Paul Cuffe, also known as Paul Cuffee (January 17, 1759 – September 7, 1817) was an African American businessman, whaler and abolitionist. Born free into a multiracial family on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, Cuffe became a successful merchant and sea captain. His mother, Ruth Moses, was a Wampanoag from Harwich, Cape Cod and his father an Ashanti captured as a child in West Africa and sold into slavery in Newport about 1720. In the mid-1740s, his father was manumitted by his Quaker owner, John Slocum. His parents married in 1747 in Dartmouth.

After Cuffe's father died when the youth was thirteen, he and his older brother, John, inherited the family farm (their mother had life rights). They resided there with their mother and three younger sisters. The following year Cuffe signed on to the first of three whaling voyages to the West Indies. During the Revolutionary War, Cuffe delivered goods to Nantucket by slipping through a British blockade on a small sailboat.  After the war, he built a lucrative shipping business along the Atlantic Coast and in other parts of the world. He also built his own ships in a boatyard on the Westport River. In Westport, Massachusetts, he founded the first racially integrated school in the United States.

A devout Quaker, Cuffe joined the Westport Friends Meeting in 1808. He often spoke at the Sunday services at the Westport Meeting House and also at other Quaker meetings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1813, he donated half the money for a new meeting house in Westport, and oversaw the construction. The building still survives. Few Americans of color were admitted to the Friends Meeting at that time.

Cuffe became involved in the British effort to found a colony in Sierra Leone, to which the British had transported more than 1,000 former slaves originally from America. Some had been enslaved by American Patriots and had sought refuge and freedom behind British lines during the war. After the British were defeated, they took those former slaves first to Nova Scotia and London. Prodded by Black Loyalists such as Thomas Peters, who had agitated for a return to Africa, the British in 1792 offered the Nova Scotia blacks a chance to set up a colony of their own in Sierra Leone, where they resettled.

At the urging of leading British abolitionists, in 1810 Cuffe sailed to Sierra Leone to learn about conditions for the settlers and whether he could help them. He concluded that efforts should be made to increase the local production of exportable commodities and develop their own shipping capabilities rather than continuing to export freed slaves. Cuffe sailed to England to meet with members of The African Institution, who were also leading abolitionists. He offered his recommendations to improve the lives of all the people in Sierra Leone. His recommendations were well received in London and he subsequently made two more trips to Sierra Leone to try to implement them.

On his last trip in 1815–16, he transported nine families of free blacks from Massachusetts to Sierra Leone to assist and work with the former slaves and other local residents to develop their economy.  Some historians relate Cuffe's work to the "Back to Africa" movement being promoted by the newly organized American Colonization Society (ACS). A group made up of both Northerners and Southerners, it was focused on resettling free blacks from the United States to Africa - eventually resulting in development of Liberia.  The leaders of the ACS had sought Paul Cuffe's advice and support for their effort. After some hesitation, and given the strong objections by free blacks in Philadelphia and New York City to the ACS proposal, Cuffe chose not to support the ACS. He believed his efforts in providing training, machinery and ships to the people of Africa would enable them to improve their lives and rise in the world.

Biography

Early life
Paul Cuffe was born on January 17, 1759, on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. He was the youngest son of Coffe (Kofi) Slocum and his wife Ruth Moses. Kofi was an Ashanti slave of Akan heritage. The Ashanti form of slavery was different from American chattel slavery, in a number of ways. Ashanti slaves had legal rights, could own property, inherit property and marry.

At around 10 years old Kofi was either seized or sold to Fanti middlemen, the first step in the Atlantic slave trade. On the West African coast he was traded to representatives of the Royal African Company and shipped to Newport, Rhode Island, where he was purchased by Ebenezer Slocum, a Quaker farm owner in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. In 1742, Slocum sold Kofi to his nephew, John Slocum, for 150 pounds. John apparently intended to free Kofi after he had gained his purchase price in labor, and manumitted him around 1745.

Kofi took the last name of Slocum, his former owner. In 1746, he married Ruth Moses. She was a member of the Wampanoag Nation, and had been born and raised on Cape Cod.

At that time Kofi was working as a paid laborer for Holder Slocum, the son of Peleg Slocum, who had a large farm in Dartmouth and also owned the westernmost Elizabeth Islands, off the south coast of Massachusetts. Holder Slocum and his neighbors transported sheep to those islands for grazing during the summer months. He hired Kofi Slocum to care for those sheep; in about 1750 Kofi moved with his family to the westernmost island, known as Cuttyhunk.

There he built a house and lived year-round with his family for the next 15 years. The last eight children of Coffe and Ruth were born on Cuttyhunk, including Paul, the 7th child and youngest of four boys. They had the only house and may have been the only full-time residents on Cuttyhunk. Members of the Wampanoag tribe likely lived, at least seasonally, on nearby islands in the Elizabeth chain and also on Martha's Vineyard. In 1766 Coffe and Ruth bought a  farm in nearby Dartmouth, and moved to the mainland with their ten children in the spring of 1767.

Coffe Slocum died in 1772, when Paul was 13. As their two eldest brothers by then had families of their own elsewhere, Paul and his brother John took over their father's farm operations. They also supported their mother and several sisters.

Around 1777-1778, when he was 19, Paul's older brother John decided to use a version of his father's first name, Coffe, as his last name. Several of his siblings did the same, but not all. Paul later signed his name on correspondence, deeds, and his will by spelling 'Coffe', with a 'u' instead of an 'o'. In the national census of 1790, 1800 and 1810 his last name is recorded as "Cuff"; census takers sometimes wrote only how names sounded and are not required to meet the people whose names they're recording. Paul's mother, Ruth Moses, died on January 6, 1787.

Time as a mariner

In 1773, the year after his father's death and again in 1775, Paul Cuffe sailed on whaling ships, getting a chance to learn navigation. In his journal, he identified as a marineer (mariner). In 1776 after the start of the Revolutionary War, he sailed on a whaler but it was captured by the British. He and the rest of the crew were held as prisoners of war for three months in New York City before being released. Cuffe returned to his family in what is now Westport, Massachusetts. In 1779, he and his brother David borrowed a small sailboat to reach the nearby islands. Although his brother was afraid to sail in dangerous seas, Cuffe set forth, probably with a friend as crew in 1779 to deliver cargo to Nantucket. He was waylaid by pirates on this and several subsequent voyages. Finally, he made a trip to Nantucket that turned a profit. He reportedly continued to make these trips to Nantucket throughout the war.

In 1780, at the age of 21, Paul and his brother John Cuffe refused to pay taxes because free blacks did not have the right to vote in Massachusetts. In 1780, they petitioned the council of Bristol County, Massachusetts, to end such taxation without representation, which had been an issue of colonists that led many to the Revolution. The petition was denied, but his suit contributed to the state legislature decision in 1783 to grant voting rights to all free male citizens of the state.

