New York Times Bestseller • TIME Magazine’s Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 • New York Public Library’s Best Book of 2018 • NPR’s Book Concierge Best Book of 2018 • Economist Book of the Year • SELF.com’s Best Books of 2018 • Audible’s Best of the Year • BookRiot’s Best Audio Books of 2018 • The Atlantic’s Books Briefing: History, Reconsidered • Atlanta Journal Constitution, Best Southern Books … Reconsidered • Atlanta Journal Constitution, Best Southern Books 2018 • The Christian Science Monitor’s Best Books 2018 •
“A profound impact on Hurston’s literary legacy.”—New York Times
“One of the greatest writers of our time.”—Toni Morrison
“Zora Neale Hurston’s genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece.”—Alice Walker
A major literary event: a newly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with a foreword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade—abducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.
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.
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In all my 75years on this earth the Book
was a True Account of a known survivor
abducted from Africa (by force) to arrive in the U.S. on the last “Black Cargo” ship. What made me stop to
even take a second look, was the fact
Zora Neale Hurston was the author. I
know she is extremely consistent in a
accurate portrayal of African exsistence.
Zora went to interview this man for (3)
hours some years before the actual book was written. It is not a stretch too
say both Subject an Author should go
down in History. Carol A. Harper
Zora Neale Hurston’s genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece.
One of the greatest writers of our time.
What an interesting interview with a totally awesome man, Cudjo Lewis, This book is informative and inspiring from the first page. Being the last former slave alive to tell his personal story of his home in Africa, his capture and transport to Alabama and his life as a slave and after freedom. Amazing story.
This book was written to teach us a history lesson, and it certainly did. I wish that everyone would read it and be informed. I was enlightened!
Personal story of Cudjo Lewis, brought from Africa to Mobile, Alabama, and enslaved 5 years and 6 months, freed at end of Civil War. Remains of the ship Clotilde discovered last week.
Fascinating and moving story of Cudjo Lewis, survivor of the last slaver ship to carry captive Africans to the United States. Lewis was interviewed by the great author and ethnologist Zora Neale Hurston and she lets him tell his own story in his own fashion. It’s a moving tale of loss and hope and survival, and such eyewitness accounts of the horrors of slavery are all too rare when told in the victim’s own voice. It’s especially moving when the reader realizes that he was telling his tale less than 100 years ago, in the late 1920s. We are far closer to the tragedy of slavery and its legacy than people want to acknowledge.
A testament to the enormous losses millions of men, women, and children endured in both slavery and freedom-a story of urgent relevance to every American, everywhere.
Beautifully written. As was her intention, the author recorded Mr. Lewis’ story in his dialect, and it was totally readable but had none of the feeling of patronization the writings of Joel Chandler Harris or Samuel Clemmons did. I wish there had been more of his story told, but I understand the enormous effort she expended to get this much.
It is a shame that the true history of our country has been hidden from it’s people in order to continue to further a racist agenda for the elite.
The book originally was written from many interviews that Zora Neale Hurston had with the last known man on the last slave ship to come to the United States. His slave name was Cudjo Lewis by his African name was Kossula. The story is written in Kossula’s own African vernacular in his own words. Explanations are given to clearify meaning. That makes the book all the more powerful. Kossula was kidnapped by a rival tribe, sold to a white Captain of a slave ship, was a slave for several years during the Civil War. He was freed and then lived several years as a free man.
Maybe it was just the kindle version, but I could not tell what part was the actual book and what part was a commentary.
i learned a lot by reading this book It is unpleasant to know that these things happened.
The book should be required reading in school.
Excellent, should be required reading for anyone researching and doing African American History. Difficult but necessary reading.
A fascinating, first hand description of life by someone captured in Africa and brought to America to be a slave.
The only positive thing there is to say about this work is that it is mercifully brief. It is little more than a cherry-picked interview transcript published in a dialect of childlike illiteracy. There was a fabulous story to be told with this subject. It is a shame it was rendered so poorly.
This book is a true account of the last slave ship “delivery.” It is tragic and shameful that slavery was ever in the US. And just as tragic and shameful that some African kings raided and sold others to slavers. I didn’t use the “tear-jerker” adjective because I felt it was too frivolous; I cried, but it was for all of those who were tortured and killed.
Very different perspective on thoughts and feelings of an individual who came as a slave and was freed and never traveled outside his community. Also somewhat dismayed that there was a chasm between slaves that were born in America and those who were newly deposited on our shores.
Reading Zora Neale Hurston is always a good way to learn. This book is amazing because it’s a window into an African’s horrifying life as captive and slave. I’m so grateful she persisted and produced this book. Everyone should read it.