PAPERBACK ISBN: 0-88258-243-7       $41.95

560 pages; 6 x 9 inches

A Black Quaker's "Voice from within the Veil"

Edited by Rosalind Wiggins

Although his name is familiar in some New England Quaker circles, most people know little about Paul Cuffe—shipbuilder, merchantman, man of faith. He was one of the few black Quakers in the early 1800s and an important figure in American trade history. In Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters, 1808–1817, editor Rosalind Wiggins has collected this remarkable man’s correspondence and ship’s logs. She presents original manu­scripts that tell the story of Cuffe’s efforts to undercut the slave trade by forming a trading cooperative in Sierra Leone, thus linking the United States, England, and small West African nations. Wiggins discusses the insurmountable obstacles Cuffe faced: the War of 1812, a trade embargo, and increased power of slave traders among others; the widespread network of African American organizations that provided him with help; the deep concern for education within the black community; and the strength of the church in that community. Wiggins reveals Cuffe’s story in his own words, preserving the spelling and punctuation of a self-educated man who wrote in a time when phonetic spelling was still acceptable.

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