Cuffee

Cuffee
Cuffey Coffey
Cuffee; Cuffey Coffey
Current region	United States and Jamaica
Etymology	Kofi (born on Friday)
Place of origin	Ashanti; Empire of Ashanti

Cuffee, Cuffey, or Coffey is a first name and surname recorded in African-American culture, believed to be derived from the Akan language name Kofi, meaning "born on a Friday". This was noted as one of the most common male names of West African origin which was retained by some American slaves.^[1]

Racist connotation

A racist depiction of a scene in the Catherine market of New York titled; "*Cuffee dancing for eels*" (1857).

The name was used in the United States as a derogatory term to refer to Black people.^[2] For example, Jefferson Davis, then a US Senator from Mississippi who later became the President of the Confederate States, said that the discussion of slavery in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case was merely a question of "whether Cuffee should be kept in his normal condition or not."^[3]

Notable people

United States

Cuffee Mayo (1803–1896), minister, laborer, and politician in North Carolina.
Ed Cuffee (1902–1959), a jazz musician born in Norfolk, Virginia who moved to New York City in 1920 to pursue his career as a jazz trombonist.
Paul Cuffee (1759–1817), a Massachusetts freeman and shipping magnate. Cuffee rejected the surname of his former owner, Slocum, and replaced it with his father's Akan name.^[4]
Paul Cuffee (missionary) (1757–1812), Native American (Shinnecock) Christian minister, missionary, and preacher.

United Kingdom

William Cuffay (1788–1870), Chartist leader, the son of a former slave.

Jamaica

Cuffee, a maroon who waged a slave rebellion against plantation owners in Jamaica in the early 1800s.

References

^ Junius P. Rodriguez (2007). Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-85109-544-5.
^ Blassingame, John W. (September 15, 2008). Black New Orleans, 1860–1880. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226057095. Retrieved 8 August 2017 – via Google Books.
^ Speech to the United States Senate, May 7, 1860
^ Joseph Boskin (1988). Sambo: The Rise & Demise of an American Jester. Oxford University Press. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-0-19-505658-7.

[Rodriguez2007-1] Junius P. Rodriguez (2007). Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-85109-544-5.

[2] Blassingame, John W. (September 15, 2008). Black New Orleans, 1860–1880. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226057095. Retrieved 8 August 2017 – via Google Books.

[3] Speech to the United States Senate, May 7, 1860

[Boskin1988-4] Joseph Boskin (1988). Sambo: The Rise & Demise of an American Jester. Oxford University Press. pp. 29–. ISBN 978-0-19-505658-7.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]