

Botta's History and Hewe's Reminiscences (the tea party survivor) establishes the fact that the colored man, Attucks, was of and with the people, and was never regarded otherwise. Botta, in speaking of the scenes of the 5th of March, says "The people were greatly exasperated. The multitude armed with clubs, ran towards King Street, crying, 'Let us drive out these ribalds; they have no business here!" The rioters rushed furiously towards the Custom House; they approached the sentinel, crying, 'Kill him, kill him!' They assaulted him with snowballs, pieces of ice, and whatever they could lay their hands upon." The guard was then called, and, in marching to the Custom House, "they encountered," continues Botta, "a band of the populace, led by a mulatto named Attucks, who brandished their clubs, and peltered them with snowballs. The maledictions, the execrations of the multitude were horrible. In the midst of a torrent of invectives from every quarter, the military were challenged to fire. The populace advanced to the points of their bayonets. The soldiers appeared like statues; the cries, the howlings, the menaces, the violent din of bells still sounding the alarm, increased the confusion and the horrors of these moments; at length the mulatto and twelve of his companions, pressing forward, environed the soldiers, and striking their muskets with their clubs cried to the multitude: 'Be not afraid, they dare not fire; why do they hesitate, why do you not kill them, why not crush them at once!' The mulatto lifted his arm against Captain Preston, and having turned one of the muskets, he seized the bayonet with his left hand, as if he intended to execute his threat. At this moment, confused cries were heard: 'The wretches dare not fire!' Firing succeeds, Attucks is slain. The other discharges follow. Three were killed, five severely wounded, and several others slightly."

Attucks was killed by Montgomery, one of Captain Preston's soldiers. He had been foremost in resisting and was first slain; as proof of front and close engagement, received two balls, one in each breast.

John Adams, counsel for the soldiers, admitted that Attucks appeared to have undertaken to be the Hero of the night, and to lead the army with banners. He and Caldwell, not being residents of Boston, were both buried from Faneuil Hall. The citizens generally participated in the funeral solemnities.

The Boston Transcript, of March, 1851, published an anonymous correspondence disparaging the whole affair; denouncing Crispus Attucks as a very firebrand of disorder and sedition, the most conspicuous, inflammatory, and uproarious of the misguided populace, and who, if he had not fallen a martyr, would richly have reserved hanging as an incendiary. If the leader, Attucks, deserved the epithets above applied is it not a legitimate inference that the citizens who followed on are included, and hence, should swing in his company on the gallows? If the leader and his patriot band were misguided, the distinguished orators who, in after days, commemorated the fifth day of March, must, indeed, have been misguided, and with them the masses who were inspired by their eloquence; for John Hancock, in 1774, invokes the injured shades of Maverick, Gray, Caldwell, Attucks, Carr.

And Judge Dawes, in 1775, thus alludes to the band of misguided incendiaries. "The provocation of that night must be numbered among the master springs which gave the first motion to a vast machinery, a noble and comprehensive system of national independence."

Ramsay's History of the American Revolution, Vol. I., p. 22, adds, "The anniversary of the 5th of March was observed with great solemnity; eloquent orators were successively employed to preserve the remembrance of it fresh in the mind. On these occasions the blessings of liberty—the horrors of Slavery, and the danger of a standing army were presented to the public view. These annual orations administered fuel to the fire of liberty, and kept it burning with an irresistible flame."

The 5th of March continued to be celebrated for the above reasons, until the Declaration of American Independence was substituted in its place, and its orators were expected to consider the feelings, manners, and principles of the former as giving birth to the latter.

In judging, then, of the merits of those who launched the American Revolution, we would not take counsel from the Tories of that or the present day, but rather heed the approving eulogy of Lovell, Hancock and Warren.

Welcome, then, be every taunt that such correspondents have flung at Attucks and his company, as the best evidence of their merits and strongest claims on our gratitude. Envy and the foe do not labor to abuse any but prominent champions of a cause.

The rejection of this petition was to be expected, if we accept the axiom that a Colored man never gets Justice done him in the United States, except by mistake. The petitioners only asked for that Justice, and that the name of Crispus Attucks be surrounded with the same emblems constantly appropriated by a grateful country to other gallant Americans.