Thomas Cumming was an American merchant of the 18th century who built up a large commercial empire in West Africa. He is the best known for the role he played in the 1758 Capture of Senegal in which he submitted a plan to the British war leader William Pitt which advocated an attack on France's valuable but ill-defended African colonies.
Cumming was born in New York City, and raised as a Quaker, something which later earned him the nickname of the "fighting quaker".
Read more about Thomas Cumming: Capture of Senegal
Famous quotes containing the word thomas:
“The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)