Paul Cuffe was born on January 17, 1759, during the French and Indian War, in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. He was one of the ten children born to Kofi Slocum, a freed slave, and Ruth Moses, a Native American of the Wampanoag tribe. Kofi anglicized his name to Cuffee. He was a skilled tradesman and in 1772, he died. Once his father died, Paul persuaded his brothers and sisters to take their father's first name as their surname. However, Paul signed his name by spelling Cuffe with only one e. As a young teenager, he built small boats and traded among the Massachusetts islands, as his father had done for many years. He shipped aboard a whaler owned by the prominent Rotch family, Quaker merchants and whalers of New Bedford. During the American Revolution, he served on a privateer and often participated in running …show more content…
The colony was called Sierra Leone and was located on the west coast of Africa. He made two trips to Sierra Leone. The first one was made on January 1, 1811, with a crew of nine blacks. When he was leaving Sierra Leone, he became interested in beginning a three-way trade involving the United States, England, and Sierra Leone. Paul also sailed to England, where he protested the effects of Britain's trading monopoly upon aspiring black settler merchants. His efforts were useless once the War of 1812 began. Both the United States and England forbade trade with one another during the war. He tried to petition to both the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament, but he was denied. After the war's end, Paul sailed again for Sierra Leone. He left on December 10, 1815, with nine families that consisted of thirty-eight people. They landed in February 1816. He returned to the United States later that year and wanted to come back. However, in late 1816, he was tired by efforts at negotiation and a very rough 66-day voyage home, Paul lost his health. Paul Cuffe died on September 9,