After the war ended, Cuffe entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law, Michael Wainer, to build ships and establish a shipping business along the Atlantic Coast. He gradually built up capital and expanded to a fleet of ships. After using open boats, he commissioned the 14- or 15-ton closed-deck ship Box Iron, and then an 18- to 20-ton schooner. In 1789 he and Wainer set up their own shipyard on the east bank of the Acoaxet River, in the new town of Westport which had been carved from Old Dartmouth. He continued to build ships for the next 25 years.

Paul's sister Mary had married Michael Wainer in 1772; they had seven sons together between 1773 and 1793. Many as men became crew members and even captains on ships owned by their father and uncle. Jeremiah Wainer and his two sons (Cuffe's great-nephews) were lost at sea in 1804 when one of the family ships went down.

Marriage and family
On February 25, 1783, Cuffe married the widow Alice Abel Pequit. Like Cuffe's mother, Alice was a Wampanoag woman. The couple settled first in an "Indian-style" house near Destruction Brook in Dartmouth and later in Westport, Massachusetts, where they raised their seven children: Naomi (born 1783), Mary (born 1785), Ruth (1788), Alice (1790), Paul Jr. (1792), Rhoda (1795), and William (1799).

Shipping
In 1787, Paul Cuffe and his brother-in-law, Michael Wainer (husband of Mary Slocum, his older sister and ten years older than Paul) built their first ship together, a 25-ton schooner Sunfish. It was the beginning of a long partnership between the two men and their families.  Their next ship was the 40-ton schooner Mary that was built in their own boatyard on the Acoaxet River. They then sold the Mary and Sunfish to finance construction of the Ranger — a 69-ton schooner launched in 1796 again from Cuffe's shipyard in Westport. In 1799 Cuffe added to his shipyard property, increasing it from 0.22 acres to 0.33 acres to provide more room for both his family home and the boatyard.

By 1800 he had enough capital to build and hold a half-interest in the 162-ton barque Hero. At that time Cuffe was one of the most wealthy — if not the most wealthy — African American or Native American in the United States. His largest ship, the 268-ton Alpha, was built in 1806, and his favorite ship, the 109-ton brig Traveller the following year. In 1811, when Cuffe took the Traveller into Liverpool, The Times of London reported that it was probably the first vessel to reach Europe that was "entirely owned and navigated by Negroes."

Property purchases by Paul Cuffe

Paul Cuffe and his brother John inherited the 116-acre farm in Westport from their father. They subsequently divided it between them but Paul never seemed to show an interest in farming and left the management of the farming to his brother or later to tenants. Paul's first recorded property purchase in 1789 was the 0.22-acre lot on the Acoaxet River where he first located his boatyard and then his home. He added to that lot in 1799 by acquiring a 0.11-acre abutting property on the south side of his boatyard.  http://paulcuffe.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/New-Revelations-FINAL.pdf

Also in 1799 Paul Cuffe bought two large properties from a Westport neighbor, Ebenezer Eddy. The first was the Eddy family homestead of 100-acres with a house and outbuildings that was some 300 yards south of his boatyard on the Acoaxet River. The following year Paul sold this property to his sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Michael Wainer, for the same price he had paid for it. In the deed it states that the Wainers were already living on the property. From this record it appears that Paul bought the property for the Wainers with the understanding that they would buy the property from him when they were able. Michael Wainer and Paul Cuffe remained partners, with Wainer's sons captaining and crewing most of the ships.

The second property that Paul purchased from the Eddy family in 1799 was a 40-acre lot several hundred yards north of his boatyard that had previously belonged to the Allen family and was known as "The Allen Lot." He appears to have leased this land out to others to farm and then willed it to his youngest son, William, along with money to build a house on it.

Some years later, in 1813, Paul purchased from David Soule a roughly 4-acre property abutting his boatyard and home on the north and west. This was property of only a little over 4 acres that he identified as his homestead and divided among his wife and children when he died in 1817.

Cuffe's landholdings and those of Michael Wainer are described in the Cole, Gifford, Slade listed and linked in the references.

Prior settlements of free blacks in Sierra Leone
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, most White Americans believed that people of African descent were inferior to those of European descent. The Second Great Awakening, carried primarily by Quakers, Methodists, and Baptists from New England to the American South, had motivated some owners to manumit (free) their slaves after the Revolutionary War. As slavery continued after the Revolution, primarily in the South, prominent men such as Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, both slave owners, believed the emigration of free Blacks to colonies either within or outside the United States was the easiest and most realistic solution to the race problem in America. It was a means of providing an alternative for free blacks, rather than absorbing a large population of ex-slaves into the white community through emancipation.

Attempts to settle American Blacks in other parts of the world had encountered many difficulties, including the British attempt to found a colony in Sierra Leone. Beginning in 1787, the Sierra Leone Company sponsored 400 people, mostly the "Black Poor" of London, to resettle in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Some were African Americans who had been freed from slavery by escaping to British lines during the Revolutionary War and then evacuated from American upon the war's conclusion. The Freetown colony struggled to establish a working economy and develop a government that could survive against outside pressures. After the financial collapse of the Sierra Leone Company, a second group, the newly-created African Institution, offered emigration to a larger group of Black Loyalists who had been resettled in Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War. Many of the African Institution's sponsors hoped to gain an economic return from the colony.

The second wave of settlers in Sierra Leone consisted of some 1,200 free Blacks who, after England's defeat, had been transported by the Royal Navy from American port cities to Nova Scotia for resettlement. These people of color, mostly from the southern U.S. states, found Nova Scotia a very uncomfortable place, where they faced regular discrimination at the hands of the local white residents. John Clarkson, a young naval officer, and the younger brother of Thomas Clarkson, an ardent abolitionist, led the expedition of 15 ships from Nova Scotia to Freetown in the early months of 1792.

This group of settlers had formed communities and congregations in Nova Scotia and many of them were educated and skilled in farming and various crafts. John Clarkson carried through on the promised housing and land allotments so long as he remained in Freetown, through the end of 1792. But two issues arose that caused continuing conflict between the Nova Scotians and the English authorities. The Sierra Leone Company in London, that had supported the movement of the Free Blacks from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, had different goals than the new settlers. They wanted to establish a commercially viable plantation system, using the two groups of settlers as laborers. They also demanded quit-rents from those settlers who received land distributions, a condition that John Clarkson was unaware of. The settlers refused to pay such rents and this became a continuing source of conflict.

These grievances led the Black Nova Scotians to launch a revolt in 1800, a revolt that was only suppressed by the arrival of a new group of settlers from Nova Scotia known as "maroons." These were free blacks who had originally been brought as slaves to Jamaica in previous centuries but had managed to escape into the mountainous areas of that island where they had survived and governed themselves for over a century. This group of maroons were transported to Sierra Leone from Jamaica after the conclusion of the Second Maroon War.

A final group of settlers that were deposited in Sierra Leone in the years after 1807 were the Africans who had been freed by the British Royal Navy from slave ships that they captured after the British abolition of the slave trade in 1807. These freed blacks came from various areas along the West African coast.

