William Cuffay

William Cuffay (1788–1870) was a Chartist leader in early Victorian London.

William Cuffay
Born	1788 Medway Towns, Kent, England
Died	1870 Tasmania
Nationality	United Kingdom

Background

Cuffay was mixed race, the son of a Gillingham, Kent woman and a slave from Saint Kitts, then a British colony. He was born in 1788 in Old Brompton, an area of the Medway Towns that is now in Gillingham. He was apprenticed to a tailor, and later worked for Matthews and Acworth, on Chatham High Street. Cuffay was short, being 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) in height. He moved to London in about 1819 and was married three times. His one daughter Ann Juliana Cuffay was baptised at St Mary Magdalenes Church, Gillingham.

Chartist organiser

Cuffay rejected the Owenite trade unions of the London tailors. He went on strike with his fellow tailors in 1834, demanding a ten hour day between April to July and an eight hour day during the rest of the year with pay of 6 shillings and 5 pence a day. The strike collapsed, Cuffay was sacked and subsequently blacklisted from working. In 1839 Cuffay helped to form the Metropolitan Tailors' Charter Association. He was elected first to the Chartist Metropolitan Delegate Council in 1841 and onto the National Executive in 1842.

Cuffay was one of the organisers of the large Chartist rally on Kennington Common on 10 April 1848, but was dismayed by the timidity of other leaders who had rejected the idea that the rally should be a show of force. Cuffay's radical faction soon became involved in plans for a display of "physical force".

Arrest and transportation

Betrayed by a government spy, Cuffay was arrested and accused of planning an armed uprising. Despite being defended by eminent barrister John Walter Huddleston, he was convicted of preparing acts of arson, intended as a signal for the rising. Sentenced to 21 years penal transportation, Cuffay spent the rest of his life in Tasmania.

Though he was pardoned three years after his conviction, Cuffay elected to stay in Tasmania, working as a tailor and involving himself in local politics. He died in poverty in the Hobart Invalid Depot in July 1870.

His courtroom speech was recently an exhibit at the Museum of London.

Cuffay was also the subject of a recent BBC Radio 4 programme, entitled Britain's Black Revolutionary written and presented by the former trades union leader Bill Morris.

Cuffay's transportation to Australia didn't end his political activity. He continued to organise and agitate for democratic rights in Tasmania for another 20 years until his death in 1870, at the age of 82. Cuffay's Chartist legacy is today enshrined in parliaments in Britain and Australia. His lifelong political activism remains an inspiration to those who believe in workers rights, human rights and democracy. Although Cuffay died a pauper, newspapers in three states - Tasmania, NSW and Victoria - published obituaries. One observed that his grave had been 'marked', should a memorial to him be built at some future time. The memorial never transpired, and Cuffay was forgotten in Australia and Britain. But now there's a move to build one - or perhaps even a statue!

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Aubry, Bruce (2005). Red flows the Medway: A Labour History of the Medway Towns. Rochester, ME1 1FA: Pocock Press. ISBN 0-9545785-1-1. 

External links

• BBC website
• William Cuffay portrait: National Portrait Gallery
• [1]
• THE IRISH CONFEDERACY To the Editor of the Daily Courier, LAUNCESTON, 18 July 1854
• The Isle of Denial: William Cuffay in Van Diemens Land, ABC Radio, 19 July 2011
• Cuffay and other Chartists in Australian Newspapers
• William Cuffay Obituaries
• William Cuffay - A Chartist Hero: Senator Carol Brown