Little is known about his childhood until he became a mariner. Thus Pardon Cook was a product of the African slave trade and a blend of Indian and African cultures – much like Paul Cuffe and Charlotte White, along with many others in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. After his death, Cuffe loaned money to the estate to pay off creditors and keep the farm intact for Benjamin’s widow. He died in 1812 in a fall from the mast of a ship – probably a Paul Cuffe-owned vessel. He owned 20 acres of land bordering the Allen’s Neck Meeting House in Dartmouth. In 1790 Benjamin married Catherine Almy, daughter of Ned Almy, a freed African slave, and Mary Nunksue, a Wampanoag. Benjamin’s father, Abraham Cook, was most likely born in Africa, and his mother, Mary Robbins, was Wampanoag. Pardon’s father, Benjamin Cook, was born in Little Compton. Both groups were socially and economically marginalized and found refuge and community with each other. Many of the slaves and free blacks of this area intermarried with Wampanoag Indians. His ancestors were slaves of the Almy and Cook families of Tiverton, Rhode Island-some of whom were not only slave owners but also engaged in the slave trade in Newport. Pardon Cook’s heritage begins in slavery. Less well known is Pardon Cook, also an accomplished master mariner from Westport, who commanded more whaling voyages than any other person of color in the nineteenth century, and whose life intersected with that of Paul Cuffe through maritime ventures and marriages. The best-known citizen of Westport is Paul Cuffe, a master mariner with African and Indian roots who rose to prominence as a captain, ship-builder, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and advocate for civil rights and school integration.
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