On the evening of March 5th, 1770, Crispus Attucks–a Black freedman living in Boston–joined with a group of guys that had been getting themselves worked up at some of the taverns in the town about a English soldier physically assaulting a wigmaker’s apprentice earlier that day, in heading down to the Old State House to confront some of the Redcoats that had been stationed there. In the course of that confrontation, one of the soldiers fired a shot–leading to his fellow soldiers to also open fire on the mob of Colonists. According to legend, Attucks was the first to be struck by the musket balls, dying right there.
What historians have not been able to figure out is why Attucks got himself involved in group that confronted the English soldiers on that night. There is no other mention of him taking part in Boston or Massachusetts politics. We have no documents or diaries written by him that might provide insight into his thoughts about English rule in the colonies. As a man who worked in the shipping trade, he likely would have been suffering financially at the time from a boycott of goods coming into Massachusetts that were being taxed under the Stamp Act and the Townshend Act. Taxes that were being levied on people not represented in Parliament.
Those acts led to high tensions throughout the Colonies, and in Boston in particular. Those charged with collecting the taxes had been tarred and feathered (yes, people actually did that back then). Ships bringing in taxed goods were set ablaze, and rather famously, an entire shipment of tea was dumped into the harbor. The Crown responded by sending additional troops to the city to enforce the laws, and remind the residents who was in charge.
What came to be known as the Boston Massacre inflamed those tensions even more. What helped were dramatic color prints of what artists thought the shooting incident looked like–which were circulated throughout the Colonies. In the most famous, Attucks is front and center–depicted as being much darker in skin tone than he likely was–and taking direct fire from the Redcoats. (Historian now agree, he likely was struck by deflected musket balls–and may not have even been the first one to be shot.) Instantly, he became an early hero of American resistance to royal rule and the cause of independence from England.
But, again, we have no idea if that is something Crispus Attucks even cared about. It’s just as likely that he was hanging out with a few buds, having a pint or two of ale in the tavern when other excited people got everyone riled up to go down and give the Redcoats a piece of their minds. He wasn’t shouting “Give me liberty, or give me death!!” Attucks probably expected to throw a few snowballs, maybe swing a stick in a threatening manner, and then run off before things got serious. It was an egregious underestimation of the potential consequences of his actions.
Because I’ve been listening to a podcast series entitled Worlds Turned Upside Down–which focuses on the lead-up to, and the fighting of, the American Revolution–I thought of Crispus Attucks meeting his fate in 1770 while watching video of Renee Good lose her life while confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis on Tuesday. Would this be another case of someone getting wrapped up in something in the heat of the moment and suffering tragic consequences when things spiraled out of control?
Unlike our limited knowledge of Crispus Attucks’ motivations in marching on the Old State House, we have thousands of media and information outlets today that should uncover Renee Good’s thinking before parking her SUV across 34th Street and trying to drive away from ICE agents as they approached her.
So far, it appears to be a bit confusing. Her ex-husband in one report is quoted as saying that Good had just been coming back from dropping off her six-year old son at school and happened upon the ICE operation. Then, there was bystander video posted where a woman claiming to be Good’s wife was screaming at the scene that it was her fault that Good was killed as she “was the one that made her come down here”. And now today, the New York Post (take that for what it is worth) is reporting that Good and her wife were members of ICE Watch Minnesota–an on-line group dedicated to tracking the movement of agents in the city, alerting illegal immigrants in those areas, and attempting to obstruct those enforcement efforts.
Much like 1770 Boston, the area where the Good shooting took place harbored no goodwill toward the powers that be. Having lived in the Cities and traveled along the cross street of the shooting site–Portland Avenue–many times, I wanted to see if I had perhaps been through that neighborhood in the past. That is when I found that it’s just a few blocks away from Powderhorn Park–and suddenly, things made a little bit more sense.
For those unfamiliar, the Powderhorn Park neighborhood gained national fame in 2020 as people living in that area agreed that they would no longer call police to complain about homeless people sleeping or living in the park, nor would they report non-violent crimes like open air drug use, theft, or car break-ins. The “logic” is that having law enforcement in their area would only result in a disproportionate number of minorities being arrested–or shot and killed. The neighbors couched that decision as a fight for “social justice”.
To no one’s surprise, it only resulted in Powderhorn Park being overwhelmed with a huge homeless encampment. A New York Times article quoted residents that summer complaining about increased drug sales, prostitution, theft, car break-ins, and armed robberies–making the park nearly unusable for residents and leading them to seriously reconsider their “don’t call the cops” agreement. Shortly after the article was published, Minneapolis Police rolled in and cleared the park.
Like the Redcoats stationed in 1770 Boston, the ICE agents conducting raids in the area around Powderhorn Park had to know they were likely entering a powder keg. Perhaps, like those close to King George who believed a show of force would quell opposition among the Colonists, ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials think targeting liberal neighborhoods for enforcement efforts will “send a strong message” and tamp down efforts to halt their immigration enforcement. In both cases, the results turned deadly–when they absolutely didn’t need to.
It’s unclear if we will see the same legal process play out in the Good shooting that we saw in the Boston Massacre. What isn’t mentioned very often is that the nine English soldiers and commanders involved in the incident were brought to trial in front of a jury of Colonists. They were defended by future President John Adams, who–in an ironic twist–justified the actions of the Redcoats to open fire as the mere presence of a large, Black man in Crispus Attucks made them fear for their safety. All but two of the men were acquitted–again, by a jury of “angry Bostonians”–with the guilty spared from death. They instead had their thumbs branded as punishment. No doubt ICE agents brought to trial in Minneapolis would have their actions defended by use of training techniques and frame-by-frame examinations of how Good’s actions behind the wheel represented a threat to everyone involved.
Despite Adams’ less-than-heroic portrayal of Crispus Attucks in the wake of the Boston Massacre, there are still monuments to his death across the country. Schools are named in his honor (mostly in predominantly Black neighborhoods), and he was depicted on a special edition dollar coin in the 1990’s. And his contemporaries certainly thought his death warranted taking up arms against the most powerful country in the world at that time to secure its own independence.
It is yet to be seen what honors will be bestowed in the memory of Renee Good–but odds are good that something in Powderhorn Park will be dedicated soon. But I doubt anyone will be calling for the formation of militias and declarations of war in the next five years. For some reason “No taxation without representation!” Resonates more than “Let the illegals stay!!”
