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Paul Cuffee: Education and Scholarship\Founder\School
Paul Cuffee: Society and Social Change\Philanthropist
Paul Cuffee: Business and Finance\Businessperson\Merchant
Paul Cuffee: Natural Resource Occupations\Seaman\Sea captain
Paul Cuffee: Business and Finance\Transportation\Shipbuilder
Paul Cuffee: Natural Resource Occupations\Seaman\Sea captain\Whaling master
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.77.161
Exhibition Label
Though rare, inspirational silhouettes of African Americans circulated widely in early America. Paul Cuffee, the son of a freed African man and Wampanoag woman, owned and commanded sailing vessels from Massachusetts, and helped colonize Sierra Leone in the early 1800s. Memorials to Cuffee describe him as “tall and athletic—of noble bearing” and possessing “humility, civility, fortitude.”
This print, created around 1850, and based on a drawing by John Pole of Bristol, England, was commissioned by the Philadelphia-area antislavery activist Abraham L. Pennock, who sought to promote Cuffee’s story and inspire abolitionists. The landscape probably represents Sierra Leone, and the date “1812” likely signifies the year Cuffee’s vessel Traveller was seized by U.S. Customs for trans- porting British goods during an embargo. Traveller had carried African Americans from the United States to the then British colony of Sierra Leone, then returned with cargo via England. After Cuffee appealed to President James
Aunque no era lo común, en los primeros tiempos de la república circularon ampliamente algunas siluetas inspiradoras de afroamericanos ejemplares. Paul Cuffee, hijo de un africano liberto y una indí- gena wampanoag, era dueño de una flota de barcos que comandaba desde Massachusetts y participó en la colonización de Sierra Leona a principios del siglo XIX. En los diversos escritos que lo rememoran queda descrito como “alto y atlético, de porte noble” y persona de “humildad, civismo y fortaleza”.
Este grabado de alrededor de 1850, basado en un dibujo de John Pole, de Bristol, Inglaterra, fue un encargo de Abraham L. Pennock, un antiesclavista de Filadelfia que deseaba promover la historia de Cuffee para inspirar a los abolicionistas. Es probable que el paisaje sea una representación de Sierra Leona y 1812 el año en que las autori- dades aduaneras de Estados Unidos confiscaron el navío Traveller de Cuffee por transportar productos británicos en tiempos de un embargo. El Traveller había llevado afroamericanos desde Estados Unidos hasta la entonces colonia británica de Sierra Leona y regresaba con carga vía Inglaterra. Después que Cuffee apeló al presidente James Madison, sus bienes le fueron restituidos.
