Revolutionary War
Born into slavery, Cuffee Saunders secured his freedom by serving during the Revolutionary War.
Image Source: Benjamin Huntington, Oath certifying Cuffee Saunders's purchase of freedom, 1821, Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC00318
Cuffee Saunders
Cuffee Saunders
Cuffee Saunders’s Biography
Primary Source: Oath certifying Cuffee Saunders’s freedom
This document is composed of two oaths attesting to Cuffee Saunders’s freedom. At the time, Saunders was still registered with the enslaved name of Wells.
Benjamin Huntington, [Oath certifying Cuffee Saunders’s purchase of freedom], April 30, 1781, Gilder Lehrman Collection, GLC00318.
Full Transcript
Norwich 30th April 1781
This Certifies, that we Subscribers, in May 1777. Belonged to A Class in the Town of Norwich To Procure a Soldier for the Continental Army, of Which Mr. Elihu Hyde was Head, and that Said Class Hir’d Cuffee Wells, a Free Negro to Enlist Into the Continental Service During the War, and Gave him Besides the Publick Bounty Thirty Pounds for Inlisting and [inserted: the John Nutter Surgn.] that Part of the Whole of Said £30.0.0 as we then understood was Paid to [struck: his] [inserted: Cuffee’s] old Master for his [struck: Cuffee’s] Time
Jno Nutter
Richard Lamb
Norwich April 30th 1781. Personally approved Messer. John Nutter and Richard Lamb Signers to the Above Certificate and made Solemn Oath to the Truth of the Same and Capt Jedediah Hyde of Said Norwich adds being himself on Oath that he was the Captain of the Same Company which the said Cuffee was Inlisted into, and that he always understood that the money that was Given to Cuffee at his Inlistment Purchased his Freedom
Sworn Before me Benj. Huntington Justice of Peace
