CHAPTER X
The Pale Messenger
The formation of the American Colonization Society stimulated interest in Negro deportation. Both whites and blacks put many inquiries to Cuffe. He was thought of as the prospective first governor of the colony but he did not live to realize this. Near the end of his career his advice to his people was to be quiet and trust in God; be industrious and honest; such conduct is the greatest boon toward liberation. "Experience is the best schoolmaster."
He took advantage of this correspondence to exhort his brethren to improve their morals. To William Harris he wrote: "We must depart from that Monster—I mean intemperance. Examine your selves, your families. Are you clean? If not set about this work immediately.... Do not admit him into your houses in any other shape than a mere medicine. I formerly kept him company but for many years I have forsaken him and I find great consolation thereby."
About a year before his death he gave sound financial advice to Edward Cooke. In the postscript of the letter he wrote "My dear Friend Edward Cooke, if I could know that thee had given up the use of strong drink, I should feel rejoiced, and would render thee such aid, that thee could soon become a man of property."
About the same time that he gave this advice, Isaac Gifford received a "Watchword." "By experience," wrote the Captain, "I have ever found when I attended to my business I seldom suffered loss. I have found it to be good to make choice of good companions. I have ever found it not to be profitable for me to sit long after dining and make a tipling habit of wine and other liquors. These very people who adopt those practices when they see a sober, steady man will put business in his way. The surest way to conquer strong drink is to make no use of it. We are born and we must die. Amen."
He points out to Joel Rogers, chosen to represent the Gayhead people, the fields among his neighbors, "devastated either by creatures or weeds." More frugality is needed. Excessive drink and idleness are very destructive to society. These and similar truths were recommended to Rogers to guide his work for his people. When Cuffe and his wife with some relatives visited there, meeting was held, and "many lively testimonies borne to the truth of their state and standing."
The admonitions were in accord with the life of Captain Cuffe. Another lively testimony was given to young men in a meeting in Arch Street, Philadelphia. He said to the young men that "he was afraid to dignify what he had to say, by calling it a vision, but it appeared to him at a time when he was very low in mind and much cast down, and being very disconsolate, there appeared before him the form of a man, inquiring what ailed him. He said he could not tell. The Form told him the disease was in his heart, and he could show it to him. Upon his expressing submission, the Form took a sharp instrument, separated his heart from his body and laid it before him. He was greatly terrified in viewing it, it being very unclear and contained all kinds of abominable things. The Form said he could never be healed, till he submitted to have his heart cleansed. Then, said he, I fear I never shall be healed. But on the Form asking him, if he was willing to have it cleansed, and he consenting, he took a sharp instrument and separated all that was vile and closed up the heart, replaced it, and healed the wound. Thus he said he felt himself a changed man and a new creature, and then recommended the young men to that Physician who could heal them, although their state was ever so deplorable.
"In the course of his testimony he also related that when he was about twelve years of age he lived upon an island where there was no house but that of his father. Being one evening near night sent on an errand alone, he became afraid that he should meet with some wild beast that would attack him. He crossed to a fence in order to cut a stick to defend himself; but after cutting it, the thought occurred that he was not on his father's ground, and as he had no right to the stick it was not likely it would serve to defend him. On which he laid it down, near the place he had taken it from and in recrossing the fence laid his hand on a loose piece of wood which was on their own ground resting against the fence. It proved to be a club, which he took up, and went cheerfully on his way."[65]
It was while engaged in activity of this kind that he met "the pale messenger." His health began to fail him early in the spring of 1817. In April, however, he was well enough to attend Quarterly Meeting, but in June he was "on the bed of languishing." An eminent Rhode Island physician was summoned but he could not heal him. He doubtless then realized what he himself expressed in these words to Samuel R. Fisher, February 28, 1817: "May we often call to remembrance that we have no certain containing city here but above all things may we seek one to come whose builder is God that when we put off this body of mortality we may be clothed with the spirit of immortality that we may be prepared and favored to experience that glorious regeneration and friendship of everlasting peace."
