Cuffee

Last updated
Cuffee
Cuffey Coffey
Current region United States and Jamaica
Etymology Kofi (born on Friday)
Place of originFlag of Ashanti.svg  Ashanti
Empire of Ashanti

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. [1]

Contents

Racist connotation

A racist depiction of a scene in the Catherine market of New York titled; "Cuffee dancing for eels" (1857). Cuffee Dancing for Eels - Catharine Market (Life in New York) MET DP369453.jpg
A racist depiction of a scene in the Catherine market of New York titled; "Cuffee dancing for eels" (1857).

The name was used in the United States as a derogatory term to refer to Black people. [2] 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." [3]

Notable people

United States

United Kingdom

Jamaica

See also

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Cuffee was an escaped slave in Jamaica who led other runaway slaves to form a community of free black people in Jamaica in the island's forested interior, and they raided white plantation owners at the end of the eighteenth century. The name Cuffee is a variation of the Twi Akan name Kofi, which is the name given to a boy born on a Friday.

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References

  1. Junius P. Rodriguez (2007). Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 1–. ISBN   978-1-85109-544-5.
  2. Blassingame, John W. (September 15, 2008). Black New Orleans, 1860–1880. University of Chicago Press. ISBN   9780226057095 . Retrieved 8 August 2017 via Google Books.
  3. Speech to the United States Senate, May 7, 1860
  4. Joseph Boskin (1988). Sambo: The Rise & Demise of an American Jester. Oxford University Press. pp. 29–. ISBN   978-0-19-505658-7.