Crispus Attucks

Born 1792
Near Framingham,
Massachusetts
Died March 5, 1770
Boston, Massachusetts

Sailor, leader of the Boston Massacre

James Forten

Born 1766
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Died 1842
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania

Sailor, sailmaker, inventor, businessman, social activist

Jehu Grant

Former slave

Salem Poor

Born c. 1758
Death date unknown

Soldier

Portrait: Crispus Attucks. Reproduced courtesy of the Library of Congress.

In the late eighteenth century, during the time of the American Revolution, black slaves were the second-largest labor force in America, second only to white farmers. The Dutch introduced the first African slaves to North America in 1619, but only about 20,500 had arrived by 1700. When the growing of tobacco, rice, and indigo (a plant that contains a substance used for making blue dye) took off in the 1700s, however, cheap labor was needed, and the importing of Africans began on a large scale. In the fifteen years before the beginning of the war...