(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Morning Open Thread, Tuesday July 7th. 250th History. Crispus Attucks, Hometown Hero. Theme: Medical? [1] ['Meteor Blades', 'Chitown Kev', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Bill In Portland Maine'] Date: 2026-07-07 Good Morning! Welcome to the Morning Open Thread. Being an open thread you are welcome to join in on any subject. Say hello! As always I’m still messing about with some features in word press. You’ve been warned. Weirdness may follow. (regular readers know that random weirdness is more likely due to RandomNeuron then word press features experiments….) The Motley Schedule Sunday: Ice Blue Monday: officebss Today: RandomNeuron Wednesday: youffraita Thursday :Ozarkblue – open slot, help wanted – Friday: DHM Saturday: RandomNeuron Bit of a detour today. The album covers are great fun. But. It’s the country’s 250th 250th. sestercentennial . I looked it up. So let’s get serious about the 250th. It’s complicated right? On one hand – let’s celebrate! Fireworks. Boston pops on the esplanade. Beer and burgers. Corn on the cob. Flags, proud patriotism. On the other hand – the country’s divided – thugs in unmarked cars are grabbing people off the streets- just about every where including my city here in Massachusetts. Still. Now. There’s about 15,000 immigrants here. So ice is here. It’s kind of difficult to square celebrating a revolution 250 years ago when your neighbors are living in fear. Which got me thinking about our city’s place in history. It was a town then. Framingham. One claim to fame is Crispus Attucks. Crispus was born in Framingham and died in the Boston massacre. so we proudly claim him. we don’t really know what he looked like. There’s no contemporary images of him Public domain As the city web site puts it Attucks was the first to be shot and killed, making him one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution. which is true enough and pretty much undisputed. Yeah Framingham! Yeah America! Oh and the next sentence is: It remains unclear whether he was a free man at the time or still considered a fugitive from slavery. whoah- wait. Let’s read that again? Slaves here in Framingham? Massachusetts? Ok I don’t mean to self flagellate but this sort of complicates the story a bit. His father was definitely a slave. His mother an indigenous Natick Native American. Depending on the reading she was from Natick, a neighboring town or she was from the Natick tribe. In any case the hero which Framingham claims as our own was born into slavery, progeny of a subjecated native American woman and an enslaved African man. Oh..and the slave owner of Crispus father?and likely Crispus? Reverend Brown. Again the story has more than a few … complexities. Owned by a minister. I didn’t think that was even a thing. A man of the cloth? So was he a free man at the time of death? I mean he was in Boston, a sailor, probably at a bar before the altercation.Seems like a free man? The national park service points out he quite likely had been the subject of this advert: He also appears in a 1750 advertisement in the Boston Gazette. William Brown of Framingham placed an advertisement to call for the return of a twenty-seven year old escaped enslaved man named “Crispas,” described as a six foot two inch “mulatto.”8 https://revolutionaryspaces.org/ Clearly he was not free in 1750. Nor was he in Framingham. Another ambiguity; his name. Fast forward to his death in 1770. Early coverage and investigations into the details of the Massacre refer to Attucks as Michael Johnson,2 a name he may have used as an intentional alias. After uncovering his actual name, newspapers published a few details about his life, notably his profession, a sailor; his birth in Framingham, Massachusetts; his current residence of New Providence in the Bahamas; and his ship’s destination of North Carolina.3His last name, “Attucks,” is of Indigenous origin, deriving from the Natick word for “deer.”4 Witness testimony during the Massacre trial interchangeably used “mulatto” or “Indian” to describe Attucks, indicating his mixed African and Indigenous birth.5. So Crispus was quite possibly a fugitive slave who became a sailor to avoid capture, took up residence in Bahamas and used an alias Michael Johnson. Public domain Herschel Levit painted the mural, “Crispus Attucks,” at the Recorder of Deeds building, DC, in 1943 the Boston massacre has its own ambiguities- but let’s stick to Crispus role. He was at the front of a crowd On March 5, 1770, witnesses placed Attucks at the head of a group of sailors brandishing clubs and marching toward King Street. A crowd formed around a small group of British soldiers, hurling snowballs, ice balls, and insults at the men. Observers noted Attucks leaned his tall frame on his cordwood club.9 Amid the chaos, Private Montgomery and the rest of the soldiers fired into the crowd. Two musket balls ripped through Attucks’ chest, killing him instantly.10 In the following days, the people of Boston held a funeral procession for the victims of the massacre. Because Attucks and fellow victim and sailor James Caldwell had no family or home in Boston, their bodies lay in state at Faneuil Hall.11 I expect you’ll be familiar with the outline of this next part of the story. The British soldiers were charged with the deaths of the five men killed and they were famously defended by none other than John Adams who got all but two acquitted. How American is that? Blind justice. Even British soldiers getting a fair shake. well maybe so maybe not but I think it’s fair to say Crispus reputation did not get a fair shake: John Adams painted Attucks and the rest of those killed as aggressors to justify the killing. He played to the jury’s prejudices about race and class, describing those in the crowd as “a motley rabble of saucy boys, Negroes, and mulattos, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tars.”12 In other words, those in the crowd were young, lower-class, Black, Irish, or sailors from out of town. so the first American hero was a black man, a slave, son of a African slave and an Native American woman, whose residence was in the bahamas and had his reputation smeared by a founding father of our nation why am I somehow not surprised? it’s fair to say celebrating the birth of America 250 years ago or its current 250th incarnation, requires recognizing that race, bigotry and a desire to whitewash our true history is real. And we must unite to promote a more just and fair union. ‘oh – Framingham and Crispus? Not sure he’d want to be claimed by us – but he sounds like one hell of a guy. So I’m proud to say he was born here, and made his way to freedom. Theme Medical, medicine…. why? Cause yours truly is …ahem… under the knife today. Quite possibly as you read this. So I don’t think I’ll be in the comments. No worries all minor stuff. Says the doctor. 😉 Have fun with it….doctor, doctor, gimme the news…. MOP TOP comment! . “man represented as mop; woman“ wordpress commons library CC0 1.0 Every week, someone posts a song in the comments that I love. Some I had never heard before. Some I’d forgotten. Some new. Some old. So I’m awarding MOP TOP comments! (till i forget to do it) with the ultimate MOT prize. Coffee, Tea or Soda. Restrictions apply.** ** Mostly you need to be willing to come to my humble abode for free coffee or tea or Pepsi . Or if you’re concerned about meeting some random dude from the internet at his house and depending on distance, we can meet in a suitably located DUNKINs. Sorry Starbucks fans, Native born Bay Stater here. If there is no suitable Dunkins location i’ll put you on the list for future coffee meetups should we ever be close enough to you. You never know. serendipity happens. Last Tuesday the theme was (sort of): Nautical And The MOP TOP comment is (was?): RandomNeuron Congratulations @Chad C Mulligan Help wanted! You want to be a MOT host? Drop a comment or send a kosmail to Oz and he’ll clue you in. hey seriously Oz and ‘boss are deservedly stepping back. If you’re interested let us know. It’s a chance to have a little fun, introduce a band, a song, an idea, or, like me ramble endlessly. Your voice , succinct or not is welcome!. public domain Rules Public domain Have the best possible day! 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