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The Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are reviving the daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series was created in 2017 and will add several NEW articles this year. In addition to these daily newsletters all February long, this series also incorporates daily social media posts; an interactive calendar; and, website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

Feel free to publish on your social media outlets, with credit given to the Transformative Justice Coalition.

In light of the recent attempts to ban Black History, we are even more pleased to share these stories this year. We encourage everyone in the 18 states that are banning Black History to share these stories broadly!

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory. You can also tweet us @TJC_DC to share your own facts.

Others can sign up for the daily articles at VotingRightsAlliance.org. 

This article is written by Caitlyn Cobb. All the sources are linked throughout the article in green.

Today we honor Paul Cuffe Sr, who, by way of petitions, civil disobedience, and working within the system, helped pave the way for Black (and Native American) men in Massachusetts to be able to vote. While Cuffe's petition was denied, "it laid the groundwork for the Massachusetts Legislature to grant voting rights to all free male citizens in 1783."

Background

Paul Cuffe was born in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. Sources cite to his birth being in the year 1759; yet, his actual birth date is unknown (although some sources cite his birth date as January 17, 1759). The failure to keep genealogical records of Black families was a common problem because enslaved Africans were considered chattel property. Paul Cuffe’s father, Kofi (also known as Cuffe Slocum), was a slave who was captured at the age of 10 from the Ashanti Empire in West Africa and eventually earned his freedom (though some reports say that Kofi Slocum was freed by his owner, who couldn’t reconcile slavery with his religious beliefs). Paul Cuffe’s mother, Ruth Moses, was a Wampanoag Indian. Paul “was raised at a unique confluence of cultures—the growing African diaspora, the surviving members of the native Wampanoag people, and the religious influence of English colonists.”

Paul Cuffe was the youngest of 10 children (though some sources say he was the 7th youngest and some sources say there was only 7 or 9 children), and although all 10 children went on to become successful, Paul was the star of the family. Paul refused to keep his father’s previous master’s last name of “Slocum”, and changed it instead to his father’s first name, “changing Kofi, an Ashanti word meaning ‘born on a Friday,’ to Cuffee (though often spelled with just one ‘e’).” Paul’s father was a landowner and was literate. Paul could read and write as well.

Petitioning and Tax Evasion

It was during the Revolution Era, when Cuffe was in his 20’s, that he began his life of activism. “In 1780, both local and state legislation levied heavy taxes against land owned by African Americans, including Cuffe's family farm on Cuttyhunk.” He petitioned the government to either give Blacks and Native Americans the right to vote or cease to tax them, throwing the new America’s own logic back at them: “if England had no right to tax the colonies without representation, what right did America have to tax citizens who were not allowed to vote?” His petition was simple, but powerful. Below is “a transcript of the petition submitted to the Masschusetts [sic] legislature”.