Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo"

The Resource Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo"
Label
Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo"
Title remainder
the story of the last "black cargo"
Statement of responsibility
Zora Neale Hurston ; edited by Deborah G. Plant ; [foreword by Alice Walker]
Creator
Contributor
Author
Editor
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
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
Biography type
individual biography
Cataloging source
NHP
Dewey number
  • 306.3/62092
  • B
Illustrations
  • illustrations
  • portraits
Index
no index present
LC call number
  • E444
  • E444.L49
LC item number
  • .H897 2018
  • H87 2018
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://bibfra.me/vocab/relation/writerofforeword
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