On the morning of July 27 the Captain took solemn leave of his family. The hand that had guided the Traveller to so many ports was now so enfeebled that it was limp in the grasp of the little grandchildren. He shook hands with all the relations and the immediate members of his own household. As he bade them farewell it was "as broken a time," wrote his brother John, "as wast ever known amongst us." "Not many days hence," he said to his neighbors, "and ye shall see the glory of God; I know that my works are gone to judgment before me but it is all well, it is all well." Day by day he kept failing and on first day morning at two o'clock, September 9, the Captain was borne away on the invisible but irresistible tide.[66]
The funeral exercises were held on the following Monday afternoon. In marked solemnity a great concourse of people gathered. After waiting in great silence his friends bore testimony to his work and merit. He was buried in the Friends cemetery at the South Meeting House in Westport, a place of worship formerly known as the Old Meeting House when the Cuffe family worshipped there. "Many of his neighbors and friends," said William Rotch, Jr., "evinced their respect for his memory by attending his funeral (which was conducted agreeably to the usages of the Society of Friends, of which he was a member) and at which several lively testimonies were borne to the truth, that the Almighty Parent has made of one blood all the nations of men, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him."[67]
The New York African Institution held services for him in October following his death. The funeral sermon was preached in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church by Peter Williams, Jr. That trait of character which rendered Cuffe so eminently useful, said the speaker, was "a steady perseverance in laudable undertaking, which overcomes obstacles apparently insurmountable and attains its object, while others fall back in despair."
"Shall I say to you, my African brethren," continued the Reverend Mr. Williams, "go and do likewise? Subjected as we too generally are, to multiplied evils of poverty, made more intolerant by the prejudices which prevail against us, his example is worthy of our imitation. It is only by an honest, industrious, and prudent husbanding of all the means which are placed in our power, that we can hope to rise on the scale of society."[68]
His death was chronicled in many papers with appropriate praise of his life. Niles Register noted that all classes of people esteemed his morality, truth and intelligence.[69] The Columbian Sentinel praised his charity and particularly his deep interest in his race. "He was concerned not only to set them a good example by his own correct conduct; to admonish and counsel them against the habits to which he found them most prone; but more extensively to promote their welfare."[70] The Colonization Herald said, "Captain Cuffe was a man of the strictest integrity, modest yet dignified in his manners, of a feeling and liberal heart, public spirited and well versed in the business of the world."[71]
"In the example of Paul Cuffe," said The New York Spectator, "the free people of color in the United States may see the manner in which they may require competency and reputation. It is the beaten path of industry and integrity. Captain Cuffe cultivated his own farm and guided his own ship. He labored with his own hands and kept his own book of accounts. He did not waste his time in idleness, nor his income in extravagance. He was never charged with intrigue in his contracts, neglect in his promises, or fraud in his traffic.... His example therefore, is capable of imitation by every free person of color."[72]
One Hundred Years After
Paul Cuffe had some descendants of consequence. Horatio P. Howard, a great-grandson of Captain Cuffe, wrote a short biography of his grandsire and erected a monument in his memory. Ruth Cuffe married Alexander Howard and their son, Shadrack, was the father of Horatio. He was born in New Bedford in 1854, and beginning in 1888 served as a clerk in the Custom House in New York City. Howard died February 20, 1923, leaving considerable wealth, $5000 of which he bequeathed to Hampton, and the balance of which he gave to Tuskegee as a fund to establish Captain Paul Cuffe Scholarships.
The monument which Howard erected is of Westerly Rhode Island granite and cost $400. It bears the inscription: "In memory of Captain Cuffe, Patriot, Navigator, Educator, Philanthropist, Friend." It stands five feet high on an elevation in the front part of the church yard and along the principal highway.
The biography is a booklet containing twenty-eight pages and is entitled "A Self-Made Man Captain Paul Cuffe." "By the erection of this lasting Memorial," says Howard, "in honor of the courage, achievements and life work of Capt. Paul Cuffe, a resident of Westport, Massachusetts, for many years, the donor, a great grandson, hopes to awaken and stimulate energy and ambition in the rising generation of Negro youth, that they may profit thereby."
