have done much, but we must not forget how much more there
is still to do. To some extent we have been given opportunity, but we
must not cease to remember that no race can be given relative rank--it
must win equality of rating for itself. Hence, we must not only acquire
education, but character as well. It is not only necessary that we
should speak well, but it is more necessary that we should speak the
truth.

PAUL CUFFE

JOHN W. CROMWELL

Paul Cuffe was born in 1759 on the island of Cuttyhunk, near New
Bedford, Massachusetts. There were four sons and six daughters of John
Cuffe who had been stolen from Africa, and Ruth, a woman of Indian
extraction. Paul, the youngest son, lacked the advantage of an early
education, but he supplied the deficiency by his personal efforts and
learned not only to read and write with facility, but made such
proficiency in the art of navigation as to become a skillful seaman and
the instructor of both whites and blacks in the same art.

His father, who had obtained his freedom and bought a farm of one
hundred acres, died when Paul was about fourteen. When he was sixteen,
Paul began the life of a sailor. On his third voyage he was captured by
a British brig and was for three months a prisoner of war. On his
release he planned to go into business on his own account. With the aid
of an elder brother, David Cuffe, an open boat was built in which they
went to sea; but this brother on the first intimation of danger gave up
the venture and Paul was forced to undertake the work single-handed and
alone, which was a sore disappointment. On his second attempt he lost
all he had.

Before the close of the Revolutionary War, Paul refused to pay a
personal tax, on the ground that free colored people did not enjoy the
rights and privileges of citizenship. After considerable delay, and an
appeal to the courts, he paid the tax under protest. He then petitioned
to the legislature which finally agreed to his contention. His efforts
are the first of which there is any record of a citizen of African
descent making a successful appeal in behalf of his civil rights. On
reaching the age of twenty-five he married a woman of the same tribe as
his mother, and for a while gave up life on the ocean wave; but the
growth of his family led him back to his fond pursuit on the briny deep.
As he was unable to purchase a boat, with the aid of his brother he
built one from keel to gunwale and launched into the e