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.
Racist connotation
The name was used in the United States as a derogatory term to refer to Black people. 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."
Notable people
Guyana
- Coffij, leader of the 18th century Berbice Rebellion in Guyana.
Jamaica
- Cuffee, a maroon who waged a slave rebellion against plantation owners in Jamaica in the early 1800s.
United Kingdom
- William Cuffay (1788–1870), Chartist leader, the son of a former slave.
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.
- Paul Cuffee (missionary) (1757–1812), Native American (Shinnecock) Christian minister, missionary, and preacher.
See also
- Quander family, oldest documented African-American family in the United States whose surname is of Fante origin.
References