Cuffe's first venture to Sierra Leone, in 1811

Paul Cuffe had for some years taken an interest in the colonial settlements in Africa. One of his close Quaker friend and business partner, William Rotch Sr., had traveled to London shortly after the Revolutionary War ended at a time when there was much discussion in government and the press about the first settlement of blacks from Britain in Sierra Leone. When Rotch returned to America and settled in New Bedford he potentially informed Paul Cuffe about these undertakings. Subsequently Cuffe wrote as follows: I have for these many years past felt a lively interest in their behalf, wishing that the inhabitants of the colony might become established in truth, and thereby be instrumental in its promotion amongst our African brethren.

From March 1807 on, Cuffe was encouraged by Quaker and abolitionist friends in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York City to help the fledgling efforts to improve Sierra Leone. Cuffe mulled over the logistics and chances of success for the movement before deciding in 1809 to join the project. On December 27, 1810, he left Philadelphia on his first expedition to Sierra Leone.

Cuffe reached Freetown, Sierra Leone, on March 1, 1811. He traveled the area and investigated the social and economic conditions of the region. He met with some of the colony's officials, who were opposed to American commercial vessels coming to Sierra Leone and competing with local merchants. His own attempts to sell goods yielded poor results, particularly because of high tariff charges on trade to and from the colony. On Sunday, April 7, 1811, Cuffe met with the foremost black entrepreneurs of the colony. Together, they wrote a petition for the African Institution in London, stating that the colony's greatest needs were for settlers to work in agriculture, merchandising, and the whaling industry, saying that these three areas would best facilitate the growth of the colony. Upon receiving this petition, the members of the Institution agreed with their findings. Cuffe and the black entrepreneurs together founded the Friendly Society of Sierra Leone as a mutual-aid merchant group dedicated to furthering prosperity and industry among the free peoples in the colony.

At the invitation of the African Institution, Cuffe sailed to Britain to secure further aid for the colony, arriving in Liverpool in July, 1811. He was warmly received by the heads of the African Institution in London, and they raised some money for the Friendly Society. He was granted governmental permission and license to continue his mission in Sierra Leone. He also stayed with British officials and merchants in London and Liverpool, who were very hospitable and respectful of the intelligent, dedicated, and hard-working African-American Quaker merchant who was full of positive ideas about what might be done to improve the colony of Sierra Leone and bring development to the African people. Encouraged by this support, Cuffe returned to Sierra Leone, where he and black settlers solidified the role of the Friendly Society. They refined development plans for the colony including building a grist mill, saw mill, rice-processing factory, and salt works.

Embargo, President Madison, and the War of 1812
Relations between the United States and Britain were strained and, as 1811 ended, the U.S. government established an embargo on British goods, including goods from Sierra Leone. This affected U.S. transatlantic trade, as well as trade with Canada. When Cuffe reached Newport in April 1812, his ship the Traveller was seized by U.S. customs agents, along with all its goods. Officials would not release his cargo, so Cuffe went to Washington, D.C., to appeal. He was able to meet with Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin and President James Madison. Madison warmly welcomed Cuffe into the White House. This may have been the first time an African American had been a guest in the White House. Deciding that Cuffe had not intentionally violated the embargo, Madison ordered his cargo returned to him.

Madison also questioned Cuffe about his time in Sierra Leone and conditions there. Eager to learn about Africa, Madison was interested in the possibility of expanding colonization there by free American blacks. The strained diplomatic situation with Britain erupted into the War of 1812. Despite this, it has been suggested that Madison regarded Cuffe as the leading U.S. authority on Africa at that time.

Cuffe intended to return to Sierra Leone regularly, but in June 1812 the war started. As a Quaker pacifist, Cuffe opposed the war on moral grounds. He also despaired of the interruption of trade and efforts to improve Sierra Leone. As the war between the United States and Britain continued, Cuffe tried convincing both countries to ease their restrictions on trading, and allow him to continue trading with Sierra Leone. His petition to the U.S. Congress was acted on favorably in the Senate, but rejected in the House, that was dominated by representatives from the South. Like other merchants, he was forced to wait until the war ended.

Meanwhile, Cuffe visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, speaking to groups of free blacks about the colony. Cuffe also urged blacks to form Friendly Societies in these cities, communicate with each other, and correspond with the African Institution and with the Friendly Society in Sierra Leone. He printed a pamphlet about Sierra Leone to inform the general public of the conditions in the colony and his ideas about bringing progress there. In At home in 1813, Cuffe worked mainly on the rebuilding of the Westport Friends Meeting House and contributed roughly half the cost of that project. c.

The war caused Cuffe to lose ships and he suffered financially. The Hero was declared not seaworthy while in Chile and never returned home. John James of Philadelphia, his managing partner in the Alpha, was losing money in the ship's operations. Fortunately the war ended with the Treaty of Ghent at the end of 1814. After getting his finances in order, Cuffe prepared to return to Sierra Leone.

After the war
Cuffe sailed out of Westport on December 10, 1815, with thirty-eight free black colonists: eighteen adults and twenty children, ranging in age from eight months to sixty years old. The group included William Gwinn and his family from Boston.

The expedition cost Cuffe more than $4,000 (). Passengers' fares, plus a donation by William Rotch, Jr. of New Bedford, covered the remaining $1,000 cost. The colonists arrived in Sierra Leone on February 3, 1816. The ship was carrying such supplies as axes, hoes, a plow, a wagon, and parts to build a sawmill. Cuffe and his immigrants were not greeted as warmly as Cuffe had been previously. Governor MacCarthy of Sierra Leone  was already having trouble keeping the general population in order, and was not excited at the idea of more immigrants. In addition, the Militia Act, which had been imposed upon the colony, required all adult males to swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Many local people refused to do so for fear of being drafted into military service. In addition, his cargo sold at undervalued prices. But the new colonists were finally settled in Freetown. Cuffe believed that once regular trade between the United States, Europe, and Africa began, the society would prosper.

For Cuffe, though, the expedition was costly. Each colonist needed a year's provisions to get started, which he had advanced to them. Governor MacCarthy was sure that the African Institution would reimburse Cuffe, but they did not, and he lost over $8,000 () after having to pay high tariff duties as well. The African Institution never reimbursed Cuffe for the mission, and Cuffe had to deal with mounting economic issues. He knew he needed stronger financial backing before undertaking another such expedition.

Later years
On his return to New York in 1816, Cuffe exhibited to the New York chapter of the African Institution the certificates of the landing of those colonists at Sierra Leone. "He has also received from Gov. MacCarthy a certificate of the steady and sober conduct of the settlers since their arrival, and an acknowledgment of $439.62 advanced to them since they landed, to promote their comfort and advantage."

During this time period, many African Americans became interested in emigrating to Africa, and some people believed this was the best solution to the problem of racial tension in American society. Cuffe was persuaded by Reverends Samuel J. Mills and Robert Finley to provide information and advice to the American Colonization Society (ACS), formed for this purpose. Cuffe was alarmed at the overt racism displayed by many members of the ACS, who included slaveholders. Certain co-founders, particularly Henry Clay, advocated relocating freed Blacks as a way of ridding the American South of "potentially troublesome agitators" who might disrupt their slave societies. Other Americans preferred the emigration to Haiti. The Haitian government of President Jean-Pierre Boyer encouraged American immigrants, believing they could help the country develop and gain recognition by the United States government (which did not happen until 1861, when the Southern politicians who controlled the government withdrew en masse to form the Confederacy).

