Of American History and culture. The mission is to collect, preserve, share records of the United States, portions of canada and the British West Indies before the 20th century. In doing so, we collect everything and anything within these parameters. From graphic prints to newspapers and periodicals, to pamphlets and books. We use these collections as the basis for all of our programs, between scholars, writers, artists, the general public. We teach students at all levels together to participate in workshops, seminars, lectures, performances in a variety of other programs of pre20th Century America. Tonights lecture is part of a series of programs we are offering connected to an exhibition, the society has coordinated called beyond midnight. The exhibition is currently on display in massachusetts through june 7th. One part is that the museum down the street, the other is that the clock at massachusetts. The exhibition will conclude its tour of the american art in arkansas. It will be on display from july 4th to october 26 2020. If you get a chance to see it here in massachusetts, i highly encourage you to do so. The exhibition was curated by lauren hughes. She director of fellowships and the center for historic american visual culture here in a us. The exhibition and its ancillary programming offer fresh perspective on the legendary Midnight Rider by showcasing paul reveres many skills as a craftsman and entrepreneur. Though we know him for his revolutionary activities, he was known in his own time as a silversmith and engraver, as well as a cabinet maker and the First American producer of copper sheets. We would like to thank the major sponsors of this exhibition, including the richards even has foundation. Henry Lewis Foundation and the sector for historic american visual culture. A as itself holds the most complete collection of reveres. The most famous of these is the bloody massacre. Reveres rendering of the event that came to know to be known as the boston massacre which mark its 250th anniversary last week. Just as that image is quite a significant role in how the massacre has been remembered, tonight speaker will tell us about the shifting world Crispus Attucks has played in the story of the American Revolution and the story of the nation. Mitch kachun is professor of merits of history at western michigan university, specializing in african American History, collective memory and historical writing. Mitch kachun has received awards and scholarships from the national humanities. For the steady of United States history and the United States department of education among others. His publications include first martyr of liberty Crispus Attucks in american memory, on which todays top is based. Festivals of freedom, memory and meeting an african emancipation celebrations 1808 to 1915. As coeditor, the curse of cast or the slave bride. A rediscovered African American novel. It was named the choice outstanding academic title 2007. Mitch kachun has published numerous articles and book chapters on american African American slave narratives. Black trans nationalism. He should revolution and Michelle Obamas treatment in the American Media among others. Join me in welcoming to a as, mitch kachun. applause thank you. Good evening everyone. I want to thank you all for coming out tonight. Braving whatever you might have to face in this interesting time we are living in. Im so pleased and honored to talk with you this evening about my book first martyr of liberty Crispus Attucks in american memory. I want to thank kayla, and all of the staff at the american antiquarian society. I am truly honored to be invited to make this presentation at one of the premiere historical institutions of the nation. It is worth noting that over the next several years, were all going to be hearing a lot about various events commemorating the American Revolution. Especially here in massachusetts, where so many of instances took place. The boston massacre its considered by many to be one of the earliest events of the beginning of true revolutionary thinking in the colonies. Ive been in the area for about a week now. Participating in some of the commemorations in and around boston. Ive put in a plug the old Museum Exhibit i saw at the old state house, called reflecting attucks which deals with Crispus Attucks and the memory. It will be there for one year. Is that better . Sorry about that. I dont want the feedback though. As the 250th anniversary commemorations, we will ponder where the American Experience has brought us after a quarter of a millennium. We will hear a lot of different versions of the event. Like the massacre, the tea party, paul reveres ride, the writing of the declaration, and the intent of the founders. And so on. Part of what intrigues me as a historian, are the ways in which different versions of our shared history are constructed to serve political culture or ideological agendas. Everyone seems to have their own take on events as different narratives resonate with different people at different times. We all have our favored stories. Every nation needs a story. Something that tells members of that nation and others, who they are as a people. Historian americans like to tell themselves about their nation is one of freedom loving people, coming from england, seeking religious liberty. They prosper and extended their quest for freedom by throwing off the chains of british rules to establish a nation based on the ideas of