Cuffe, Paul (1759-1818) Merchant: Paul Cuffe was born in Cuttyhunk Island, near New Bedford, Massachusetts, to a West African father and a Wampanoag Indian mother. Cuffe became a sailor,. and by the time he was 25, he was master of his own ship, which he manned entirely with black people. He became a prominent Quaker, and his trading activities made him wealthy. He worked with friends in Philadelphia to establish missionary activities in Sierra Leone, later setting up trade with the African nation. Cuffe felt that colonies in Africa would help bring an end to slavery in America. He also supported a sort of precursor to Marcus Garvey's "Back to Africa" Movement, transporting black Americans on his ships as colonists in western African countries. Cuffe died on September 7, 1818