Death and legacy
In early 1817, Cuffe's health deteriorated. He never returned to Africa, and died in Westport on September 7, 1817. His last words were "Let me pass quietly away." Cuffe left an estate with an estimated value of almost $20,000 (). His will bequeathed property and money to his widow, siblings, children, grandchildren, the widow and heirs of Benjamin Cook, and the Friends Meeting House in Westport. He is buried in the graveyard behind the Westport Friends Meeting House and his wife was later buried next to him. A crowd of more than 200 friends, relatives, and admirers gathered for the ceremony and his long-time friend and contemporary, William Rotch Jr., delivered one of the eulogies at the event. The following month, Reverend Peter Williams Jr. offered an extended eulogy at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New York.

Henry Noble Sherwood, who wrote one of the first biographies about Paul Cuffe that is included in the references and further reading, summed up his life in the final paragraph of that work as follows:

"Overwhelming his industry, his religion and education stands his optimism. He believed in the victory of righteousness; therefore, he worked for it. He believed in the triumph of truth; therefore, he dedicated himself to it. He realized the mastery of poverty; therefore, he gave pursuit to wealth. He believed in the amelioration of his race; therefore, he consecrated himself to it." (Sherwood, Paul Cuffe, p. 229.)

Legacy and honors
On January 16, 2009, Congressman Barney Frank inserted extended remarks titled "Paul Cuffe: Voting Rights Pioneer" into the Congressional Record.
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts issued a proclamation honoring the 250th anniversary of the birthday of Paul Cuffe on January 17, 2009, by declaring it Paul Cuffe Day in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts State House and Senate issued citations on January 17, 2009, honoring Paul Cuffe's birth.
On September 7, 2017, Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts issued a proclamation honoring the 200th anniversary of Paul Cuffe's death by making that date Paul Cuffe Day in Massachusetts.
The Massachusetts House and Senate issued citations on September 7, 2017, honoring the 200th anniversary of Paul Cuffe's death.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum opened the Captain Paul Cuffe Park at the corner of Water and Union Streets in 2018.
The Paul Cuffe Symposium Committee Inaugurated the Paul Cuffe Heritage Trail celebrating Native American and African American Heritage from New Bedford to Westport on September 7, 2017, which honors Cuffee Slocum, Paul Cuffe, and Michael Wainer.
The Paul Cuffee Maritime Charter School for Providence Youth was established in 2001 in Providence, Rhode Island.
The Paul Cuffe Math-Science Technology Academy ES was established in 2003 in Chicago, Illinois, replacing the Cuffe Elementary School.

See also
 Absalom Boston, the first African-American captain to sail a whaleship, with an all-black crew
 Lewis Temple, best remembered for the invention of "Temple's Toggle" or "Temple's blood" which was a harpoon toggle tip based upon Eskimo and Indian harpoon tips brought back to New England by Whalers in 1835

References

Further reading
 All the Symposium Papers from the paulcuffe.org website.http://paulcuffe.org/symposium-papers/
 Exploring Paul Cuffe: The Man and his Legacy, a Public Symposium Saturday October 3, 2009, held at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Selected Papers:
Cole, David C. The Struggle for Respect: Paul Cuffe and his Nova Scotian Friends in Sierra Leone.
Kilson, Marion, Paul Cuffe's Social Networks and Entrepreneurial Success
Lowther, Kevin G, If Paul Cuffe Had Lived a Few Years Longer: Sierra Leone and Liberia, as They Might Have Been http://paulcuffe.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Lowther_Kevin.pdf
Winch, Julie, Thou Art Often the Companion of my Mind: Cuffe, James Forten and the Portrait of a Friendship
 Cuffe 1759-1817: Following His Footsteps: a Public Symposium Saturday, September 16, 2017, held at the Westport Friends Meeting House and Westport Grange. Selected Papers:
Cole, David C., Gifford, Richard, and Slade, Betty New Revelations from Old Deeds
Cruz, Carl J. Envisioning Paul Cuffe: An overview of the images that have been used to represent Paul Cuffe
 Armistead, Wilson.  Memoir of Paul Cuffe A Man of Colour.  London: Edmund Fry, Bishopsgate Street, 1840 from the Cornell University Library Digital Collections.
 Channing, George A. Early Recollections of Newport, Rhode Island from the year 1793 to 1811, Boston: A. J. Ward and Charles E. Hammett, Jr., 1898.
 Cole, David C., Richard Gifford, Betty F. Slade, Raymond Shaw. "Paul Cuffe: His Purpose, Partners and Properties." New Bedford, Spinner Publications, 2020.
 Cordeiro, Brock N. Paul Cuffe: A Study of His Life and the Status of His Legacy in Old Dartmouth. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Boston, 2004.
 Greene, Lorenzo Johnston. The Negro in Colonial New England, (Studies in American Negro Life, New York: Atheneum, 1942), p. 307.
 Gross, David (ed.), We Won't Pay!: A Tax Resistance Reader, pp. 115-117, .
 Harris, Sheldon H. Paul Cuffee: Black America and the African Return. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972.
 The American Promise: A History of the United States, 1998 (p. 286).
 Horton, James Oliver and Lois E. Horton (5 December 1996). In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and Protest among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860. Oxford University Press. p. 186.
 Mott, Abigail. "Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of Colour," 1826.  Printed and sold by Harvey and Dalton, W. Phillips, E. Fry, and W. Darton, London; R. Pearl, Birmingham; D. F. Gardiner, Dublin, 1826), pp. 31- 43.  https://books.google.com/books?id=vQ2qZk0hdlsC
 Nell, William C. The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, 1855.
 New Bedford Free Public Library. Paul Cuffe Manuscript Collection. Original source materials of Cuffee Slocum and Paul Cuffe.
 New Bedford Registry of Deeds.  Deeds and plans of the land transactions of Cuffee Slocum, Michael Wainer and sons, and Paul Cuffe.
 Paul Cuffe website. "PaulCuffe.org" Compilation of articles, genealogy, ships built, timeline and other materials on Cuffee Slocum, Paul Cuffe, and Michael Wainer.
 Salvador, George.  "Paul Cuffe, the Black Yankee, 1759-1817."  New Bedford, Mass.: by the author, 1969.
 Sherwood, Henry Noble. "Paul Cuffe."  Journal of Negro History.  Vol 8, No 2, April 1923,  PP. 153-232.
 Thomas, Lamont D. Paul Cuffe: Black Entrepreneur and Pan-Africanist, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988, pp 4-5.
 Thomas, Lamont D. Rise to Be a People, University of Illinois Press, 1986, republished in 1988 as Paul Cuffe: Black Entrepreneur and Pan-Africanist.  Comprehensive book on Paul Cuffe.
 Town of Westport, Ma. website.  Historical documents. Digitized Paul Cuffe Manuscript Collection from both the New Bedford Free Public Library and the New Bedford Whaling Museum Library. https://www.westport-ma.com/historical-documents/pages/cuffe-paul-personal-and-family-papers.
 Wiggins, Rosalind Cobb. Captain Paul Cuffe's Logs and Letters, 1808-1817 A Black Quaker's " Voice from within the Veil"]. Washington: Howard University Press, 1996.
 Williams, Jr., Peter, A Discourse Delivered on the Death of Capt. Paul Cuffee before the New-York African Institution'', in The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, October 21, 1817, New-York, Reprinted for W. Alexander; sold also by Darton & Co., W. Phillips, and W. Darton, Jr., London, 1818.

