Background
He was born on January 17, 1759 in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts.
(Excerpt from Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Paul...)
Excerpt from Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian: During Thirty Years Spent at Sea, and in Travelling in Foreign Lands Here we commenced fishing for whale, but for a time barf bad luck, owing to the drunken habits of our Captain. We, simk twelve whales before we caught one. Then we caught six in the course of two weeks. I harpooned all these, and assisted in taking and towing them along side the ship. After we get 'a whale along side, we hitch our blubber hooks intothe head, after severing it from the body, then, with our Windlass, draw it aboard, and dip the oil out, which sometimes amounts to more than fifty barrels. After this we, commence cutting the whale in a circular manner with our spades; then we hitch the blubber books into the commencement next to where the head was taken off, and by pulling at the Windlass, take off a targe piece which will usually when tried and strained, produce ten barrels of Oil. Before heaving on board this piece, another hook is fastened below the one to be taken off; when this is done with a cross blow from the spade, the first piece'is'sepao rated from the rest of the whale. Then the cutting is contin ued in the same manner as before mentioned, and another piece torn off and swung aboard. This operation keeps the whale constantly rolling over until themass of flesh is stripped from the carcass, which is then permitted to ?oat off, or sink, and it becomes the sport of sharks, who feed upon the little ?esh which remains after it has gone through the hands of the whalemen. Here we stayed but six weeks before we took in 1690 bar 'rels of oil. This was about 300 miles off the Brazil coasts-l 'from this place we set sail with our cargo about the middle of June 1813, for New Bedford, where we arrived in fifty-seven 'days. When 03 Block Island we saw the keel 'of a brig; up on which were marked the names of a number of persons who undoubtedly belonged to her and had died Upon the wreck. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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captain merchant philanthropist
He was born on January 17, 1759 in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts.
Cuffe's education consisted of basic reading and writing, plus enough mathematics to permit him to navigate a ship.
At the age of 16 he began his career as a common seaman on whaling and fishing boats.
During the Revolutionary War he was held prisoner by the British for a time but managed afterward to start small-scale coastal trading. Despite attacks by pirates, he eventually prospered. He built larger vessels and successfully traded south as far as Virginia and north to Labrador.
In later life he owned several ships which engaged in trading and whaling around the world.
Cuffe was a vigorous, pious, and independent man.
In 1780 he and his brother John petitioned the Massachusetts government either to give African and Native Americans the right to vote or to stop taxing them. The petition was denied, but the case helped pave the way for the 1783 Massachusetts Constitution, which gave equal rights and privileges to all citizens of the state.
Cuffe was a devout and evangelical Quaker.
At his home in Westport, Massachussets, he donated a town school and helped support the teacher. Later he helped build a new meeting house.
Through his connections with Quakers in other cities he became involved in efforts to improve the conditions of African Americans. Strongly opposed to slavery and the slave trade, he joined other free African Americans in the Northern states in their abolitionist campaigns.
When Cuffe learned of the Sierra Leone Colony in West Africa, which had been founded by English philanthropists in 1787, he began corresponding with English Quakers active in the movement to settle African Americans there.
In 1811 he sailed with his all-African American crew to investigate the colony. Impressed and eager to start settling African Americans there who could evangelize the Africans, establish business enterprises, and work to stop the slave trade at its source, Cuffe returned to the United States after conferring with his allies in England. He planned to take a ship loaded with settlers and merchandise to Sierra Leone annually, but the War of 1812, between the United States and Britain, delayed him. Mean-while, he petitioned the American government for aid and actively recruited future settlers among the free African Americans of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. In 1815 Cuffe sailed with 38 settlers for Sierra Leone, where he helped them establish new homes with the cooperation of colonial authorities.
Enthusiastic over his success, despite the heavy personal expense, he found increased interest in the project among African Americans. Soon, however, the newly formed American Colonization Society, which operated with support of Southern slave owners and advocated settlement of former slaves in Africa, began to frighten free African Americans, who feared forced deportation. Before Cuffe could pursue his own settlement project, his health failed.
(Excerpt from Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Paul...)
In 1746, Paul married Ruth Moses.