In 1787, a man named Cuff (sometimes “Cophy” or “Cuffee”) Douglas sat down with a Quaker named Thomas Stapler to tell his story. Douglas was a free tailor, seventy years old, and he recounted how, after four decades of enslavement, he had worked to purchase his own freedom and that of his wife and three children, including his older son, also called Cuff. Stapler also noted that for the previous seven years, Douglas’ father-in-law, who was blind, had been living under his roof. Stapler would send the remarkable, though brief, biography to the London Abolition Society along with other similar accounts as proof that formerly-enslaved Black Americans were becoming pillars of society. That Douglas was chosen for a testimonial suggests that he was, in fact, one of the most prominent free Black Philadelphians of his time.
Cuff Douglas (here listed as “Caff Douglass”), listed in the 1785 Philadelphia City Directory, digitized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Where Stapler’s account ends, we can find Cuff Douglas in other documents. In 1777, Cuff Douglas (either Senior or Junior) was married to Phoebe Loom at Old Swedes’ Church. By 1779, one or both of the Cuffs moved into #117 Elfreth’s Alley, renting the home, which had been built in the 1740s or 1750s, from Joshua Brown--we can find Douglas on the tax rolls in 1779, paying 7 pounds of property tax on Brown’s estate. By 1785, the city directory shows Cuff Douglas the tailor (probably Cuff Sr.) living on Spruce Street between 4th and 5th. Cuff Douglas, Jr. is listed in later city directories living on Blackberry Alley, which ran North/South between 8th and 9th, and working as a carter.
117 Elfreth’s Alley today. A small walkway, Bladen’s Court, runs along the East side of the house giving access to several homes tucked in behind. Photo by Emily Taggart Schricker
Whatever we can learn from this confusion of documents, it is clear that the entire Douglas family led remarkable lives, emerging from enslavement through manumission and redemption in the decades before Pennsylvania passed the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1780 (under which, in any case, the children would still have been enslaved until they reached age 28). They achieved a standard of living as free Black Philadelphians that brought them attention from abolitionists such as Thomas Stapler, though that notice was possibly also a double-edged sword. We do not know what became of the Douglas descendants, but hope to learn more about this family that once lived on the Alley!
#117 Elfreth’s Alley was just heavily featured in Emily Taggart Schricker’s guide to Elfreth’s Alley bricks, an exclusive benefit of our Patreon page.
Additional Sources:
Douglas’ testimonial is in the Papers of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS) (microfilm), Manumissions, Indentures, and other Legal Papers (Reel 23), Certificates of freedom, 1770-1826, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
“Thomas Maule,” maulefamily.com: http://www.maulefamily.com/fziphtml/i19.htm