External links

 Paul Cuffe website  — website established in 2017 and updated regularly by the Westport Historical Society, Westport, Massachusetts, that is dedicated to documenting current and ongoing research about the lives of Cuffee Slocum, Paul Cuffe, Michael Wainer, and their relatives and descendants. It includes information on the African American Native American Heritage trail established between New Bedford and Westport in 2017.
 Captain Paul Cuffe Park  and New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts
 Paul Cuffee School, a maritime charter school in Providence, Rhode Island. Note this website spells Cuffee with two "e's".

1759 births
1817 deaths
18th-century Quakers
19th-century Quakers
African-American abolitionists
African-American Christians
African-American repatriation organizations
American colonization movement
American pan-Africanists
American people of Ashanti descent
American people of Ghanaian descent
American people in whaling
American Quakers
American tax resisters
Anglican saints
Converts to Quakerism
People from Cuttyhunk Island
People from Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Quaker abolitionists
Sierra Leone Creole history
Wampanoag people

Paul Cuffe


The Spanish and Mexican  governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for them to settle in the frontier. These Concessions reverted to the Spanish crown upon the death of the recipient.

After independence, the Mexican government encouraged settlement in these areas by issuing much larger land grants to both native-born and naturalized Mexican citizens. The grants were usually two or more square leagues, or  in size. Unlike Spanish Concessions, Mexican land grants provided permanent, unencumbered ownership rights. Most ranchos granted by Mexico were located along the California coast around San Francisco Bay, inland along the Sacramento River, and within the San Joaquin Valley.

When the government secularized the Mission churches in 1833, it required that land be set aside from their holdings for each Neophyte (or converted) Indian family who had been living at the missions. But the Native Americans were quickly brushed aside by Californios who, with the help of those in power, acquired the church lands as grants. The indigenous peoples of the Americas ("Indians"), landless, became virtual slaves of the rancheros.

Spain made about 30 concessions between 1784 and 1821. Mexico issued about 270 land grants between 1833 and 1846. The ranchos established permanent land-use patterns. The rancho boundaries became the basis for California's land survey system, and are found on modern maps and land titles. The "rancheros" (rancho owners) patterned themselves after the landed gentry of New Spain, and were primarily devoted to raising cattle and sheep. Their workers included Native Americans who had learned Spanish while living and working at one of the former Missions.

The ranchos were often based on access to resources necessary for raising cattle, such as water and adequate grazing lands and water. Land development from that time forward has often followed the boundaries of the ranchos, and many of their names are still in use. For example, Rancho San Diego is now an unincorporated "rural-burb" east of San Diego, and Rancho Bernardo is a suburb in San Diego.

Spanish era

Before 1754, only the Spanish Crown could grant lands in Alta California.  For several years, the Franciscan missionaries were the only beneficiaries of this policy. Spanish laws allowed four square leagues of land (one league being approximately ) to be granted to newly-formed settlements, or pueblos.

Settlement on the ranchos outside presidio, mission, and pueblo boundaries began in 1784. Private individuals applied to the Governor for grants and he issued a few written temporary permits. The Spanish crown retained title. In 1784, Juan José Domínguez received permission from Spanish Governor Pedro Fages to graze his cattle on the  Rancho San Pedro.

Two years later the governor received authority to grant tracts not exceeding three square leagues, as long as they did not conflict with the boundaries of existing pueblos. The grantee was required to build a stone house and to keep at least 2,000 head of stock on each rancho.

Mexican era

During the Mexican era (1821–1846), grantees received legal title to the land. In 1821, Mexico achieved its independence from Spain, and California came under control of the Mexican government. The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land grants in California; and by 1828, the rules for establishing land grants were codified in the Mexican Reglamento (Regulation).

The Acts sought to break the land monopoly of the missions and also paved the way for luring additional settlers to California by making land grants easier to obtain. The Mexican Governors of Alta California gained the power to grant state lands, and many of the Spanish concessions were subsequently patented under Mexican law—frequently to local "friends" of the governor.

Secularization

Soldiers, rancheros,  farmers, and those in power  coveted the rich coastal lands that the missions controlled. The Mexican government was also fearful about the missions which remained loyal to the Pope and the Catholic Church in Spain. In August 1833, the government secularized all of the  missions and their valuable lands, about  per mission. The Mexican government allowed the padres to keep only the church, priest's quarters, and priest's garden. The army troops guarding each Mission were dismissed.

The government stipulated that one half the mission lands and property was to be given to neophytes in grants of  of arable land along with land "in common" sufficient "to pasture their stock." A board of magistrates was to oversee the mission's crops and herds, while the land was to be divided into communal pasture, a town plot, and individual plots intended for each Indian family. In addition, one half of the herds were to be divided proportionately among the neophyte families.

But this purpose was never accomplished. In truth, only a very few Indians of Alta California were educationally or culturally equipped to accept the offering. Instead, they were further exploited by the rancheros and in many cases became virtual slaves. Most mission property was bought by government officials or their wealthy friends, local Californios, individuals of Mexican or Spanish descent who had been born in Alta California.

Ownership

The number of Mexican land grants greatly increased after secularization.  The former Mission Indians, freed from forced labor on the missions, but without land of their own, and their former way of life destroyed, often had few choices. Some lived with Indian tribes in the interior or sought work on the new ranchos along with the troops formerly assigned to each mission. They sometimes congregated at rancherías (living areas near a hacienda) where an indigenous Spanish and mestizo culture developed.

By 1846, the mission lands and its cattle had passed into the hands of 800 private landowners called rancheros. They collectively owned   of land, in units ranging in size from  to . They primarily produced hides for the world leather market and largely relied on Indian labor. Bound to the rancho by peonage, the Native Americans were treated as slaves. The Native Americans who worked on the ranchos died at twice the rate that of southern slaves.

The boundaries of the Mexican ranchos were provisional. The new owner was required to complete a legal survey that established and marked the boundaries. Even if completed, the resulting  'diseño', a rough, hand-drawn relief map, often only vaguely defined the boundary lines.

The grantee could not initially subdivide or rent the land. It had to be used for grazing or cultivation. A  residence had to be built within a year—most were initially simple adobe-walled cabins. Public roads crossing through the property must remain open.

