Editing Crispus Attucks (section)

== Early life and ethnic origins ==
Attucks was born in [[Framingham, Massachusetts]]. Town histories of Framingham written in 1847 and 1887 describe him as a slave of Deacon William Brown, though it is unclear whether Brown was his original owner. In 1750, Brown advertised for the return of a runaway slave named Crispas. In the advertisement, Brown describes Attucks and his clothing when he was last seen. He also said that a reward of 10 pounds would be given to whoever found and returned Attucks to him. Attucks's status at the time of the massacre as a free person or a [[runaway slave]] has been a matter of debate for historians.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

Attucks became a sailor and whaler, and he spent much of his life at sea or working around the docks along the Atlantic seaboard. In an 1874 article in ''The American Historical Record'', Jebe B. Fisher recounts a passage in the memoirs of [[Boston Tea Party]] participant [[George Robert Twelves Hewes|George R.T. Hewes]], which stated that at the time of the massacre, Attucks "was a Nantucket Indian, belonging onboard a whale ship of Mr. Folgers, then in the harbor, and he remembers a distinct war whoop which he yelled... the mob whistling, screaming, and rending like an Indian yell."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thatcher |first=Benjamin Bussey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U6IEAAAAYAAJ |title=Traits of the Tea Party: Being a Memoir of George R.T. Hewes, One of the Last of Its Survivors : with a History of that Transaction, Reminiscences of the Massacre, and the Siege, and Other Stories of Old Times |date=1835 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |pages=103–104 |language=en}}</ref> Many historians believe{{Weasel inline|date=March 2023}} Attucks went by the alias Michael Johnson in order to avoid being caught after his escape from slavery. 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 afterward on a ship for [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]].<ref>Parr & Swope, p. 45.</ref><ref>Kachun, "From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon."</ref>

Though he is commonly described as an [[African American]] in popular culture, two major sources of eyewitness testimony about the Massacre, both published in 1770, did not refer to Attucks as "black" or as a "Negro," but rather as a mulatto and an [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indian]]. In an account from Philadelphia's ''[[Pennsylvania Gazette]]'', a man who may have been Attucks was referred to as a "[[Mulattoe]] man, named Crispas, who was born in Framingham, but lately belonged to New-Providence, and was here in order to go for North Carolina."<ref name="pgaz2"/> However, during Attucks's time, mulatto was often used to describe skin tone rather than ethnicity, and sometimes referred to full-blooded Native Americans.<ref>[[Mulatto#cite note-6]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=February 2018}} In ''Potter's American Monthly'', the interchangeability of the two terms is demonstrated by court transcripts from the Attucks trial: <blockquote>Question: Did you see a mulatto among the persons who surrounded the soldiers?<br />
Answer: I did not observe...<br />
Question: Did they seem to be sailors or townsmen?<br />
Answer: They were dressed some of them in the habits of sailors.<br />
Question: Did you know the Indian who was killed?<br />
Answer: No.<br />
Question: Did you see any of them press on the soldiers with a cordwood stick?<br />
Answer: No.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdkrWslzIAIC&q=%22peter+attucks%22&pg=PA533 | title=Potter's American Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine of History, Literature, Science and Art| year=1872}}</ref></blockquote> Historians differ in opinion on Attucks's heritage: some assert his family had intermarried with African slaves, while others maintain he had no African heritage. It is widely acknowledged that Attucks had considerable Native American heritage.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdkrWslzIAIC&q=jb+fisher+crispus+attucks&pg=PA531 |title = Potter's American Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine of History, Literature, Science and Art|year = 1872}}</ref>

