Seeking Dignity and Respect for All – Paul Cuffe
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
September 22, 2024
Good morning Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning we continue our Speak Truth to Power series by looking at Quaker Paul Cuffe. The scripture I have chosen is from Philippians 2:3-4 from the New Century Version.
When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.
A few years ago, I was visiting the original Pike Place Starbucks in Seattle. I noticed at the original store, they still use the logo from 1971 that Terry Heckler designed. Other than removing the bare chest of the siren, sharpening up the image to make it a bit more modern, and changing the color from brown to green, most of us can recognize the now famous siren logo as representing Starbucks. But the more I looked at the image, the more I became curious. My curiosity led me to make some connections that unexpectedly led back to Quakers.
Obviously, the logo and the name, Starbucks implies a connection to the classic novel, Moby Dick. And when standing in Seattle at Pike Place Market it is hard not to miss the sea of the Puget Sound calling sailors to the Pacific Ocean. Yet if you went to your local library and pulled a copy of Moby Dick off the shelf and started reading, you would quickly find the character Starbuck, who is the first mate of the Pequod and operates as the voice of reason aboard the ship. He is a Quaker and periodically brings up a religious perspective in some of the arguments that take place on the Pequod's journey.
Even though this is a fictional tale, it borrows from real life. Mary Coffin Starbuck was interestingly a relative of Lucretia Mott, who also, as we heard last week, had connections to the whaling industry. The islands off Massachusetts became whaling central in early America, and Quakers were the foundation of its success. There is so much interesting history in this story. Even at one point a Starbuck marries a Folger – yes of another coffee fame. You cannot make this stuff up.
Anyway, I say this all to lead us to look at another historic Quaker, Paul Cuffe, the first wealthy and successful black man in America. Again, Paul has a very interesting story that I believe is still relevant for Friends, today. Let me share a little of his story again from Quaker Stories: Now and Then, Here and There.
In 1759, Paul Cuffe was born on Cuttybunk Island, the southwest Island of the Elizabeth Island archipelago off the coast of Massachusetts near the present city of New Bedford. His father, Kofi, had been brought to America from the Akan tribe in present day Ghana and bought by a Quaker, Ebenezer Slocum, and sold later to his nephew John, who freed him two years later. Kofi married a woman, Ruth Moses, of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe and raised ten children with her. Paul was the seventh of these children and learned practical skills of carpentry, farming, and fishing from his father. As a small boy, he spent hours on the rocky shores of the small island, observing the sea – the tides, the currents, and the shoals. From both his parents, he learned a spirituality that respected people and the natural world. From them he learned Quaker values of respect for all as children of God, the importance of education, responsibility for family, providing for the less fortunate, speaking the truth, and working hard to develop the gifts given to you. Kofi Slocum’s watchwords were “Give, give, give.” Though his father died when he was about ten, Paul never forgot these lessons.
His father left the 116 acres of farm land he had bought near Dartmouth/Westport to Paul and his older brother John, but Paul was pulled to the sea and sailed on his first whaling journey at 16. He learned navigational skills, shipbuilding, and whaling from the sailors and work on the boats. Captured by the British and held in New York as a prisoner for three months during the Revolutionary War, he had time to think about what he was going to do with his future. When he returned home, he used timber from his land and built a small boat to run the British blockade and supply goods to Nantucket and other island towns…He built a bigger boat, used the business and social skills of the wealthy Quaker trader William Rotch as his model, and set up a hauling, trading, real estate, shipbuilding, and whaling business. He married his Wampanoag wife Anna and had seven children, two sons and five daughters and built a school on his own property to ensure an education for them, their cousins, and any white children who wanted to attend. He partnered with his brother-in-law, Michael Wainer, the Wampanoag husband of his sister Mary, and sailed with his all African American and Native American crews, mostly relatives, north to Newfoundland and south to Philadelphia, Virginia, and South Carolina. Later, he would trade across the Atlantic to England, France, Spain, Portugal, Africa, the West Indies, and the Gulf Coast. Everywhere he went he learned from the people he met and developed a reputation for honesty, intelligence, good common sense, courage and respect for others.