individualism, equality and upward mobility. Status in society was based solely on their abilities and efforts rather than birth and aristocracy. The american nation is a unique nation. An exceptional nation in this narrative, whose prosperity moves towards attractive and attracting immigrants across the blow to want to participate in the american dream. The american nation has become a great world power, and a melting pot where all who shared the ideals and abide by the rules of the nation are welcome to share in that dream. There is some truth to that story. But it also leaves a lot out. It has been especially important for African Americans to create their own story as a people because that mainstream of american story has always ignored them and excluded them. Understanding how African Americans over the past two and a half centuries have developed their own story of who they are and where they fit in the larger american story, is one of the central questions that interests me as a historian. It is one of the main things that have been trying to understand over the course of my career, and its certainly one of the many themes of first martyr of liberty Crispus Attucks in american memory. I am interested in collective memory, how members of the society arrived at some shared understanding of their history. How did stories of the past get constructed . Who does the constructing . Why did certain stories and widespread credibility . Familiarity . Why do other stories get overlooked or forgotten . Why are certain people honored as heroes and others as villains or others still ignored completely . Ive tried to examine the many different ways over the past 250 years that Crispus Attucks and by extension, African Americans in general, were made a part of or excluded from americans understanding of the story of the American Revolution and the story of the nation. I want to start by reading from the books opening pages, which i want to introduce both Crispus Attucks and some of the questions i explored in the first murder of liberty. From the introduction. The election of barack obama began on march 5th 1770 at the boston massacre with the death of Crispus Attucks. This pregot provocative opening line from the 2009 documentary, we the people from Crispus Attucks was never fully explained. He was left to wonder how the death of the mixed race former slave during the first revolutionary era clash between american colonists and british soldiers led to the election of the nations first African American president over two centuries later. While the connections between obama and attucks are tenuous at best, each man has occupied that intellectual and emotional juncture. How rich americans tend to understand how race has affected our understanding of what it means to be a patriot, a citizen, and an american. These questions challenges. First, to recognize the continuous black president s in america. In American History and culture from the 18th century to the 21st. Then, to consider how americans think about African Americans place in the nations story. Finally, to ponder the process to which National Heroes and myths are constructed. The book examines how Crispus Attucks has been remembered and forgotten, vilified and idolized. What do we really know about Crispus Attucks and his role in the boston massacre . There is a little certainty about his life story. The most widely accepted interpretation suggest that he was born around 1723 in massachusetts, a town of christian iced indians about 20 miles west of boston. He was likely a mixed african and native american ancestry. He was a large man, over six feet and was likely a slave owned by william brown, until he liberated himself around 1750. After which he wrote worked as a sailor around the docks in boston and elsewhere to a state full role in the events of march five in 1770. Most modern historians of the American Revolution see the socalled boston massacre of march five 1770 as a noteworthy event where the colonists rain disinfection with the British Empire. Evidence confirms that attucks was part of their unruly mobs confrontation outside the king street custom house. Where he and four white colonists were killed after threatening the british guards with rocks. Chunks of ice, and clubs. A few days later, four of the victims, attucks maverick, gray, and caldwell were buried in one single grave and bostons burial ground. A week or so later, patrick carr we lingered for several days before dying, was placed in the gray with the others. Some months after that, the soldiers were tried in boston for murder. All were acquitted of that charge and only two were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter and were punished and sent home to england. Thousands of american colonists, in at least one hundreds of bust dont eons, where direct participants between early 17 sixties and the start of the revolution in 1775. Crispus attucks was one of the collinson in the greater scheme of things he was known not more important are significant than the rest. They all played a role in moving disgruntled colonists toward an unprecedented struggle for independence. It is understandable that the first person to be killed by british soldier might hold a memorable place in that revolutionary saga but the fact that the man was Crispus Attucks was largely happenstance. Had it been another person in the mob or in some other confrontation on another day, with that person be remembered at all . One