Q: Poem "Negro Cuffee"?

[Wilson Gray]

Harvard (surprise!) has a copy:

http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou01423

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Q: Poem "Negro Cuffee"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A correspondent asks:
>
>>The enquiry about "coffey" leads me to ask about a similar word from
>>a poem or song from the mid-eighteenth century that I have long been
>>trying to identify. Â I have found the poem in only one manuscript,
>>and I have not yet found a printed version.
>>
>>The piece is a 34-line dialogue in dialect, with air and recitative.
>>A title was added to the manuscript later: "A Song / Negro Cuffee"
>>(first line "As Negro Cuffee in the Market stood"). Â It presents two
>>slaves, male and female, who are in the market place selling wares
>>(in one case, "grass") and who banter about their affections. Â It is
>>more likely British than colonial North American--although there
>>could be some island involvement..
>
> This may be a false trail, but -- I have the faintest trace of a
> memory of encountering this in one of the books I've read about
> slavery in colonial America, but unfortunately have no notes about it.
>
> Joel
>
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