"Coffee" as the name of a female slave

[Joel S. Berson]

In 1713 in Little Compton (then Mass., now R.I.) a female black slave
was named "Coffee."  [Hull, "Female Felons: Women and Serious Crime
in Colonial Massachusetts" (1987), 112; primary source Superior Court records.]

I have read that "Coffee" was derived from a male day name.  Perhaps
in this case the name was related to skin color; I wonder whether
that was unusual.

Joel

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