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Paul Cuffe, activist, and one of the wealthiest Black Americans in early American history, dies from health issues.
1817 (Apr 1)
Paul Cuffe was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1758 as a free man. In 1797, he purchased a farm and built a school for the children in his hometown. An activist in the cause of civil rights, Cuffe and his brother John unsuccessfully sued the state of Massachusetts for the right to vote. Disillusioned over the future of free Blacks in America, Cuffe transported a group of thirty-eight Blacks to Sierra Leone, a British colony on the West Coast of Africa, in 1811. Failing health and uncertainty about the colonization scheme caused him to withdraw from the venture shortly before his death. At his death, Cuffe left an estate valued at more than $20,000, making him one of the wealthiest Black Americans in early American history.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.