He suffered the insults and prejudices of a black man with humility but no sign of weakness. He encouraged his crew to act with dignity and respect to all. Audacious enough to sail his all-black crew into southern ports, he found his presence and that of his crews led to surprise and business acceptance, even kindness on occasion. When he returned from his first trip to the African shores, his ship and cargo were seized in the Newport, RI harbor due to embargoes he was unaware of. He rallied his supporters from the wealthy Quaker shipping trade of New Bedford to Massachusetts politicians to Philadelphia businessmen, both black and white, and went to Washington, DC to see President James Madison. Helped by DC and Baltimore Quakers, he entered the “front” door of the White House, met the president, stated his protest and request, and gained his waiver to recover ship and goods…
…As he travelled, Paul Cuffe became more and more concerned about the slave trade, the plight of slaves, and the treatment of free blacks in the North. During his international trading, Paul Cuffe met abolitionists in Great Britain, received a favorable welcome, and saw ways he could build on British efforts in Sierra Leone to stop the slave trade and find a home in Africa where freedmen could not only improve themselves but serve as helpmates and models for the improvement of the African peoples. He hoped to educate Africans for future self-determination and entrance into the nations of the world. Having joined the Westport Friends Meeting in 1808, he prayed for the way to open that he might implement his dream and sought support from his meeting. In 1811 he received a minute of approval to travel to Sierra Leone to explore possibilities. The work of his remaining years was to begin.
Always an organizer and a pragmatist, he set up groups of supporters in the black communities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. He worked to raise money to set up a triangular trade between Sierra Leone, Great Britain, and the United States, buy tools and machinery to develop agriculture and small factories, and even start a whaling industry with African sailors he would train to someday man their own fleet. Having met some American and Jamaican freedman, most from Nova Scotia and England, he helped them form a Friendly Society that would plan and lead the local efforts in Sierra Leone.
Unfortunately, the War of 1812, the events of slave rebellions in the U.S. and Haiti, the increasing fears of Southern slaveowners, and the imbedded social culture of racial prejudice were to lead to the lack of fulfillment of his aspirations. Accepted as he was, wealthy as he had become, respected and dignified, Paul Cuffe was not able to realize his humanity as a child of God, irregardless of the color of his skin. His dream was co-opted by the American Colonization Society led by many Southern politicians and slaveowners, misunderstood by black leaders like James Forten and Absalom Jones, and hampered by self-serving chiefs and British merchants of Sierra Leone…He knew deep inside that those who are to be helped must have the opportunity to be a part of the planning and the leadership of those plans. He had worked hard, given of himself and his worldly goods, been courageous, honest, and strong, served his family and his community. He became ill, tired, and somewhat despondent. He was not to recover. As friends and family gathered at his sick bed in September, 1817, he asked only, “Let me die quietly.” He was buried next to his wife Anna in the cemetery of the Westport Friends Meeting albeit in a far corner.
So, what are our takeaways this morning. If you notice, there is a theme being developed in this series. From Bayard Rustin’s Grandma, Lucretia Mott’s parents, and again Paul Cuffe’s parents, we are seeing the importance of Quaker values being passed down from family members, fellow Friends, and especially through Quaker communities.
With all the new young families and children coming to First Friends, I believe it is now, more than ever, vital to teach a new generation the Quaker values instilled in Paul Cuffe; respecting the equality of All people, teaching the responsibilities and importance of family and community, being a voice for the less fortunate, learning the stewardship of the earth, and cultivating the gifts the divine has given each of us.
Still, our world continues to tell us we deserve to take, take, take in a selfish and self-serving manner, we need to instead speak Kofi Slocum’s watchwords, “Give, give, give” once again to instill and cultivate a servant heart in our midst.
