Paul Cuffe: Early Life and Voyages of an Abolitionist Sea Captain

of 9

A PAUL CUFFE BIOGRAPHY
(January 17, 1759 – September 9, 1817)

Related: A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLACK NATIONALISM AND RBG’s CURRENT ACADEMIC
CONTRIBUTIONS


of 9

Source of text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cuffee
Also see: PAUL CUFFE: A
STUDY OF HIS LIFE, AND Paul Cuffee (January 17, 1759 – September 9, 1817) was a
THE STATUS OF HIS Quaker businessman, Sea Captain, patriot, and abolitionist
LEGACY IN “OLD of Aquinnah Wampanoag, African Ashanti descent and a
DARTMOUTH” colonizer of Sierra Leone. Cuffee built a lucrative shipping
empire. He established the first school in Westport,
A Thesis Presented by BROCK Massachusetts to be racially integrated.
N. CORDEIRO
A devout Christian, Cuffee often preached and spoke at the
A downloadable PDF: Sunday services at the multi-racial Society of Friends
http://paulcuffe.home.comcast.net/~pa
meeting house in Westport.[2] In 1813, he donated most of
ulcuffe/Paul_Cuffe_Thesis_by_Brock
the money to build a new meeting house. He became
_Cordeiro.pdf
involved in the British effort to resettle former slaves in the
colony of Sierra Leone; many had been transported from the US to Nova Scotia after the
American Revolution after gaining freedom with the British. Cuffee helped to establish The
Friendly Society of Sierra Leone, to gather financial support for the colony.

Early life

Paul Cuffee was born the seventh of ten children on January 17, 1759, the youngest son and free
during the French and Indian War, on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. His father, Kofi, was a
member of the Ashanti ethnic group, probably from Ghana, Africa.[3] Kofi had been captured at
age ten and brought as a slave to the British colony of Massachusetts. His owner, John Slocum,
could not reconcile slave ownership with his Quaker values, and gave Kofi his freedom in the
mid-1740s. Kofi took the name Cuffee Slocum and in 1746 married Ruth Moses.[4] Ruth Moses
(Paul's mother) was Native American a member of the Wampanoag Nation on Martha's Vinyard.
Cuffe Slocum worked as a skilled carpenter, farmer and fisherman and taught himself to read and
write. He worked diligently to earn enough money to buy a home and in 1766 bought a 116-acre
(0.47 km2) farm in nearby Dartmouth, Massachusetts.[2] The couple would raise ten children
together, of which Paul was the seventh in line.[5]

During Paul Cuffee's infancy there was no Quaker meeting house on Cuttyhunk Island, so Kofi
needed to self-teach himself the Scriptures.[6] In 1766, when Paul was eight years old, the family
moved to a farm in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Cuffee Slocum died in 1772, when Paul was
thirteen. The two oldest brothers having families of their own elsewhere, Paul and his brother
John took over their father's farm operations and cared for their mother and three younger sisters.


of 9

Around 1778 Paul persuaded his brothers and sisters to use their father's English first name,
Cuffee, as their family name, and all but the youngest did.[7] His mother, Ruth Moses, died on
January 6, 1787.[8]

Paul Cuffee: Marineer

At the time of his father's death, young Cuffee knew little more than the alphabet but dreamed of
gaining an education and being involved in the shipping industry. The closest mainland port to
Cuttyhunk was New Bedford, Massachusetts—the center of the American whaling industry.
Cuffee used his limited free time to learn more about ships and sailing from sailors he
encountered. Finally, at age 16, Paul Cuffee signed onto a whaling ship and, later on, cargo
ships, where he learned navigation. In his journal, he now referred to himself as a marineer. In
1776 during the American Revolution, he was captured and held prisoner by the British for 3
months in New York.[9]

After his release, Paul farmed, studied and saved money from his produce sales, now living with
his siblings in Massachusetts. In 1779, he and his brother David built a small boat to ply the
nearby coast and islands.[10] Although his brother was afraid to sail in dangerous seas, Cuffee
went out alone in 1779 to deliver cargo to Nantucket. He was waylaid by pirates on this and
several subsequent voyages. Finally, he made yet another trip to Nantucket that turned a
profit.[11]

At the age of twenty-one, Cuffee refused to pay taxes because free blacks did not have the right
to vote. In 1780, he petitioned the council of Bristol County, Massachusetts to end such taxation
without representation. The petition was denied, but his suit was one of the influences that led
the Legislature in 1783 to grant voting rights to all free male citizens of the state.[12]

