Episode Details

As a teenager during the American Revolution, Paul Cuffe ran the British blockade in a small open boat to deliver goods to Nantucket. By 1800, he was likely the wealthiest person of color in the United States. This episode traces his remarkable journey as a shipping magnate, civil rights pioneer, and visionary.

We explore his Wampanoag and Ashanti heritage, his father's self-purchased freedom, his early whaling career, and his 1780 tax protest. We then follow how he built a maritime business with Quaker support, founded an integrated school, worked to strengthen Sierra Leone, met President James Madison, and rejected the American Colonization Society.

• How Cuffe's parents, Ruth Moses and Kofi Slocum, shaped his independence
• His taxation without representation petition and its role in expanding voting rights in Massachusetts
• How he and Michael Wainer built a shipping business and sailed the Traveler to Liverpool with an all-Black crew
• His work in Sierra Leone, the Friendly Society, and his meeting with President Madison during the War of 1812
• Why he refused to support the American Colonization Society despite heavy financial losses