The survey and residence requirements could not be enforced. The poorly funded and relatively unorganized government had little interest in land that brought in no taxes. The government instead collected revenue from tariffs assessed on cargo arriving at Monterey, California.

American era

The Mexican–American War began on May 13, 1846 with a declaration of war by the United States of America. Action in California began with the taking of Monterey on July 7, 1846, Los Angeles in August, other battles in December, 1846, then retaking of Los Angeles in January, 1847, which terminated the authority and jurisdiction of Mexican officials later that year. Armed resistance ended in California with the Treaty of Cahuenga signed on January 13, 1847. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed February 2, 1848 and California became a Territory of the United States. Between 1847 and 1849, California was run by the U.S. military. A constitutional convention met in Monterey in September 1849, and set up a state government. It operated for 10 months before California was admitted to the Union as the 31st State by the United States Congress, as part of the Compromise of 1850, enacted on September 9, 1850.

Gold Rush
While the end of the 1840s saw the close of Mexican control over Alta California, this period also marked the beginning of the rancheros' greatest prosperity. Cattle had been raised primarily for their hides and tallow, as there was no market for large quantities of beef, especially in the days prior to refrigeration, railroads or ice production. Demand dramatically changed with the onset of the Gold Rush, as thousands of miners and other fortune seekers flooded into northern California. These newcomers needed meat, and cattle prices soared with demand. The rancheros enjoyed the halcyon days of Hispanic California.

Land claims

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the Mexican land grants would be honored. To investigate and confirm titles in California, American officials acquired the provincial records of the Spanish and Mexican governments in Monterey.

The new state's leaders soon discovered that the Mexican government had given a number of grants just before the Americans gained control. The Mexican governors had rewarded faithful supporters, and hoped to prevent the new immigrants from gaining control of the land. Sponsored by California Senator William M. Gwin, in 1851 Congress passed "An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land Claims in the State of California". The Act required all holders of Spanish and Mexican land grants to present their titles for confirmation before the Board of California Land Commissioners. Contrary to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, this Act placed the burden of proof of title on landholders. Grantees were required to prove the validity of the grants they had received and establish their exact boundaries. The diseños (maps) available were often hand-drawn and imprecise. Land had until the gold rush been of little value and boundary locations were often quite vague, referring to an oak tree, a cow skull on a pile of rocks, a creek, and in some cases a mountain range. The 588 grants made by Spanish and Mexican authorities in California between 1769 and 1846 encompassed more than , or nearly .

The settlement of land titles was frequently complicated and lengthy. Even in cases where the boundaries were more specific, many markers had been destroyed before accurate surveys could be made. Aside from indefinite survey lines, the Land Commission had to determine whether the grantees had fulfilled the requirements of the Mexican colonization laws. Mexican officials often did not keep adequate records and sometimes did not provide grantees with any documentation of the grant. Many grants required additional approvals before they were legal. Conditions of the grant required the grantee to live on the land. All of these requirements were rarely fulfilled.

While the Land Commission confirmed 604 of the 813 claims it reviewed, most decisions were appealed to US District Court and some to the Supreme Court. The confirmation process required lawyers, translators, and surveyors, and took an average of 17 years (including the Civil War, 1861–1865) to resolve. It proved expensive for landholders to defend their titles through the court system. In many cases, they had to sell or give title to a portion of their land to pay for defense fees or gave attorneys land in lieu of payment.

Rejected Spanish and Mexican land claims resulted in conflicting claims by the grantees, squatters, and settlers seeking the same land. This resulted in pressure on Congress to change the rules. Under the Preemption Act of 1841, squatters were able to pre-empt others' claims to portions of the land and acquire clear title by paying $1.25 an acre for up to a maximum of . Land from titles rejected by the courts became part of the public domain and available to homesteaders after the first federal Homestead Act of 1862 was passed, allowing anyone to claim up to . This resulted in additional pressure on Congress, and beginning with Rancho Suscol in 1863, it passed special acts that allowed certain claimants to pre-empt their land without regard to acreage. By 1866 this privilege was extended to all owners of rejected claims.

A number of ranchos remained in whole or in part in the sliver of territory of Alta California left to Mexico by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which then became part of Baja California. Rancho Tía Juana (partially in San Diego County, California) lost its claim to title to its land in San Diego County but the balance of the rancho was confirmed by the Mexican government in the 1880s. Rancho El Rosario, Rancho Cueros de Venado and Rancho Tecate were each granted to citizens of San Diego in the 1820s or 1830s and lay wholly in what is now Baja California as was the Rancho San Antonio Abad, whose origin and title is more obscure. Their titles were never subjected to dispute in U.S. courts.

Disintegration

The rancheros became land-rich and cash-poor, and the burden of attempting to defend their claims was often financially overwhelming. Grantees lost their lands as a result of mortgage default, payment of attorney fees, or payment of other personal debts. Land was also lost as a result of fraud. A sharp decline in cattle prices, the floods of 1861–1862, and droughts of 1863–1864 also forced many of the overextended rancheros to sell their properties to Americans. They often quickly subdivided the land and sold it to new settlers, who began farming individual plots.

A shift in the economic dominance of grain farming over cattle raising was marked by the passage of the California "No-Fence Law" of 1874. This repealed the Trespass Act of 1850, which had required farmers to protect their planted fields from free-ranging cattle. The repeal of the Trespass Act required that ranchers fence stock in, rather than farmers fencing cattle out. The ranchers were faced with either the high expense of fencing large grazing tracts or selling their cattle at ruinous prices.

Legacy

The ranchos established land-use patterns that are still recognizable in contemporary California. Many communities still retain their Spanish rancho name. For example, Rancho Peñasquitos, the first land grant by the Spanish in today's San Diego County, is now a suburb within the city of San Diego. Modern communities often follow the original boundaries of the rancho, based on geographic features and abstract straight lines. Today, most of the original rancho land grants have been dismantled and sold off to become suburbs and rural-burbs. A very small number of ranchos are still owned by descendants of the original owners, retain their original size, or remain undeveloped.

Rancho Guejito in San Diego County is considered the last of the San Diego Ranchos to be undeveloped. Only a few historic structures and an  ranch house, built in the 1970s, occupy the . Benjamin Coates purchased the land in the 1970s after Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a purchase that would have made Guejito a state park. Coates purchased an additional  of surrounding land between the 1970s and his death in 2004. Coates and his wife Nancy both expressed their wishes that the Rancho remain undeveloped. After her death in 2006, ownership of the land passed to their daughter, Theodate Coates, an artist from New York City. Despite her parents' wishes that development be kept off of the Rancho, she has taken steps to remove Rancho Guejito's status as an agricultural preserve and eventually develop the land into tract housing.

See also
List of ranchos of California
Spanish missions in California
List of Spanish missions in California
Land grants in New Mexico
Bibliography of California history
Outline of California history

Notes and references

Further reading

Avina, Rose H. (1976). Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in California, Arno Press, New York.
Baker, Charles C. (1914). Mexican Land Grants in California,  Historical Society of Southern California, Vol IX, pp. 236–243

Becker, Robert H. (1969). Designs on the land : disenos of California ranchos and their makers. San Francisco, Book Club of California.