has Crispus Attucks name to be remembered as a name along those of the men who died. His incorporation into the story of the American Revolution was not a foregone conclusion. It was the result of the campaign to construct american hero. The first martyr of liberty. Just a bit from chapter one. In 1782 when one person asked the question in his letters from an american farmer, what then is the american man . He was not thinking about Crispus Attucks or other people of color. He was trying to explain the nature of america and the american character to a european audience to this land of distant colonials who were engaged in the first revolutionary nation. Making as far as he was concerned, the new man he saw coming into being was either european where the descendant of a european. In other words, he was white. Yet during the era of the American Revolution, approximately 20 , one in every five people, was of african birth or dissent. Multiethnic people like Crispus Attucks where the part of 18 Century America and they embodied what was due and distinctive in the right revolutionary nation. Crispus attucks Life Experiences allowed him to see the best and worst of 18th Century America. The economic and social vitality of growing prosperous colonies, the oppression of slavery, the intermingling of diverse languages, the opportunities of dangerous life at sea, the fluidity of identity in americas era, and the language of liberty and National Rights that came to find the idealistic nations sense of self. So, in looking at stories that have grown around Crispus Attucks over the past 250 years. Ive looked into scholarly histories, public monuments, literature, works of drama and literature, visual arts, popular arts, tv, movies, the internet and so on. One of the fascinating things i found was that because there is so little clear evidence over who Crispus Attucks was, people tend to make up details about his him and his family, his education, politics, patriotism. Things that we have no concrete evidence. The so there were a lot of distorted stories about him floating around that people have constructed to sue thrown purses. The construction of meetings started almost immediately, the future United States president john adams and his role as defensive tierney for the british soldiers succeeded in portraying him as a threat to the social order who let the brightest mob that provoked the troops into firing. Attics claims, the two have undertaken to be the hero of the night and lead the army with banners and move them up to the king street with clubs. He said, do not be afraid of them. They do not fire. Knock them over. He tried to knock their brains. Out to have this reinforcement come under what had not the soldiers than to fear . He with one hand took hold of the bayonet and with the other knocked the man down, this was the behavior of attics whos mad behavior, the dreadful carnage was chiefly to be ascribed to. The adams did his best to characterize them bob as a rabble that does not intrude does not represent the interest of boston. Identifying at excessive racially mixed ringleader. He did his job is defense attorney and soldiers were exonerated, over the next several years however, bostons patriots use the memory of the mask are and their victims to serve their own political agendas, he struck them as the paul revere engraving of course is perhaps the best known piece of propaganda in this activity, showing respectable and white calmness being mowed down by abuse of military. Its also march 5th commemorations from 1771 to 73, with speeches the regarding the horribly bloody scene. These are iterations played little attention to individuals, no mention of the racial makeup of the murders no mention of Crispus Attucks. They were referred to as our brethren, slaughtered innocence. The implication was that they were white. Between 1771 in 1850, the boston massacre remained a part of the nations collective memory of the American Revolution. It was a key event in forging colonial unity. Others prefer to distance the revolution from what they consider a disorderly riot. In either case Crispus Attucks the remains largely ignored. Only a few scattered references appear in the first half of the 19th century, sometimes casting him not as a hero or patriot but as a ruffian. The samuel courage was one of the most prolific writers, it is first spoke of history for children and youth which was published numerous additions between 1831 and 1859, he described the boston mob led by a giant of a knee grow names Crispus Attucks, they brandished the cabin pelted the soldiers was snowballs, shouted in their faces, surrounded them and challenge them to fire. Had the fire that irritated and unreasonable populace wouldve torn the soldiers to pieces. The appearance in this text, that identify addicts racially, brought him for the first time to the front of the once they learned about attics, they made him into a usable symbol. William cooper nails William Cooper nells colored patriots of the revolution showed attucks as the first martyr of the American Revolution who was off and with the people and never regarded as otherwise. He was the most responsible for Crispus Attucks bursting onto the american scene in the 1860s as the example of black american patriotism and citizenship. Black activists ignored his native american ancestry and presented him as a black man, the first to sacrifice his life on the altar of American Freedom. His identificati