A famed African-American ship captain and activist, Paul Cuffe was born free in colonial Massachusetts; his father was a freed slave and his mother a Wampanoag Indian. Cuffe became perhaps best known as an advocate of voluntary black emigration to Africa, and he earned a distinction as one of the earliest black petitioners in revolutionary America. In 1780 he and six other men sent a memorial to the Massachusetts legislature complaining about being taxed without their consent. The petition, largely Cuffe's work, stated: "We are not allowed the privilege of free men of the state, having no vote or influence on those that tax us." For the remainder of his life, Cuffe would be animated by this sense of injustice.

Cuffe was a transatlantic figure who had a remarkable range of contacts in North American, British, and African locales. He was a compatriot of black activists in the United States, including James Forten of Philadelphia and Peter Williams of New York, and he worked with European-American members of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, gathering information on slave-trading activities in U.S. ports and discussing voluntary emigration schemes to Africa. Cuffe also had strong connections with the Quakers, a group known for its antislavery position, and he joined the Westport Monthly Meeting of Friends in 1808. He befriended British reformers such as Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce, working with them to establish the Sierra Leone settlement on the coast of West Africa.

Like many free African Americans during the Revolutionary era and the years of the early republic, Cuffe seized the opportunities offered by life as a sailor. He went to sea while in his teens, serving on a whaling vessel sailing in the Gulf of Mexico, and took other voyages up to the start of the Revolutionary War (1775-83). In 1776 the British captured Cuffe and put him in prison for several months. After farming for a few years and studying navigation, he returned to the sea in the early 1780s. Cuffe constructed his own boat, as he put it, "from keel to gunwale," only to have it captured by pirates, but a subsequent venture with a new craft brought him a generous profit. By the 1790s, Cuffe had a 25-ton vessel called the Sunfish and then a 42-ton ship, the Mary. With 10 African-American crew members, he caught several whales. By 1795 he had built an even bigger boat and set sail for Norfolk, Virginia, where he not only delivered cargo but viewed southern slavery for the first time. Cuffe observed that "the white inhabitants were struck with apprehension of the injurious effects on the minds of their slaves" on seeing a black captain, and he managed to escape unharmed after a violent confrontation. He settled in Westport, New York, and continued to sail the Atlantic coast while becoming the owner of several more ships of various sizes, not to mention land and houses.

Cuffe undertook several trips to Sierra Leone. In 1811 his all-black crew delivered cargo and surveyed the colony; he stayed for three months and vowed to return for an extended period of time, perhaps even to settle. He returned later in 1811-12 and then again in 1815. He died on September 9, 1817, in the United States, just as debates over the American Colonization Society (ACS) were prompting many black activists (including some friends and early advocates of Cuffe's back-to-Africa call) to organize against repatriation plans. Although the ACS grew rapidly in the decade after Cuffe's death, the majority of the black population opposed colonization schemes, voluntary or otherwise. Still, generations of black reformers remembered Cuffe as both a legendary ship captain and entrepreneur, not to mention a fierce advocate of African-American identity.

Bibliography:

1) Sidney Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution (Washington, D.C.: New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1973)

2) Lamont Thomas, Rise to Be a People: A Biography of Paul Cuffe (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986)

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on American Revolution at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to American Revolution and other relevant topics.