We, at First Friends must be committed to continually teaching and modeling a desire to serve and love others like we see in Paul Cuffe’s life. People are not automatically born with a servant's heart, it must be modeled, tested, nurtured, and learned among a community that is willing to sacrifice and utilize their gifts for the betterment of others.
We must ask, are we serving ourselves more than we are serving others? Are we seeing and responding to those in need of support, love, and care within and around us?
This is why instead of being an organization or a church, we consider ourselves a Society of Friends – a society is a people who live together with a common purpose. For Quakers that purpose is to live out our testimonies or S.P.I.C.E.S. – Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship.
So often today, we want to, or are taught to, do things all on our own, so we alone receive the notoriety and success, but Paul Cuffe displays a genuine need for the support of his Quaker Meeting and other local communities to do even greater things.
As the first Black Sea Captain and first real successful black man in our country, he didn’t need money, he needed the mental, spiritual, and emotional support of a community that he could trust with his life, family, and work. Paul needed people to call on when things got tough. He needed people to stand with him when the world around him denied, rejected and even imprisoned him. He needed people who believed in him, respected him, and on occasion challenged him to be an even better person, citizen, father, and husband. And sadly, even with all this support, the imbedded social culture of racial prejudice of his day led to him not being able to fully see his aspirations fulfilled.
This is why today; we have groups like American Friends Service Committee, Indiana Friends Committee on Legislation, and Friends Committee on National Legislation, because this work is never done. Just like Cuffe being supported to go back to Sierra Leone to work for change for slaves, AFSC, IFCL and FCNL are continuing this legacy to seek justice, dignity, and respect for ALL people in Indiana, the United States, and even the world. Friends in our Meeting, through these groups, are still working to free people from the slaveries brought on by our government and the legacy of oppressions we often unknowingly participate in.
Now, when I was an Anglican Priest, to work outside of a church or parish, I needed the blessing of my bishop. When I went to serve as a Campus Pastor at Huntington University, I was given what was called “Missioner Status” and sent by my bishop and my entire Anglican Diocese. I have come to realize this is very similar to what we do among Friends. Paul Cuffe received a minute of approval to travel to Sierra Leone to Speak his Truth to Power about slavery.
In the same manner, for those who did not attend our Business Meeting last week (or did not read it in Friend to Friend) you missed the Minute of Appreciation written by Ministry and Counsel for Mary Blackburn and her call to Creation Care work. Mary has not only been a creation care activist, but even more an educator in our midst passing down her call for dignity and respect for creation and challenging us to acknowledge and respond from our Quaker testimonies of Stewardship and Sustainability.
Just maybe, along with that minute of appreciation, we should also write a minute of travel for Mary Blackburn as she and David travel to Sequoia National Park each year to care for and protect the trees in the Giant Forrest. It would be a way of sending her with our support, so she may then share her work and learnings with us, our yearly meeting, and possibly the greater Quaker world, because we believe Mary is speaking her truth to power!
On our recent sabbatical, Sue and I visited the Sequoias and who did we think of while traveling up the mountains into the Giant Forrest, Mary Blackburn, because she has taught us so much about respecting, caring for, and her passion to save those trees.
And maybe you are discerning a call that has been placed on your heart this morning, and you want the wisdom and support of First Friends. Or you know a Friend who needs to be publicly appreciated for their work. These are ways that we as a body can recognize and support each other – through the difficult and the good times. This is acknowledging and freeing people to Speak their truth to Power. And just maybe we too will raise our voice and be able to say as Paul Cuffe,
“My soul feels free to travel for the welfare of my fellow creatures both here and now.”
As we enter waiting worship, please take a moment to ponder these queries:
1. Are we serving ourselves more than we are serving others?
2. Are we seeing and responding to those in need of support, love, and care within and around us?
3. How can we become an even better “Society of Friends” that encourages or acknowledges the gifts and work of others for the betterment of our world?