Cuffee finally made enough money to purchase another ship and hired crew. He gradually built
up capital and expanded ownership to a fleet of ships. After using open boats, he commissioned
the 14 or 15 ton closed-deck boat Box Iron, then an 18-20 ton schooner. Cuffe married Alice
Pequit on February 25, 1783. Like his mother, Pequit was also Wampanoag.[13] The couple
settled in Westport, Massachusetts, where they raised their seven children: Naomi (born 1783),
Mary (born 1785), Ruth (1788), Alice (1790), Paul Jr. (1792), Rhoda 1795), and William
(1799).[14]

In the late 1780s his flagship was the 25-ton schooner Sun Fish, then the 40-ton schooner Mary.
In 1795, the Mary and Sunfish were sold to finance the construction of the Ranger - a 69-ton
schooner launched in 1796 from Cuffe's own shipyard in Westport.[15] He could afford to buy a
large homestead, and in February of 1799 paid $3,500 for 140 acres (0.57 km2) of waterfront
property in Westport.[16] By 1800 he could afford to invest in a half-interest in the 162-ton


of 9

barque Hero. By the first years of the nineteenth century Paul Cuffee was one of the most
wealthy - if not the most wealthy - African American in the United States.[17] His largest ship,

the 268-ton Alpha, was built in 1806, along with his favorite ship of all, the 109-ton brig
Traveller.[18]

First Venture into Sierra Leone

Most Englishmen and Anglo-Americans in his day felt that people of African descent were
inferior to Europeans, even in the predominantly Calvinist and Quaker New England. Although
slavery continued, prominent men like Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison believed
the emigration of Blacks to colonies outside the United States was the easiest and most realistic
solution to the race problem in America.[19]

Attempts by Europeans and Americans to colonize Blacks in other parts of the world had failed,
including the British attempt to colonize Sierra Leone. Beginning in 1787, the Sierra Leone
Company sponsored 400 people, departing from Great Britain for Sierra Leone. The colony was
plagued with serious problems in trying to establish a working economy, as well as problems
developing a government that could survive pressures from other peoples. Following the Sierra
Leone Company collapse, the newly-founded African Institution offered migration there to freed
slaves whom they had earlier resettled in Nova Scotia and London after the American
Revolution. Its London sponsors hoped to gain an economic return while foster the 'civilizing'
trades of educated Blacks.[20]

Although colonizing Sierra Leone was difficult, Cuffee believed it was a viable option for Blacks
and threw his support behind the movement. Paul Cuffee wrote,

―I have for these many years past felt a lively interest in their behalf, wishing that the
inhabitants of the colony might become established in truth, and thereby be instrumental in its
promotion amongst our African brethren.‖

From March of 1807 on, Cuffee was encouraged by members of the African Institution in
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York to be involved in helping out the fledgling efforts to
improve Sierra Leone. Cuffee mulled over the logistics and chances of success for the movement
before deciding in 1809 to join the project. On December 27, 1810 he left Philadelphia harbor
and launched his first expedition to Sierra Leone.[21]

Cuffee reached Freetown, Sierra Leone on March 1, 1811. He traveled the area investigating the
social and economic conditions of the region. He met with some of the colony’s officials, who
opposed Cuffee’s idea for colonization of Blacks from the United States for fear of competition
from American merchants.[22] Furthermore, his attempts to sell goods yielded poor results


of 9

because of tariff charges resulting from the British mercantile system. On Sunday, April 7, 1811
Cuffe met with the foremost black entrepreneurs of the colony. They penned a petition for the
African Institution delineating that the colony's greatest needs were for settlers to work in
agriculture, merchanting and the whaling industry, that these three areas would facilitate growth
for the colony best. (Upon receiving this petition, the members of the Institution agreed with
their findings.[23]) He and these merchants together founded the Friendly Society of Sierra
Leone as a mutual-aid merchant group dedicated to furthering prosperity and industry among the
free peoples in the colony and loosening the stranglehold that the English merchants held on
trade.[24]

Cuffee sailed to Great Britain to secure further aid for the colony, arriving in Liverpool in July of
1811. He met with the heads of the African Institution in London who raised some money for the
Friendly Society and was granted governmental permission and license to continue his mission
in Sierra Leone.[25] Encouraged by this support, Cuffee then left Liverpool and sailed back to
Sierra Leone, where he and local merchants solidified the role of the Friendly Society and
refined plans for the colony to grow by building a grist mill, saw mill, rice-processing factory
and salt works.[26] cat