External links

Spanish Archives of California (Archivo Español de California)
Alameda County Mexican Land Grants
Contra Costa County Mexican Land Grants
Land Grants in Alta California
Los Angeles County Spanish and Mexican ranchos
Marin County Mexican Land Grants
 Marin County's Original Ranchos
Monterey County Mexican Land Grants
Napa County Mexican Land Grants
Orange County Spanish and Mexican Ranchos
San Benito County Mexican Land Grants
San Francisco County Mexican Land Grants
San Mateo County Mexican Land Grants
Santa Barbara County Rancho Map
Santa Clara County Mexican Land Grants
Santa Clara Ranchos, Grants, Patents and Maps
Santa Cruz CountyMexican Land Grants
Sonoma County Mexican Land Grants
Sonoma County Mexican Land Grants
Tehama County Mexican Land Grants
Ventura County Spanish and Mexican Land Grants

Baja California Ranchos

The Californias
Mexican California
Geographic history of California
Pre-statehood history of California
Cultural landscapes
Land law
Veterans' settlement schemes

Ranchos of California


Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist.

Early life
Isaac Stern was born in Kremenets, Poland (now Ukraine) to a Jewish family. In 1921, When Stern was over a year old, his family moved to San Franciso. At age 8, he began studies at San Francisco Conservatory of Music until 193. Later he would study under Louis Persinger. He returned to the conservatory under Naoum Blinder.

Stern debuted with the San Francisco Symphony at age 15 and played Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor.

Performances
He performed for soldiers during World War 2 and performed in USSR in 1951. During the Yom Kippur War, he would give a concert for wounded Israelis soldiers. A notable concert was in 1991 during the Gulf War. Stern was playing a Bach piece in Jerusalem, when sirens sounded the alarm of an air raid. Although the audience was frightened, Stern continued to play and the audience just listened to the rest of the concert with gas masks. Stern was also a cultural ambassador.

Stern performed frequently with the New York Philharmonic. He prevented Carnegie Hall from be taken down by campaigning and raising money for the building.

Stern would come to learn other musicians: Yo-Yo Ma, Jian Wang, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

Movies
Stern also contributed to movies. He was the soloist for the film Fiddler on the Roof (1971). He was also the music advisor for the film Humoresque (1946).

Discography
Stern's discography includes works by Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Barber, Bartók, Stravinsky, Bernstein, Rochberg, and Dutilleux.

Instruments
Stern enjoyed playing Ysaÿe Guarnerius, a violin made by the luthier Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù. Other instruments he played included "Kruse-Vormbaum" Stradivarius (1728),, the "Panette" Guarneri del Gesù (1737), the "ex-Stern" Bergonzi (1733), a Michele Angelo Bergonzi (1739–1757), the "Arma Senkrah" Guadagnini (1750), a Giovanni Guadagnini (1754) and others.

Awards

 Sonning Award (1982; Denmark)
 Wolf Prize
 Kennedy Center Honors (1984)
 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) (1962, 1963, 1965, 1982)
 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance(1971, 1992)
 National Medal of Arts (1991)
 Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992)
 Elected to the American Philosophical Society (1995)
 Polar Music Prize (2000; Sweden)
 Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur (1990)
 Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society (1991)
 Carnegie Hall Midtown Manhattan, New York: main auditorium was named for Isaac Stern in 1997.

References

1920 births
2001 deaths
American violinists

Isaac Stern


The tour du millénaire (French for tower of the millennium) is a vantage point built in 2001 in Gedinne, Belgium just meters away from the French border.

The tower consists of two tripods fitted together (one upright, one upside down) with three different viewing platforms (at 15 m, 30 m and 45 m). The total height of the tower (including the spire) is 60 m. The legs of the tripods are the stems of Douglas-fir trees found in the surrounding forest, held together by a steel construction.

It tops the plateau of the Croix-Scaille, a forest of around 90 square kilometres that was used by the Resistance during World War II. The plateau is at 503 m the highest point in the Ardennes (excluding the High Fens which is sometimes defined as being in the Ardennes) and the fourth highest summit in Belgium.

The tower was dismantled due to woodrot on 7 July 2008, and reopened after restoration on 5 July 2012.

References

External links
  Designing architects

Buildings and structures celebrating the third millennium
Towers in Belgium
Ardennes

Tour du Millénaire


The Riñihuazo is the name given to the landslide damming of Riñihue Lake on 22 May 1960, after  a landslide caused by the Great Chilean earthquake blocked its outflow. According to the chronicler Mariño de Lobera a similar event occurred after the 1575 Valdivia earthquake.

During the Great Chilean earthquake, several landslides near Tralcán Mountain blocked the outflow of Riñihue Lake at (). Riñihue Lake is the lowest of the Seven Lakes chain and receives a constant inflow from the Enco River.  The blocked San Pedro River, which drains the lake, passes through several towns and the city of Valdivia before finally reaching Corral Bay.

Because the San Pedro River was blocked, the water level of Riñihue Lake started to rise quickly. Each meter the water level rose was equivalent to 20 million cubic meters, which meant that 4.8 cubic kilometers of water would release into the San Pedro River (easily overpowering its flow capacity of 400 cubic meters per second) if it rose above the first, 26-meter-high dam.  This potential disaster would have destroyed all the settlements along the course of the river in less than five hours, and would have had more dire consequences if the dam had suddenly broken.

The Chilean Army moved the Batallón Escuela de Suboficiales of San Bernardo south, a unit made mostly of young conscripts, south to Valdivia Province to aid in the relief efforts. Men of this battalion added to forces digging out the ditches west of Riñihue Lake. It became known as "Batallón de Hierro" (Iron Battalion) by grateful locals.

About 100,000 people lived in the affected zone. Plans were made to evacuate Valdivia, and many people left. To avoid the destruction of the city, several military units and hundreds of workers from ENDESA, CORFO, and MOP started an effort, called the Riñihuazo, to control the lake. Twenty-seven bulldozers were put into service, but they had severe difficulties moving in the mud near the dams, so dykes had to be constructed with shovels. A proposal by some US military to blow up the dams with missiles from a helicopter was rejected. The work was not restricted to the lake; drainages from other parts of the Seven Lakes were also dammed to minimize the flow into Riñihue Lake.  These dams were removed later, with the exception of Calafquén Lake, which still retains its dam.

By 23 May, the main dam had been lowered from 24 to 15 meters, allowing 3 cubic kilometers of water to leave the lake gradually, but still with considerable destructive power. The settlements of Los Lagos, Antilhue, Pishuinco and the riverside areas of Valdivia were partially flooded. The team led by engineer Raúl Sáez finished two months after beginning the works.

References

Landslides in Chile
History of Los Ríos Region
Presidency of Jorge Alessandri
1960 in Chile
Landslides in 1960
Landslide-dammed lakes
Floods in Chile
Mapuche language
May 1960 events in South America

Riñihuazo


A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be selected. From his groomsmen, the groom usually chooses one to serve as best man.

