NARRATOR: One-fifth of the population
is of African descent.
And slavery is a way of life in all 13 colonies.
Our Black patriots begin this story in bondage.
By war's end, they will have new identities in the new nation--
martyr, writer, soldier, spy.
Some will change names.
Some will change minds.
And all will change history.
ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: Crispus Attucks was born in the 1720s.
Born of mixed race, both his mother and father
were enslaved.
His father was of African descent, his mother was Native.
He's born from this lineage of enslavement.
And he makes a decision as a young man to shed that status.
NARRATOR: As legend goes, Crispus makes a daring escape
for freedom in 1750, prompting an ad in the "Boston Gazette"
that offers a glimpse at how enslaved people were
viewed in colonial America.
ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: Ran away from his master, William Brown.
"A mulatto fellow about 27 years of age named Crispus."
"6 feet, 2 inches high."
"Had on a light colored, bearskin coat."
"Blue yarn stockings."
Fugitive slave ads give us a physical description of
a person like Crispus Attucks.
They are portrayed as property as if they were
a chair to be sold at auction.
NARRATOR: For two decades after his escape,
it is believed that Crispus works on trading ships
and whaling vessels coming in and out of Boston,
earning his keep as a harpooner and developing a reputation
as a tough and fearless man.
It was dangerous to be in the whaling industry.
But this was really one of the few opportunities available for
Black men in the 18th century.
And he's also a worker, and I think that this is a really
important part of his identity.
CHRISTOPHER BROWN: Attucks represents a kind
of a really important subsection of the early American
community, a mobile maritime working class
that's actually interracial.
NARRATOR: By the winter of 1770, this fraternity
of working class Bostonians is growing
in strength, thanks in large part to a common enemy.
MARGARET WASHINGTON: One thing that
is important is that there was labor competition because a lot
of the British soldiers were moonlighting jobs, taking
jobs away from the colonists.
This created anger.
So Attucks, as a working man, was part of this struggle.
NARRATOR: On March 5, tensions between the colonists
and British soldiers reached a breaking point.
As the story goes, a British soldier walks
into a pub looking for work.
He's greeted by a group of angry sailors,
including Crispus Attucks.
ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: He didn't like the way he
and his friends were being treated by the British.
He didn't like the fact that employment was hard to come by.
He didn't like the taxes that were squeezing merchant seamen.
NARRATOR: Hours later, the situation escalates in front
of the old State House.
CHRISTOPHER BONNER: There are a group of these Black
and white dockworkers who come together
and try to form a public procession
to declare their outrage.
At that point, because he was a runaway,
the prudent thing for Attucks to do
would be to quietly back away and kind of
get out of this fight.
But that was not his, I think, character or personality.
Attucks is described as being at the front of this crowd.
Big guy and he's carrying a big club.
And some of the British records would
say that he's brandishing the club, that he's
menacing the British soldiers.
MARGARET WASHINGTON: We know that the British soldiers
were harassing them back.
And so it was a back and forth.
The British had guns and the British used them.
What happened apparently, according
to the newspaper accounts, is that he was hit twice.
[gunshots]
So for the first time, real blood has been shed.
I mean, there have been fist fights before, knocked heads.
But now, there's an actual martyr.
[gunshot]
NARRATOR: Four others are killed that night, all of them white,
in what becomes known as the Boston Massacre.
ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: The sort of local traditions
of segregation were disbanded for a moment
so that he and his comrades, they were buried together.
There were no desegregated cemeteries.
That's significant.
NARRATOR: Almost immediately, colonial leaders
use Attucks' death to galvanize the fight towards independence.
And centuries later, it's still a battle
cry against oppression.
Martin Luther King Jr. writes about Crispus Attucks,
calling him one of the most influential figures
in African-American history.
ERICA ARMSTRONG DUNBAR: So did he know that his actions would
catapult him into a sort of iconic position
in American history?
Absolutely not.
But then again, most people who are catapulted
to these kinds of iconic positions
don't know that that's going to happen.
He was in a place at a certain time and unafraid.
[music playing]