State of Mind

Archival Print on Hahnemuhle Rice Paper.

Measures: L15” x W23”

The AMerican Revolution was an insurrection by which the 13 states of Great Britain’s Northern America colonis won political independence and went on to form the United States of America. The war lasted from 1775 to 1783.

The evening of March 5th, 1770, saw the red coats fire a volley into a crowd in Boston killing five from which ‘the Boston Massacre” was coined, fueling outrage across America and the revolution. The first of them to die was a sailor and rope maker called Crispus Attucks of African American and Native American descent. Attuck had escaped captivity from Framingham where he spent much of his life. There was even an ad in the newspaper for him by a man named William Browne in the Boston Gazette of Tuesday November 20, 1750:

'“…a Molatto Fellow about 27 years of age, named Crispus, well set, 6 Feet 2 Inches high, short curl’d Hair, Knees nearer together than common: had on a light colour’d Bearskin Coat, brown Fustian Jacket, New Buckskin Breeches, blew Yarn Stockings, and a Check’d Shirt. Whoever will take up this Runaway and convey him to his above said Master at Framingham, shall have TEN POUNDS, old Tenor Reward, and all necessary charges Paid.”

After his death he was honored as a hero with a procession to Boston’s Faneuil Hall where he lay in state for three days before the public funeral. More than 10, 000 people joined in the procession.