Paul Cuffe and business partners in the Wainer family became ship owners as well as sea captains.
- Sierra Leone Web
“Harry is supposed to be carried off by a certain THOMAS WAINER, of Westport, in Massachusetts...who traded here...as Capt. of a small vessel.”
- From a 1799 ad for the return of “Harry” a fugitive slave from Somerset County Maryland
”
- by Dr. John Pole, Bristol, England
Paul Cuffe
Paul Cuffe signed on to a New Bedford whaler as a teenager. The son of an African father and Wampanoag mother, he built and owned six vessels. On trading voyages to the south, he noticed the shock that some felt seeing a ship with a black crew. He may have taken stowaways with him to Massachusetts. Cuffe also traded with a Sierra Leone colony populated by former slaves. He hoped to support a successful community based on free labor.
African Names
Kofi is a West African name that means Friday. It
was common to name children for the weekday of
their birth. Paul Cuffe’s father was a slave from
the area that is now central Ghana. He changed
the spelling of his name from Kofi to Cuffe and adopted the name Cuffe Slocum. His son Paul used
Cuffe as a surname.
- Cortical
The Wainer Family
Michael Wainer, of black and native ancestry, was a
friend and business partner of Paul Cuffe. His son
Thomas was accused of carrying off “Harry” and wife
“Lucy” from slavery in Maryland and a reward of $40
was advertised by Samuel Sloane for Harry’s return.
The Wainers owned Rising States, a vessel with a large
number of black crew members. Tragically the ship’s
master William Cuffe (Paul’s son) died when the
vessel was damaged in a gale.
A 1780 petition to the Massachusetts General Court . . .
Paul Cuffe, his brother John, and other men of color signed this 1780 petition to the Massachusetts General Court protesting the denial of voting rights, even though they were subject to property taxes.
- Massachusetts Archives