320 Political Activity and Resistance to Oppression: From the American Revolution to the Civil War
August First Celebrations
August First celebrations, commonly known as Emancipa-
tion Day, August First Day, and West India Day celebra-
tions, refer to the emancipation festivals that took place in
various parts of the Atlantic world, including the British
West Indies, Canada, and the United States.
Th e enactment on Friday, August 1, 1834, of the Ab-
olition of Slavery Bill passed by the British Parliament in
1833 was the catalyzing event prompting the liberation of
enslaved peoples in the various aforementioned places and
the subsequent celebrations. Th ough commemorative of a
shared experience of emancipation, August First celebra-
tions refl ected and took on the unique historical, cultural,
and political nuances of the locales in which they were cel-
ebrated. Th ese celebrations oft en displayed the multitude of
constituencies that existed and their feelings about eman-
cipation based on their relationship to, and status within,
the former system of enslavement. Colonial administrators,
for example, in British Guiana, in a last ditch eff ort to as-
sert whatever remaining infl uence they might have, chose
to celebrate and encourage others (primarily soon-to-be
freedmen and women) to celebrate emancipation through
what were clearly precautionary thanksgiving celebrations
that were to be marked by religious devotion and solem-
nity in order to prevent the chaos and debauchery that they
anticipated and dreaded. Similarly, missionaries in Jamaica
oft en engaged in emancipation celebrations by hosting reli-
gious watch nights, conducting traditional worship services
as well as proselytizing to the newly emancipated freedmen
and women. Th ough former slaves in such places as Anti-
gua and Jamaica did attend the religious-based celebrations
such as daytime church services and watch nights, aft er
these ended, many indulged in more festive ceremonial ac-
tivities such as shouting, dancing, singing, and imbibing.
Emancipation celebrations not only spoke to the mul-
titude of constituencies that existed but also revealed the
unique characteristics of the places in which they were car-
ried out. In some countries, certain preexisting holidays
became adapted and adopted into the celebrations of Au-
gust First. In Jamaica, for example, Jonkonnu, a celebration
marked by elaborate costumes, consisting of activities such
as serenading, parading, drinking, feasting, and dancing,
that usually took place around large public holidays such
as Christmas, became implemented into emancipationDay,” and in 1858, a group of black abolitionists reestab-
lished “Crispus Attucks Day” as a celebratory occasion. De-
spite laws regarding burial of African Americans, Attucks
was interred in Park Street cemetery, on March 8, 1770,
alongside three of the others killed that evening. In 1888,
a monument to Attucks and the other victims of the mas-
sacre was erected on Boston Common. Th e fi rst casualty of
the American Revolution, Crispus Attucks is remembered
both as a martyr to the cause of liberty and as the fi rst in
a long line of African Americans who died in the name of
liberties they themselves did not equally enjoy.
See also: American Revolution; Boston Massacre
Anthony SantoroBibliography
Hansen, Harry. Th e Boston Massacre: An Episode of Dissent and
Vir tue. New York: Hastings House Publishers, 1970.
Hoerder, Dirk. Crowd Action in Revolutionary Massachusetts,
1765–1780. New York: Academic Press, 1977.
Lanning, Michael Lee. Th e African-American Soldier, From Cris-
pus Attucks to Colin Powell. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press,
1997.
Zobel, Hiller B. Th e Boston Massacre. New York: Norton, 1970.
Crispus Attucks, an African American victim of the Boston Mas-
sacre, became a symbol of the American struggle for independence.
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)