Story of the last "black cargo"

Object Details

Notes
Reviewed by Ana Lucia Araujo in Journal of African history (Cambridge, England) 60 (2) 2019, pages 297-299(DT1.J858 AFA).
Contents
Foreword: Those who love us never leave us alone with our grief : reading Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo" / by Alice Walker -- Introduction -- Editor's note -- Barracoon. Preface -- Introduction -- The king arrives -- Barracoon -- Slavery -- Freedom -- Marriage -- Kossula learns about law -- Alone -- Appendix. Takkoi or Attako--children's game -- Stories Kossula told me -- The monkey and the camel -- Story of de Jonah -- Now disa Abraham fadda de faitful -- The lion woman -- Afterword and additional materials / edited by Deborah G. Plant
Summary
"In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship. Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life. During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo's past--memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War. Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo's unique vernacular, and written from Hurston's perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture."--Publisher's website.
Data Source
Smithsonian Libraries
Date
2018
19th century
author
Hurston, Zora Neale
editor
Plant, Deborah G. 1956-
writer of foreword
Walker, Alice 1944-
Subject
Lewis, Cudjo
Clotilda (Ship)
Type
Biography
Biographies
History
Physical description
xxviii, 171 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Place
Alabama
Mobile
Africa
United States
Mobile (Ala.)
Topic
Slaves--History
West Africans--History
West Africans
Slaves
Slave trade--History
Slavery--History
Slave ships
History
Record ID
siris_sil_1096220
Usage
CC0