Cuffee (Unknown) Slocum (1717 - 1772)

Born 1717 in Asanti, Twifu Heman-Lower Denkyira, Central, Ghana

Descendants

Died Mar 1772 at about age 55 in Westport, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Biography

Cuffee (Unknown) Slocum is a part of US Black heritage.

Cuffee (Unknown) Slocum has African ancestry.

Cuffee (Unknown) Slocum migrated from Ashanti land in Africa (Present day Ghana area) to Massachusetts [enslaved].

Cuff Slocum was born around 1717 in West Africa. He was brought to Newport, R.I., in 1728 as a slave, and purchased by Dartmouth ship captain Ebenezer Slocum, who gave the man his surname and later sold him to nephew John Slocum in 1742.

Cuff Slocum was freed by his new owner just a few years later, and was employed up to 1766 as the manager of the Slocum farm on Cuttyhunk until 1766. That year, Slocum purchased 116 acres off Old County Road from David Brownell for 650 Spanish milled dollars, a considerable sum at the time. The next year, he and wife Ruth Moses moved their family there, Cole reported.

When Slocum died in 1772, the property was bequeathed to his youngest sons, John and Paul Cuffe, who had decided to abandon their father’s slave name. Some of their siblings, including sister Mary, retained the Slocum name, noted Gifford, who specializes in genealogical research and the study of tax records. Cuffee Slocum "Kofi" 1718-1772

• Cuffee Slocum, whose birth name was Kofi was a member of the Ashanti group from Ghana, Africa. Kofi was captured and was sold into slavery and arrived in Newport RI in 1728.

Ebenezer Slocum from Dartmouth Ma purchased Kofi in the 1728 and remained with Ebenezer for 15 years. On Feb 16 1742 Kofi was sold to John Slocum (Ebenezer's nephew) for 150 pounds. Kofi eventually earned his freedom and was finally freed in 1745. Kofi then took the name "Cuffee Slocum". Cuffee worked as a skilled carpenter, farmer and fisherman and also taught himself how to read and write.

In 1746 Cuffee married Wampanoag Indian Ruth Moses (?-1787). They had 10 children:

• David(1747)
• Jonathan(1749)
• Sarah(1751)
• Mary (1753-1804)
• Phebe(1755)
• John(1757)
• Paul (1759-1817)
• Lydia(1761
• Ruth(1763),
• Freelove (1765).

Cuffee then moved to Cuttyhunk Island and began to raise his family. Cuffee and his wife remained as caretakers of the Slocum Farm. It's worth noting that Cuttyhunk Island was owned by Peleg Slocum then later his son Holder Slocum.

In 1766 Through hard work, Cuffee purchased a 116-acre farm in Westport Ma once owned by David and Grace Brownell.

It is important to note those of the Quaker (Friends) faith treated their slaves as servants. The slaves were educated and brought to worship along with the other members of the household. (1)

• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch Slocum House at Barney’s Joy, date unknown, Pencil drawing on Paper, #00.36 (see memories)

This house at Barney’s Joy in South Dartmouth stood until the 1880s. Slocum was a farmer, but supplemented his income with smuggling and slave trading. “There has always clung about the old farm at Barney’s Joy a flavor of slaves and smuggling,” Henry H. Crapo wrote in 1912. Kofi Slocum, Captain Paul Cuffe’s father, was a slave on this farm for twenty years before being freed in the 1740s. During the War of 1812, in fear of British encroachments, the Slocum family packed their silver inside their grandfather’s clock (on view in the exhibition) and buried the lot in a local swamp. From: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/exhibitions/harboring-hope-in-old-dartmouth/colonization-immigration Kofi was a landowner and was literate.

From: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/special/20161118/westport-researchers-uncover-local-origins-of-famous-cuffe-family Westport researchers uncover local origins of famous Cuffe family Posted Nov 18, 2016 at 3:58 PM; Updated Nov 18, 2016 at 3:58 PM WESTPORT — A trio of historical researchers who spent years studying the family origins of Westport’s most famous resident, Quaker ship captain and entrepreneur Paul Cuffe (1759-1817), revealed their findings during a recent lecture at Westport Free Public Library, hosted by the Westport Historical Society. The most remarkable discovery announced was the long-sought identification of the waterfront property off Drift Road where Cuffe built the home, wharf and warehouse that became the starting point of a trading career that helped the mariner become one of the richest men of color in America at the time of his death. Cuffe used his hard-earned wealth to aid indebted local widows, found the first free school in town open to children of color, and support an international campaign to return freed slaves to their homeland in Africa. The researchers involved in the quest to identify Cuffe’s home base on the East Branch of the Westport River, just south of Hix Bridge, plan to publish the details of the search in a 50-page monograph in time for next year’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of his death. Westport Historical Society President Tony Connors introduced the intrepid historians — David Cole, Betty Slade and Richard Gifford — who searched through two centuries of materials to tell the definitive story of the local legacy of the family of Cuff Slocum, the freed slave whose children made history in Massachusetts and all over the globe they traveled in ships home-ported in Westport. “Basically, we were trying to solve mysteries” about the family that have remained unanswered for years, said Slade. She detailed the deeds, probate records, old maps and tax records that the team mined for accurate information on the family’s origins and land holdings in Old Dartmouth, which included Westport up until its establishment as a separate town in 1787. The end result was the first definitive declaration of the precise location of the piece of property off Old County and Fisher roads where Cuff Slocum established his homestead in 1767, and the waterfront site off Drift Road where son Paul Cuffe started his maritime trading empire. The key document in pinpointing the Cuffe homestead site, Slade said, was the 1798 federal “direct tax” report that listed Cuffe’s waterfront home, outbuildings and wharf as well as those of all other property owners in the neighborhood. Combined with 1790 and 1810 census records, “we could tell where Cuffe was living, and who his neighbors were,” she explained. Today, the homestead is located down a long driveway leading to 1436 Drift Road, a private residence where an existing dock recalls the colonial-era wharf that Cuffe built on a tiny lot purchased from a neighbor. Unfortunately, no signs of the original house Cuffe built in 1798 remain, Slade noted, and the research team was unable to definitively identify the exact site of the boatyard on the property where the successful merchant built his first coastal trading vessels.

