1. William Cuffay was a Chartist leader in early Victorian London.
29 Facts About William Cuffay
1. 2.
Chatham William Cuffay worked in the Chatham dockyard, and died in 1815.
3.
William Cuffay moved to London around 1819 and was married three times.
4.
In 1819, William Cuffay married Ann Marshall, but she died in 1824.
5.
In 1827, William Cuffay married Ann Manvell, a straw hat maker who lived in Lambeth.
6.
William Cuffay rejected the Owenite trade unions of the London tailors.
7.
William Cuffay went on strike with his fellow tailors in 1834, demanding a ten-hour workday from April to July and an eight-hour day during the rest of the year with pay of 6 shillings and 5 pence a day.
8.
The strike collapsed, William Cuffay was sacked and subsequently blacklisted from employment.
9.
In 1839, William Cuffay helped to form the Metropolitan Tailors' Charter Association.
10.
William Cuffay was elected first to the Chartist Metropolitan Delegate Council in 1841 and onto the National Executive in 1842.
11.
In 1842, as a response to members of the working classes migrating to the colonies, William Cuffay urged his members to stay, and instead encourage the aristocracy, who were "vermin", to leave.
12.
William Cuffay was a significant player in having the Master and Servant Act amended, so employers could no longer have their employees imprisoned if they left their jobs without permission.
13.
In 1839, William Cuffay was involved in the campaign which led to the Chartists presenting a petition to the parliament, which called for universal adult suffrage, no property qualification, annual parliaments, equal representation, payment of members, and vote by ballot.
14.
William Cuffay addressed a meeting of the Metropolitan Tailors' Charter Association, in which he spoke out in support of Frost.
15.
In 1842, William Cuffay was one of the Chartist leaders who presented another petition to parliament, containing the original six points, but calling for Irish independence.
16.
William Cuffay signed a letter to the Northern Star newspaper, seeking to raise funds for the prisoners on behalf of the Metropolitan Chartists.
17.
In 1843, at a Chartist meeting in High Holborn, William Cuffay addressed the crowd, and thanked the working classes, on behalf of his relatives who were now freed slaves, for their support in helping to abolish slavery in the colonies.
18.
William Cuffay said that he now dedicate himself to assist the working classes of Britain to gain their freedom.
19.
William Cuffay was one of the auditors of the Land Company.
20.
William 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, such as O'Connor, who had rejected the idea that the rally should be a show of force.
21.
William Cuffay was often listed as a performer of the Laughing Song by William Blake for Chartist fund-raising events.
22.
William Cuffay was defended by eminent barrister John Walter Huddleston, who was hired by Feargus O'Connor.
23.
In 1851, William Cuffay was involved in a "public meeting of the free trade unions", to further the aims of the anti-transportation league, and to stop the use of convict labour in public works.
24.
William Cuffay campaigned against the Master and Servant Act in England, and continued that activism in Australia.
25.
William Cuffay continued to organise and agitate for democratic rights in Tasmania.
26.
William Cuffay died in poverty at the Hobart Invalid Depot on 29 July 1870 at the age of 82.
27.
The memorial never transpired, and William Cuffay was forgotten in Australia and Britain.
28.
William Cuffay was the subject of a 2010 BBC Radio 4 programme entitled Britain's Black Revolutionary written and presented by the former trades union leader Bill Morris.
29.
William Cuffay appeared in the third series of the UK television show Victoria.