Cuffee Mayo, sometimes spelled Cuffie Mayo, (1803–1896) was a minister, laborer, and politician in North Carolina. He was a Republican. Mayo was born free in Virginia. He moved with his family to

Warren County, North Carolina Warren County is a County (United States), county located in the northeastern Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina, on the northern border with Virginia, made famous for a Warren County PCB Landfill, lan ...

by 1808. He later moved to Granville County where he worked as a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

and a painter. He was African American and Granville County was home to many people had been enslaved. Mayo served two terms in the legislature. Like many of Granville’s mixed-race people, the Mayos’ roots were deep in colonial Virginia, where the mixing of Native Americans, white colonizers, and African Americans emanated from English invaders dispossession of indigenous peoples, forced importation of Africans, and enslavement of both. He represented Granville County in the

North Carolina House of Representatives The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Speaker of the House, who holds powers si ...

in 1868. He served with fellow Granville representatives A. A. Crawford (who was also African American) and J. W. Ragland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo, Cuffee Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era 1803 births 1896 deaths 19th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly