Cuffee
# Cuffee

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.

## Racist connotation

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

## Notable people

### United States

* Paul Cuffee (1759-1817), a Massachusetts freeman and shipping magnate. Cuffee rejected the surname of his former owner, Slocum, and replaced it with his father's Akan name.
* Edward Emerson Cuffee (1902-1959), a jazz musician born in Norfolk, Virginia who would move to New York City in 1920 to pursue his career as a jazz trombonist.

### Jamaica

* Cuffee, A maroon who waged a slave rebellion against plantation owners in Jamaica in the early 1800s.