Biographer Mitch Kachun, as well as multiple 19th century Framingham town histories, have drawn a connection between Attucks and John Attuck of [[Framingham]], a [[Narragansett people|Narragansett]] man who was hanged in Framingham in 1676 during [[King Philip's War]].<ref>Parr & Swope, p. 44.</ref><ref>Kachun, "From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon"</ref> The word for "deer" in the Narragansett language is "Attuck."<ref>Roger Williams, ''A key into the language of America'' p. 106 (London: [[Gregory Dexter]], 1643)</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/03/the-hidden-life-of-crispus-attucks/#_edn2 |title=The hidden life of Crispus Attucks |first=Jerome J. |last=Palliser |date=March 5, 2014 |journal=Journal of the American Revolution}}</ref> Kachun also noted a possible connection to a probable [[Praying Indian|Natick]] woman and possible Attucks mother or relative named Nanny Peterattucks, who is described as a 'negro woman' in the 1747 estate inventory of Framingham slaveholder Joseph Buckminster and, along with Jacob Peterattucks, as 'probable descendant of John Attuck, the Indian' in an 1847 history of Framingham.<ref>Kachun, "From Forgotten Founder to Indispensable Icon" p. 26</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/historyofframing00templ | page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofframing00templ/page/668 668] | quote=peterattucks, jacob. |title = History of Framingham, Massachusetts: Early Known as Danforth's Farms, 1640–1880; with a Genealogical Register| publisher=town of Framingham |last1 = Temple|first1 = Josiah Howard|year = 1887}}</ref> Other sources refer to their surname as Peter Attucks. In a 1747 history of the Hoosac Valley, an African [[Militia (United States)|colonial militiaman]] named Moses Peter Attucks, living in nearby [[Leicester, Massachusetts|Leicester]], is described as a 'negro slave of John White; elsewhere he is listed as Moses Attucks<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/originsinwillia01perrgoog | page=[https://archive.org/details/originsinwillia01perrgoog/page/n252 234] | quote=peter attucks. | title=Origins in Williamstown| publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons | last1=Perry| first1=Arthur Latham| year=1894}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028853624 | page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924028853624/page/533 533] | quote=peter attucks. | title=The Hoosac Valley: Its Legends and Its History| publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons | last1=Niles| first1=Grace Greylock| year=1912}}</ref> Jacob Peterattucks and Nanny Peterattucks are recorded as slaves with Joseph Buckminster in 1730, and in 1740 Jacob with Thomas Buckminster, who was appointed by Framingham in 1739 to lead a commission for the preservation of deer in the area.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdVmp-xPbNoC&q=captain+thomas+buckminster+framingham&pg=PA46 |title = A History of Framingham, Massachusetts|isbn = 978-1429022736|last1 = Barry|first1 = William|date = 2010| publisher=Applewood Books }}</ref> Historian [[William C. Nell]] reported an 1860 letter from a Natick resident, also printed in an 1860 edition of [[The Liberator (newspaper)|''The Liberator'']] newspaper that read,

<blockquote>Several persons are now living in Natick who remember the Attucks family, viz., Cris, who was killed March 5th; Sam, whose name was abbreviated into Sam Attucks, or Smattox; Sal, also known as Slattox; and Peter, called Pea Tattox [...] my mother, still living, aged 89, remembers Sal in particular, who used to be called the gourd-shell [[squaw]], from the fact that she used to carry her rum in a gourd shell [...] the whole family are said to be the children of Jacob Peter Attucks... it has been conjectured that they are of Indian blood, but all who knew the descendants describe them as negroes.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xRe7QTtXaFcC&q=William+C.+Nell+%22peter+attucks%22&pg=PA675 |title = William Cooper Nell, Nineteenth-century African American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist: Selected Writings from 1832–1874|isbn = 978-1574780192|last1 = Nell|first1 = William Cooper|year = 2002| publisher=Black Classic Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/34578337/ |title=16 Mar 1860, Page 2 – The Liberator at |publisher=Newspapers.com |date= |accessdate=2022-06-05}}</ref></blockquote>

The letter continues, "his sister [Sal] used to say that if they had not killed Cris, Cris would have killed them."

Prince Yonger has been posited as the father of Attucks. However, according to Framingham town histories, Yonger did not arrive in Massachusetts until 1725, after Attucks was born, and did not marry Nanny Peterattucks until 1737, after which point they had children, who are noted in multiple town histories but among whom Crispus is not mentioned: "a son, who died young, and Phebe, who never married." It is possible Yonger became Attucks' stepfather in 1737, though it is unclear whether Attucks had permanently left his mother's home by that point.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WdVmp-xPbNoC&q=Prince&pg=PA46 |title = A History of Framingham, Massachusetts|isbn = 978-1429022736|last1 = Barry|first1 = William|date = 2010| publisher=Applewood Books }}</ref> Neither Phebe nor the son are recorded with the Attucks or Peterattucks surname.