1945 (ca.), William H. Johnson, Crispus Attucks -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
Johnson presented Crispus Attucks (1723-1770) in a Christ-like pose at the center of his scene of the Boston Massacre. Attucks and four other American colonists face a line of British soldiers who point muskets at the unarmed group. Tensions were already high on the night of March 5, 1770, when a group of colonials wielding sticks and snowballs confronted British soldiers. Shots were fired. When the smoke cleared, Attucks, a self-emancipated whaling sailor, and four others lay dead. They were the first casualties of the American Revolution.
For more than eighty years after the Boston Massacre, the martyrdom of this Black man was largely erased from history. Not until 1855, when William Cooper Nell, a Black abolitionist from Boston, published a book on people of color who fought for American liberty was Attucks recognized as the first martyr in the battle for independence. His name became a rallying cry during the Civil War as a powerful symbol of courage and sacrifice.
1945 (ca.), William H. Johnson, Crispus Attucks -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
Johnson presented Crispus Attucks (1723-1770) in a Christ-like pose at the center of his scene of the Boston Massacre. Attucks and four other American colonists face a line of British soldiers who point muskets at the unarmed group. Tensions were already high on the night of March 5, 1770, when a group of colonials wielding sticks and snowballs confronted British soldiers. Shots were fired. When the smoke cleared, Attucks, a self-emancipated whaling sailor, and four others lay dead. They were the first casualties of the American Revolution.
For more than eighty years after the Boston Massacre, the martyrdom of this Black man was largely erased from history. Not until 1855, when William Cooper Nell, a Black abolitionist from Boston, published a book on people of color who fought for American liberty was Attucks recognized as the first martyr in the battle for independence. His name became a rallying cry during the Civil War as a powerful symbol of courage and sacrifice.