Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo
by Zora Neale Hurston
Buy on AmazonBarracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” is a non-fiction novel written by acclaimed author Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston centers the work around Oluale Kossola, also known as Cudjoe Lewis, and his experiences on the Middle Passage. Lewis is believed to be one of the last known survivors of the voyages who could recall clear memories. Originally from West Africa, he was captured from his home and sold in the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1860, making him just a teenager when he arrived in Alabama to begin working. He was placed on the ship Clotilda. Lewis was held as an enslaved man for 5 and half years in Plateau-Magazine, AL, enduring intensive work. Hurston interviewed Lewis, documenting his accounts for her book.…
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"Zora Neale Hurston wrote Barracoon in 1931, but the book generated little interest from publishers back then. Known only to scholars until it was published this year, Barracoon is an extraordinary find: It’s an account of the interviews Hurston conducted in 1927 with 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis, then the last known living person who could recount firsthand the experience of having been taken captive in Africa and transported on a slave ship to the United States. Barracoon illuminates aspects of the slave trade that largely went unrecorded and also vividly dramatizes two extraordinary voices in conversation."
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