Paul Cuffe: Ashanti father, Wampanoag mother, a fleet on the Atlantic (Cuttyhunk / Westport, MA, 1759–1817)

SUMMARYPaul Cuffe: Ashanti father, Wampanoag mother, a fleet on the Atlantic (Cuttyhunk / Westport, MA, 1759–1817) [Connections: Tech & skilled labor, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDThe National Park Service says Cuffe was born in 1759 to "a freed slave and a Wampanoag woman," Kofi and Ruth Moses Slocum. His father was of Ashanti origin. Cuffe dropped "Slocum," the name of his father's former owner. As a teenager he went whaling. In 1780 he, his brother John and five other free Black men petitioned Massachusetts for "relief from taxation" without the rights of white men. By about 50 he owned "a ship, two brigs, several smaller vessels," houses and land, with trading and whaling vessels sailing worldwide. MARAD lists his 268-ton ship Alpha.
STATUS: free (own business, shipowner); his father Kofi was formerly enslaved (per NPS)

PATTERNA documented case of African and Native American ancestry in one maritime family, with the colonizer's name dropped by choice

LENS (WW9)A Wampanoag son on the water: Native and African, in one person, owning the ships

OPENNPS does not say he built ships himself. His mother's community (Aquinnah or another Wampanoag town) needs deep research

SOURCENational Park Service, New Bedford Whaling NHP, "Paul Cuffe"; MARAD, "Before They Were Famous" (archived).