DESCRIPTION:
Cuffy has a number of interesting threads that when woven together make the tune richer than its melody alone. My version has drifted some distance from the original. I fear that I may have been influenced by my memory of another tune, perhaps Magpie. My apologies as always. I am playing a Gold Tone BC 350+.
The source of the tune is fiddler Nicky (N.H.) Mills of Boone's Mill, Virginia. Seattle Violin Maker and old-time and Cajun fiddler extraordinaire, Armin Barnett visited and recorded Mr. Mills playing Cuffy in 1972. Mills has been described as a rather taciturn individual, who did not want to encourage other visitors. He told Armin "If anyone asks about me, tell them I'm dead." Armin did as instructed,

Cuf´fy (k f`f)
n. 1. A name for a negro.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co..

There are at least two slave rebellions linked to Cuffy: The New York Slave Insurrection of 1741, and the rebellion in Guyana in 1763.

When I play this tune, I think of the enslaved Africans that built so much of this country, the hardships they endured, and honor their memory.