For a wedding with many guests, the groom may also ask other male friends and relatives to act as ushers without otherwise participating in the wedding ceremony; their sole task is ushering guests to their seats before the ceremony. Ushers may also be hired for very large weddings.

In a military officer's wedding, the roles of groomsmen are replaced by swordsmen of the sword honor guard. They are usually picked as close personal friends of the groom who have served with him. Their role includes forming the traditional saber arch for the married couple and guests to walk through.

The first recorded use of the word 'groomsmen', according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was as recently as 1698, although the words 'bride' and 'groom' both date back to Old English.

Duties

The most visible duty of the groomsmen is helping guests find their places before the ceremony and to stand near the groom during the wedding ceremony.

Additionally, the groom may request other kinds of assistance, such as planning celebratory events such as a bachelor party, also called a stag-do or buck's night; helping make the wedding pleasant for guests by talking with people who are alone or dancing with unaccompanied guests or bridesmaids, if there is dancing at a wedding reception; or providing practical assistance with gifts, luggage, or unexpected complications.  Groomsmen may also participate in local or regional traditions, such as decorating the newlywed couple's car.

Bridegroom-men formerly had important duties. The men were called bride-knights, and represented a survival of the primitive days of marriage by capture, when a man called his friends in to assist to "lift" or kidnap the bride, or from the need to defend the bride from would-be kidnappers.

Best man

The best man is the chief assistant to the groom at a wedding. While the role is older, the earliest surviving written use of the term best man comes from 1782, observing that "best man and best maid" in the Scottish dialect are equivalent to "bride-man and bride-maid" in England.

In most modern Anglophone countries, the groom extends this honor to someone who is close to him, generally a close friend or a relative (such as a sibling or cousin). During a wedding ceremony the best man stands next to the groom, slightly behind him. This means that the four people present at the altar are the officiant (such as a civil celebrant, priest, rabbi, minister, or other religious figure), the bride, groom, and best man. This is common in some western countries, although in others the best man and bridesmaid participate on an equal footing.

While the best man's required duties are only those of a friend, in the context of a western white wedding, the best man will typically:
Assist the groom on the wedding day,
 Organise a stag-do,
Be in charge of the ushers
Keep the wedding rings safe until needed during the ceremony,
Stand next to the groom during the ceremony,
Act as a legal witness to the marriage and therefore sign the marriage certificate, and
Prepare a "best man's speech" to be read at the reception

In various countries and cultures

The best man is not a universal custom. Even in places where a best man is customary, the role may be quite different when compared to other areas of the world.
 In the Anglosphere, it is traditional for the best man to give a short speech.
 In Zambia, a best man is expected to lead processions both at the wedding, and at preliminary events. This includes pre-wedding dance rehearsals, at which the best man is always expected to be in attendance, and usually is expected to give an outstanding and outlandish dance-performance on the actual wedding-day.
 In Uganda, a best man is expected to guide the newlyweds in the ways of marriage. This means that ideally a best man must be married, preferably to one wife, and should be in position to give sound, tried and tested advice. A best man must be a confidant and be discreet about the details he shares with the new couple.
 In Bhutan, the best man presents himself at the wedding as a ceremonial guardian to both bride and groom. Thereafter he entertains the guests, sometimes for several hours.
 In Eastern Orthodox weddings in Greece, the best man is often also the koumbaros, or religious sponsor. The koumbaros (or koumbara, if a woman) is an honored participant who crowns the couple and participates in circling the altar three times. Sometimes, this person also pays for most of the wedding expenses.
 In Ukraine, a best man is responsible for guarding the bride during the wedding festivities. In a traditional wedding, when he or the groom stepped away, the bride got "kidnapped" or had a shoe stolen. Then the groom or the best man had to pay a ransom in exchange for returning the bride, usually by paying money (which was given to the bride) or by doing something embarrassing. The custom is less common nowadays due to frequent conflicts arising from the differences in the expected sum of money.

Bachelor party

In the past, the bachelor party was typically scheduled for a convenient evening during the week before the wedding. A type of farewell dinner, it was always hosted, and therefore organized and paid for, entirely by the groom.  The dinner was seen as the groom's last chance to entertain his friends as a single man; after the wedding, dinner parties at his home would always be presided over by his wife in her role as hostess.

Common slang names for this event are bachelor party, stag do, or bucks' night in different parts of the world. In many areas, this dinner is now most commonly organized by the best man; the costs can be shared by either all of the participants or all of the participants except for the groom, who becomes the guest of honor.

See also
Bridesman
Bridesmaid

References

Wedding ceremony participants

Groomsman


The Liberal Party of Australia (Western Australian Division), commonly called the WA Liberals, is the Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party, a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Australia. It is currently in Opposition. It forms the Coalition with the National Party. Its current leader is Libby Mettam and the deputy leader is Steve Thomas.

Political parties in Western Australia
Liberal Party of Australia


Is That All There Is? is a 1969 studio album by Peggy Lee, featuring arrangements by Randy Newman. The eponymous title track won Lee the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female at the 12th Grammy Awards.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Alex Henderson awarded the album four and a half stars and commented thatEverything on this LP is a gem ... The LP's centerpiece, however, is Newman's hit arrangement of Leiber & Stoller's title song, which was covered by P.J. Harvey in the 1990s. Influenced by German cabaret, this half-spoken, half-sung treasure is as hauntingly soulful as it is maudlin. The song's outlook is far from optimistic; essentially, it's saying that we might as well grab our moments of pleasure and enjoyment where we can find them because ultimately, life is nothing more than a meaningless series of disappointments. But there's nothing disappointing about Is That All There Is?, an LP that is most certainly among Lee's finest accomplishments.

Track listing
 "Is That All There Is?" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 4:20
 "Love Story" (Randy Newman) - 3:27
 "Me and My Shadow" (Al Jolson, Billy Rose, Dave Dreyer) - 3:04
 "My Old Flame" (Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston) - 4:24
 "I'm a Woman" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 2:09
 "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show" (Neil Diamond) - 3:00
 "Something" (George Harrison) - 3:14
 "Whistle for Happiness" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 3:25
 "Johnny (Linda)" (Randy Newman) - 2:47
 "Don't Smoke in Bed" (Willard Robison) - 3:31

Personnel
 Peggy Lee - vocals
 Randy Newman - arranger, conductor on "Is That All There Is?"
Mundell Lowe - arranger, conductor
Bobby Bryant - arranger, conductor
Benny Carter - arranger, conductor
Mike Melvoin - arranger, conductor
William George - illustration

References

Capitol Records albums
Peggy Lee albums
1969 albums
Albums arranged by Randy Newman
albums arranged by Mike Melvoin
albums arranged by Bobby Bryant (musician)
albums arranged by Benny Carter
Albums conducted by Randy Newman
albums conducted by Bobby Bryant (musician)
Albums produced by Jerry Leiber
Albums produced by Mike Stoller
Albums produced by Dave Cavanaugh
Albums recorded at Capitol Studios

Is That All There Is? (album)