History 111: U.S. History to 1877

Depictions of Crispus Attucks

Depictions of Crispus Attucks

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Paul Revere's famous depiction of the Boston Massacre, which depicts British troops firing on Americans at a command from an officer
Paul Revere, The Bloody Massacre, perpetrated in King-Street, Boston, on March 5th, 1770, published three weeks after the event (via Wikimedia Commons).
British troops fire on American colonists. A black American lies dying in the arms of a white colonist.
William C. Nell, Crispus Attucks, the First Martyr of the American Revolution, from The Coloured Patriots of the American Revolution (1855). (via New York Public Library).
A skirmish between British troops and American colonists. In the center foreground, a black man is being shot or bayonetted by a British soldier.
William Champney, Boston Massacre (1856). (via Wikimedia Commons)
A skirmish between British troops and largely white American colonists. Both sides are exhibiting violence.
Alonzo Chappel, Boston Massacre (1857). (via Wikimedia Commons)
A painting of several black men wearing colonial attire. Some resemble pirates. Most are armed with sticks, pitchforks, or other non-firearm weapons.
Source: “Who Was Crispus Attucks?” (2012) (via the Crispus Attucks Museum)
Several white men, and one black man, lean over the side of a rowboat to rescue a naked white man in the water. The man in the water is about to be bitten by a large shark.
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark (1778). (via Wikimedia Commons)

Additional reading

Albert Boime, “Blacks in Shark-Infested Waters: Visual Encodings of Racism in Copley and Homer”

Karsten Fitz, “Commemorating Crispus Attucks: Visual Memory and the Representations of the Boston Massacre, 1770-1857”

Matthew Wills, “Crispus Attucks Needs No Introduction. Or Does He?”

Brendan Wolfe, “Believe it or Not, He Survived”