The Embargo, The President and The War of 1812

Relations between the United States and Great Britain were strained, though. The U.S.
established an embargo of British goods by the end of 1811. When Cuffe reached Newport in
April of 1812 his ship the Traveller was seized by U.S. customs agents along with all its goods.
Officials would not release his cargo, so Cuffe went to Washington, D.C. to appeal his case.[27]
There he met with Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin and President James Madison. He
was warmly welcomed into the White House by Madison. Madison later decided that Cuffee was
not aware of and did not intentionally violate the national trading policy, and so ordered his
cargo returned to him. Madison questioned Cuffee’s experience and the conditions of Sierra
Leone, and was eager to learn about Africa and the possibility of further expanding colonization.
Madison evaluated Cuffee’s plans carefully, but rejected them, as he believed there would be too
many problems in further U.S. attempts to colonize Sierra Leone, a British project. He regarded
Cuffee as the authority on Africa in the US.[28]

Cuffee intended to return to Great Britain's colony of Sierra Leone regularly but the War of 1812
broke out in June, preventing him from doing so. As a pacifist Quaker, he opposed the war on
spiritual grounds, but also despaired of the interruption of trade and halting of attempts to
improve Sierra Leone.[29] The war between the U.S. and Britain continued, so Cuffee decided
he would have to convince both countries to ease their restrictions on trading. He was
unsuccessful and was forced to wait until the war ended.[30]


of 9

Meanwhile, he visited Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, speaking to groups of free Blacks
about the colony. Cuffee also urged Blacks to form organizations in these cities, to communicate
with each other, and to correspond with the African Institution and with the Friendly Society at

Sierra Leone. He printed a pamphlet about Sierra Leone to inform the general public of his
ideas.[31] In the Summer of 1813 he contributed the most to the rebuilding of the Westport
Friends' Meeting House.[32]

Cuffee suffered several monetary losses because of some unprofitable ventures of his ships. The
Hero was declared unseaworthy while in Chile and never returned, and his partner in the Alpha,
John James of Philadelphia, ran that ship unprofitably.[33] Fortunately the war ended with the
Treaty of Ghent at the end of 1814. After getting his finances in order, Paul prepared to return to
Sierra Leone.

After the War

Paul Cuffee sailed out of Westport on December 10, 1815 with thirty-eight Black colonists (18
adults and 20 children [34] ranging in age from 8 months to sixty years[35]). The expedition cost
Cuffe expenses of over $4000. Passengers paying their own fares plus a donation by William
Rotch of New Bedford, MA accounted for the remaining $1000 in expenses. [36] and arrived in
Sierra Leone on February 3, 1816 along with axes, hoes, a plow, wagon and parts to make a saw
mill. Cuffee and his emigrants were not greeted as warmly as before. Governor MacCarthy was
already having trouble keeping the general population in order. The Militia Act imposed upon
the colony required all adult males to swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown, and many local
people refused to do so for fear of being drafted into military service.[37] The governor was not
excited at the idea that more emigrants were arriving. Although things did not go exactly as
planned economically - his cargo sold at heavily undervalued prices[38] - the new colonists were
now all situated in Freetown. Cuffee believed that once continuous trade between America,
Britain, and Africa commenced, the society would realize his predicted success.[39] For Cuffee,
though, the expedition was costly. Each colonist needed their first year's provisions, which he
fronted for them. Governor MacCarthy was sure that the African Institution would reimburse
Cuffee, but that and the heavy tariff duties left more than $8,000 of deficit for the captain.[40]
The African Institution in England never contributed to the mission at all, and Cuffee had to deal
with hard economic consequences.[41] Cuffee needed reliable backing before he could afford
another such expedition.

Cuffee's Later Years

On his return to New York in 1816, Cuffee exhibited to the New York chapter of the African
Institution the certificates of the landing of those colonists at Sierra Leone. "He has also received
from Gov. M'Carthy a certificate of the steady and sober conduct of the settlers since their

of 9

arrival, and an acknowledgment of $439.62, humanely advanced to them since they landed, to
promote their comfort and advantage."[42]

In 1816, Cuffee envisioned a mass emigration plan for African Americans, both to Sierra Leone
and possibly to newly-freed Haiti.[43] Congress rejected his petition to fund a return to Sierra
Leone. During this time period, many African Americans began to demonstrate interest in
emigrating to Africa, and some people believed this was the best solution to problems of racial
tensions in American society. Cuffee was persuaded by Reverends Samuel J. Mills and Robert
Finley to help them with the African colonization plans of the American Colonization Society
(ACS), but Cuffee was alarmed at the overt racism of many members of the ACS. ACS co-
founders, particularly Henry Clay, advocated exporting freed Negroes as a way of ridding the
South of potentially 'troublesome' agitators who might threaten the plantation system of
slavery.[44] Other Americans also became active, but found there was more reason to encourage
emigration to Haiti, where American immigrants were welcomed by the government of President
Boyer.

