Boston Massacre, March 5th, 1770: The Day which History Selects as the Dawn of the American Revolution. Commemorative Festival, at Faneuil Hall, Friday, March 5th, 1858. Protest Against the Dred Scott Decision. Boston: E.L. Balch, 1858.
In 1858, Black Bostonians marked the March 5, 1770, anniversary of the Boston Massacre by staging both a commemoration and a protest. They honored the “services of colored Americans in the wars of their country” beginning with Crispus Attucks who is described as "the first martyr in the American Revolution" (Attucks was a Black and Indigenous man killed during the Boston Massacre). At the same event, participants also protested the recent Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US Constitution did not grant citizenship to people of Black or African descent.