SLOCUM HISTORY The story of Slocum, Cuffe and brother-in-law Michael Wainer, the main characters in the family history, begins with the birth of Cuff Slocum around 1717 in West Africa. He was brought to Newport, R.I., in 1728 as a slave, and purchased by Dartmouth ship captain Ebenezer Slocum, who gave the man his surname and later sold him to nephew John Slocum in 1742. Cuff Slocum was freed by his new owner just a few years later, and was employed up to 1766 as the manager of the Slocum farm on Cuttyhunk until 1766. That year, Slocum purchased 116 acres off Old County Road from David Brownell for 650 Spanish milled dollars, a considerable sum at the time. The next year, he and wife Ruth Moses moved their family there, Cole reported. When Slocum died in 1772, the property was bequeathed to his youngest sons, John and Paul Cuffe, who had decided to abandon their father’s slave name. Some of their siblings, including sister Mary, retained the Slocum name, noted Gifford, who specializes in genealogical research and the study of tax records. The sons divided the property evenly, with John getting the portion running to the corner of Fisher Road, and Paul keeping the westernmost portion. The old family home was probably torn down in the mid-1800s and replaced with a new structure, but the homestead site will be commemorated with the naming of a new solar energy farm on the property as the Cuff Slocum Clean Energy Collective Solar Farm, Cole said. The Cuffe and Howard Cemetery, just east of Fisher Road, remains as another reminder of the family legacy in the neighborhood.

RUSSELLS MILLS CONNECTIONS At the other end of Fisher Road, Tannery Lane, at the intersection of Horseneck Road, serves as a reminder that Cuffe brother-in-law Michael Wainer probably once operated the tannery on the river at Russells Mills that gives the lane its name. Wainer, a Wampanoag from Dartmouth, first married Lydia Pequot, whose name indicates she was also a Native American. Apparently, she died young, and Wainer married Cuffe’s sister, Mary Slocum, and they first lived at the site of Davoll’s General Store, probably from around 1776 to 1792, according to Cole. Later, Wainer would buy the 40-acre Allen lot off Drift Road from his brother-in-law, and moved his family to Westport around 1800. After the marriage, Wainer became Cuffe’s business partner, and their joint ventures included the naming of a trading schooner Mary, after his wife. Many of Wainer’s seven sons would become captains of Cuffe merchant vessels as the family trading empire grew to include a number of larger ships sailing all over the world. The family connections may have been strengthened by other ties, as Paul Cuffe married a Wampanoag woman named Alice Pequot in 1783, producing seven children with that union. Could she have been Lydia Pequot’s sister, or another close relation? According to Cole, Cuffe once lived in “an Indian-style house on the Russell Farm in Dartmouth” as a young man. When he sold the property, off Fisher Road near Destruction Brook, Russell reserved a half-acre parcel from the sale, and sold it to his young tenant. Perhaps that neighborhood is where young Cuffe would meet his future bride. One wonders why he would not be living and working on the Cuff Slocum homestead he would later inherit from his father. That remains one of the mysteries to be solved by further historical research. What the research team studying Cuffe’s legacy knows for sure is that by 1789, he had the means to purchase a tiny .22 acre lot off Drift Road from the Soule family, build a house and wharf, and establish the trading empire that would soon carry the Cuffe name all around the world.

Sources

• Long-term traditional family history story of the Cuffee family.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asante_people
• Cole, David. (2020, May 12). The Remarkable Story of Cuff Slocum. The Westport Historical Society. online: PaulCuffee.org.
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 27 April 2020, 16:09), entry for Cuffe Kofi Slocum(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LD2W-1DM); contributed by various users.
• http://www.southcoasttoday.com/special/20161118/westport-researchers-uncover-local-origins-of-famous-cuffe-family
• The Cuffee family of Chesapeake VA