{{Short description|Anglicized Akan name found as both a first and surname in African-American culture}} {{Not to be confused with|Coffee|Cuffee (Jamaica)|Cuffe|Coffy (person)|Original Koffee}} {{Infobox family|name=Cuffee|native_name_lang=Akan language|other_names=Cuffey Coffey|origin={{Flag|Ashanti}}<br/>Empire of Ashanti|region=United States and Jamaica|etymology=Kofi (born on Friday)}}
'''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.<ref name="Rodriguez2007">{{cite book|author=Junius P. Rodriguez|title=Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4X44KbDBl9gC&pg=RA1-PA394|year=2007|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-544-5|pages=1–}}</ref>
==Racist connotation== [[File:Cuffee Dancing for Eels – Catharine Market (Life in New York) MET DP369453.jpg|thumb|A racist depiction of a scene in the Catherine market of New York titled; "''Cuffee dancing for eels''" (1857).]]
The name was used in the United States as a derogatory term to refer to Black people.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5fiwomZF8DIC&q=cuffee+derogatory&pg=PA15 |title=Black New Orleans, 1860–1880 |first=John W. |last=Blassingame |date=September 15, 2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226057095 |access-date=8 August 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> 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."<ref>Speech to the United States Senate, May 7, 1860</ref>
==Notable people==
=== Guyana ===
* Coffij, leader of the 18th century Berbice Rebellion in Guyana.
===Jamaica=== * Cuffee, a maroon who waged a slave rebellion against plantation owners in Jamaica in the early 1800s.
===United Kingdom=== * William Cuffay (1788–1870), Chartist leader, the son of a former slave. ===United States=== * Cuffee Mayo (1803–1896), minister, laborer, and politician in North Carolina. * Ed Cuffee (1902–1959), a jazz musician born in Norfolk, Virginia who moved to New York City in 1920 to pursue his career as a jazz trombonist. * 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.<ref name="Boskin1988">{{cite book|author=Joseph Boskin|title=Sambo: The Rise & Demise of an American Jester|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjLnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|year=1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505658-7|pages=29–}}</ref> * Paul Cuffee (missionary) (1757–1812), Native American (Shinnecock) Christian minister, missionary, and preacher. * James Cuffey (1911–1999), American astronomer * Robert Cuffey (d. 1960), American singer, member of The Five Sharps
==See also== * Cuffey, fictional character from ''North and South'' * John Coffey, fictional character from ''The Green Mile'' * Quander family, oldest documented African-American family in the United States whose surname is of Fante origin. * 2334 Cuffey, minor planet
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:African-American masculine given names Category:Masculine given names Category:Surnames Category:Given names