In the beginning of 1817, Cuffee’s health deteriorated. He never returned to Africa. He died on
September 7, 1817. His final words were "Let me pass queitly away." Cuffee left an estate with
an estimated value of almost $20,000.[45]

References

1. Wiggins, Rosalind Cobb ed. Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters. Washington:
Howard University Press, 1996. p.xi
2. Abigail Mott, Biographical sketches and interesting anecdotes of persons of colour
(printed and sold by W. Alexander & Son; sold also by Harvey and Darton, W. Phillips,
E. Fry, and W. Darton, London; R. Peart, Birmingham; D.F. Gardiner, Dublin, 1826), pg.
31-43 (accessed on Google Books) http://books.google.com/books?id=vQ2qZk0hdlsC
3. Wiggins, p. 45
4. Thomas, Lamont D. Paul Cuffee: Black Entrepreneur and Pan-Africanist (Urbana and
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988) pp 4-5
5. Wiggins, p. 47-8
6. Thomas, p. 5
7. Sherwood, Henry Noble, The Journal of Negro History, vol. 8 no. 2 (April, 1923) p 155
8. Harris, Sheldon. Paul Cuffee: Black America and the African Return (New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1972) p. 17
9. Harris, p. 18
10. Harris, p. 19
11. Thomas, p. 9
12. Gross, David (ed.) We Won’t Pay!: A Tax Resistance Reader ISBN 1434898253 pp. 115-
117
13. Harris, p. 30


of 9

14. Harris, p. 30
15. Thomas, p. 16
16. Thomas, p. 18
17. Thomas, p. 22
18. Harris, p. 20
19. Thomas, p. 74
20. Thomas, pp. 32-33, 51
21. Thomas, p. 49
22. Thomas, p. 137, note 16 points out letters from Governor Columbine, and p. 58 further
speaks to the tight hold the British merchant company Macauley & Babington held over
the Sierra Leone trade to the detriment of native black merchants.
23. Thomas, p. 80
24. Thomas, pp. 53-54 and Harris p. 55
25. Thomas, pp. 57-64
26. Thomas, p. 71
27. Thomas, pp. 72-73
28. Harris, pp. 58-60
29. Thomas, pp. 82-83
30. Thomas, pp. 84-90
31. Thomas, pp. 77-81
32. Thomas, p. 82-83
33. Thomas, p. 94
34. Greene, Lorenzo Johnston. The Negro in Colonial New England (Studies in American
Negro Life, Atheneum, New York, 1942) p. 307
35. Thomas, p. 100
36. Sherwood, Henry Noble. ―Paul Cuffe‖, The Journal of Negro History, VIII vol. 8 no. 2
(April, 1923) p. 198-9
37. Thomas, p. 68
38. Thomas, pp. 101-2
39. Thomas, p. 102
40. Thomas, p. 103
41. Thomas, p. 104
42. Providence Gazette, June 22, 1816
43. Thomas, p. 110
44. Thomas, p. 111
45. Channing, George A. Early Recollections of Newport, Rhode Island from the year 1793
to 1811, Boston: A.J. Ward and Charles E. Hammett, Jr., 1898. p. 170, Greene p. 307 and
Thomas, p. 118


of 9

Further reading

―Cuffee, Paul‖, Library of Congress, Silhouette. Facts On File, Inc. African-American History
Online.

―Paul Cuffee‖, BLACFAX; Summer-winter 91, Vol.6, Issue 24, Adelphi University[dead link]

Harris, Sheldon H. Paul Cuffee: Black America and the African Return. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1972.

The American Promise: A History of the United States, 1998 (p. 286).

Thomas, Lamont D. Rise to Be A People, University of Illinois Press, 1986, republished in
1988 as Paul Cuffe: Black Entrepreneur and Pan-Africanist

Wiggins, Rosalind Cobb ed. Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters. Washington: Howard
University Press, 1996.

Claus Bernet: Paul Cuffee. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Bd.
31, , Sp. 303–308. (German)

Cordeiro, Brock N. Paul Cuffe: A Study of His Life and the Status of His Legacy in Old
Dartmouth. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts at Boston, 2004. ―Paul Cuffe: A Study of
His Life and the Status of HIs Legacy in Old Dartmouth‖.


Paul Cuffe: Early Life and Voyages of an Abolitionist Sea Captain

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Paul Cuffe: Early Life and Voyages of an Abolitionist Sea Captain

Similar to Paul Cuffe: Early Life and Voyages of an Abolitionist Sea Captain (18)

More from RBG Communiversity

More from RBG Communiversity (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Paul Cuffe: Early Life and Voyages of an Abolitionist Sea Captain