Crispus Attucks worked as a sailor in the Atlantic maritime economy before his death in the Boston Massacre made him a symbol of resistance to British rule. Contemporary reports identify his occupation, his origins in Framingham, Massachusetts, and a connection with New Providence in the Bahamas. They also indicate that his ship was bound for North Carolina. These details establish seafaring work without a continuous record of voyages or employers.

A 1750 advertisement sought the return of an enslaved man called "Crispas," whose age, appearance, and location suggest he was Attucks. The identification is widely accepted but does not explain how he subsequently lived or secured freedom. Reports surrounding his death sometimes called him Michael Johnson, possibly an alias. His African and Indigenous ancestry was recorded using contemporary racial classifications; precise details of his family remain uncertain.

On March 5,1770, Attucks was among sailors who moved toward King Street during a confrontation involving townspeople and British troops. Witnesses placed him near the front with a wooden club. Amid shouting, thrown objects, and confusion, soldiers fired into the crowd. Two bullets struck him, killing him immediately. Four other men died that night or afterward from their wounds. Testimony differed over the actions preceding the shooting, so later portrayals of Attucks as either a deliberate revolutionary leader or solely an aggressor exceed what can be established.

His body lay at Faneuil Hall before a public funeral and burial with the other victims. In the soldiers' trial, defense lawyer John Adams used racial and class prejudice in describing the crowd. During the nineteenth century, abolitionists including William Cooper Nell reclaimed Attucks as evidence of Black participation in the struggle for liberty. His career was that of a working sailor; his public importance also reflects the political uses of his death and struggles over the national story.