On June 15, 1913, dedication services were held in Central Village, Westport. Rev. Tom A. Sykes, minister of the Westport Society of Friends, presided. The exercises, which were attended by about two hundred people, were opened by a flower brigade of school children led by Horatio P. Howard. Flowers were strewn on the graves of the Captain and his wife. Speeches were made by Rev. Mr. Sykes and Mr. Samuel T. Rex, the designer of the monument. Miss Elizabeth C. Carter read a paper descriptive of the career of Capt. Cuffe. Howard distributed his booklet and showed a compass used by his great-grandfather on his last voyages.
The life of Paul Cuffe is noteworthy for several reasons. In the first place, it is a tribute to American democracy. He is an example of an American youth handicapped on every side, but overcoming so well the difficulties which overshadowed him that he won recognition in three continents. There is no place in the world where such achievement is less difficult than America. She offers opportunities for self-recognition unprecedented in the world.
In the next place his life is a tribute to the Quakers. No religious organization has given itself so unreservedly to the uplift of the Negro. This devotion is as old as that which won our political liberties, as deep as the scars on Edith Cavell's heart, and as wide in its reach as the waters of the sea. Cuffe's membership in this religious body and his adherence to its principles gave zest to his zeal for the betterment of his race. His plans grew so comprehensive that they embraced the Negroes of two continents and made calls on his philanthropic spirit for several thousand dollars. In all this he paid a tribute to Quaker ideals and life, and deserves mention with Woolman and Benezet.
The remedy that he believed would relieve the oppression of his race is also noteworthy. To him the withdrawal of the free Negro from the States would remove an obstacle to the emancipation of the slave, and in the course of time wholly stamp out slavery in America. Negroes would be better off by themselves, and those who settled in Africa could help civilize and Christianize that continent. In the meantime the slave trade would disappear.
Negro deportation had been advocated by some of America's most distinguished citizens and soon after Cuffe's death its advocates increased by leaps and bounds. In the early period it was not as futile as it now is and many believed that under governmental support and direction it was in the realm of possibility. When the measure took on its most colossal program in 1817, Cuffe cautioned his brethren to watch its operation for a year or two before taking sides for or against it.
Today Negro colonizationists are few in number. The American Colonization Society itself barely maintains its organization, and only occasionally sends a Negro to Africa. When an individual is sent he usually goes in the capacity of a missionary or teacher. Colonization as a panacea for the amelioration of the Negro race is impracticable. The Negro feels at home in America as much as the white man. Negro uplift must be sought not in deportation but in habits of living exemplified in Captain Cuffe.
There is his industry and thrift. It is a long step from nothing to twenty thousand dollars. And it is a hard step when there is practically no initial footing. But Paul Cuffe did it, and did it because he believed in work. He was always at his task. The dignity of labor he knew and valued. And he knew how to save. He made his money work for him. He stopped the leaks in his business boat. He spent wisely and invested well.
There is his interest in education. The painstaking endeavor and indefatigable effort which belonged to his labor in industry was equally a part of his labor in education. It is difficult for us today with our excellent opportunities for education to realize how meagre they were in Paul Cuffe's day. And if they were meagre for whites a century and one half ago they were all the more so for Negro children. Despite the handicaps he not only mastered the three R's but the principles of navigation as well.
He learned something more valuable than this—the fine art of diffusing knowledge. So dearly did he value education for the youth of his neighborhood that he himself on his own land erected a school building. He made contributions to teachers' salaries. And most of all, he taught the principles of navigation to every young man who offered himself for instruction. Such devotion to a cause grows out of a recognition of its great worth.
There is his interest in religion. He stood for righteousness. No one ever charged him with unfair dealing. His business was clean. He sought the fellowship of the church. He contributed to its needs and gave personal testimony to the power of Christ. Religion was vital in his life; he tried to foster it from Westport to Freetown. He was both a home and a foreign missionary. He knew the value of prayer. He gave advice that was tested first in his own experience.
Overshadowing his industry, his religion, and education stands his optimism. He believed in the victory of righteousness; therefore, he worked for it. He believed in the triumph of truth; therefore, he dedicated himself to it. He realized the mastery of poverty; therefore, he gave pursuit to wealth. He believed in the amelioration of his race; therefore, he consecrated himself to it.
Henry Noble Sherwood.