1854 - William Cuffay, Black British Chartist, Exiled for Democracy

On May 14, 1854, William Cuffay, a Black British political activist and former leader of the Chartist movement, died in exile in Tasmania. Born in 1788 in Kent, England, to a formerly enslaved African father and English mother, Cuffay became a tailor in London and rose to prominence as a fierce advocate for workers’ rights and universal suffrage. Despite facing racial prejudice, he became a key leader in the Chartist movement—Britain’s first mass working-class political organization. Known for his oratory and radical views, Cuffay was arrested in 1848 for allegedly plotting an uprising and was sentenced to transportation (forced exile) to Tasmania. Even in exile, he continued to fight for justice, becoming a union organizer and voice for the oppressed. His legacy as one of the earliest Black working-class political leaders in Britain remains largely overlooked in mainstream histories of democracy and labor.