Chatham Cuffay(1755-1815)Black dockyard worker in C18th Kent
The life of William Cuffay(1788-1870) the black leader of London Chartism in 1848 is becoming better known but there is now some detail on his father.
Chatham Cuffay (not his original first name which appears to be as yet undiscovered) came from a slave background and travelled to England on a navy ship possibly as a chef. He became one of a significant number of black workers in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England. Many arrived as Cuffay had done and probably the largest cohort remained dock and ship related workers but over time they may well have had an increased presence in the wider working population. William Cuffay, a tailor, is one example of this. His father has until now remained very largely hidden from history.
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