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Rogue History
The First Black Man to Die For America’s Freedom
Season 3
Episode 9
A Black and Wampanoag sailor who escaped enslavement, Crispus Attucks was the first man to fall when British troops opened fire on a crowd of disgruntled colonists in Boston, 1770. Patriots like Paul Revere branded it a massacre, calling Attucks a martyr. At trial, future president John Adams defended the soldiers by portraying him as an intimidating threat.
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