Secondary sourcePhotograph

Boston Massacre Victims Grave

Swampyank

A photograph of the shared grave in Boston's Granary Burying Ground where Crispus Attucks was buried with the other Massacre victims.

This photograph shows the grave where Attucks was buried alongside the other Massacre victims, an integrated burial unusual for its time.

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Photograph of a dark gray slate headstone with a rounded top edged with small stones, in a shaded graveyard with grass and other gravestones behind it. The inscription lists the remains of Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks and Patrick Carr, victims of the Boston Massacre, March 5th 1770, interred by order of the Town of Boston. It also notes Christopher Snider, aged 12, killed February 22nd 1770, and carries partly worn lines about independence and a 1876 date. — Photograph of the Boston Massacre victims' grave, Granary Burying Ground, Boston.

About this source

What it is

This modern photograph shows the gravestone in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston marking the shared burial place of the Boston Massacre victims, including Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, and Patrick Carr.

Why it matters

The town of Boston ordered that these men be buried together, an unusual act of integrated burial for 1770, when racial divisions were strict. The gravestone, later inscribed with lines about independence, shows how the victims, including Attucks, came to be remembered as early martyrs for American liberty.

Why might the town have chosen to bury these men together rather than separately?
What does the later addition about independence suggest about how memory of the event changed over time?
What does this grave tell you about Attucks's place in the story of the American Revolution?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Crispus Attucks on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Hand-colored engraving of the Boston Massacre on King Street: British soldiers in red coats fire volleys through smoke at a crowd of colonists, with people wounded and dead on the ground, a church steeple and Butcher's Hall in the background, and a verse and caption printed below.

Painting

Primary source

The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated in King Street

Paul Revere · 1770

Scanned page of the Boston Gazette, March 12, 1770, reporting the funeral of Boston Massacre victims. Four coffin illustrations labeled SG, SM, JC, and CA, each with a skull and crossbones, appear beneath the printed text.

Newspaper article

Primary source

Boston Gazette Report on the Boston Massacre Funeral

12 March 1770

Book

Primary source

A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston

James Bowdoin, Samuel Pemberton, Joseph Warren · 1770

Scan of a newspaper column of text with four coffin illustrations in a row, each with initials (SG, SM, JC, CA), a skull and crossbones, and a skull over crossed bones. The coffins are dark with white outlines. Text above and below describes the funerals of victims of the Boston Massacre.

Painting

Primary source

Four Coffins of Men Killed in the Boston Massacre

Paul Revere · 12 March 1770

Hand-colored engraving titled 'The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston, on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment.' Red-coated soldiers in a line fire volleys at a crowd before a brick meeting-house with a steeple. Smoke fills the street. Bodies lie on the ground, some in pools of red. Verse appears in columns below, and the caption reads 'Engrav'd Printed & Sold by Paul Revere.'

Painting

Primary source

The Fruits of Arbitrary Power, or the Bloody Massacre

Henry Pelham · 1770

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