Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

Posted on by

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 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 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. Best Read [ Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" ] By [ Zora Neale Hurston ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I want to ask you many things I want to know who you are and how you came to be a slave and to what part of Africa do you belong, and how you fared as a slave, and how you have managed as a free man when he lifted his wet face again he murmured, Thankee Jesus Somebody come ast about Cudjo I want tellee somebody who I is, so maybe dey go to tell everybody whut Cudjo says, and how I come to Americky soil since de 1859 and never see my people no mo Barracoon An enclosure in which I want to ask you many things I want to know who you are and how you came to be a slave and to what part of Afri...This book was suppressed for over 70 years because the myth of poor, exploited Africans capturing and selling their countrymen to the evil white slavers suited America with their collective guilt and wish not to offend African Americans further But you cannot build a house on shifting sands, and this book, by one of America s absolute top journalists of the era, provides part of the missing foundation.I read it ator less the same time as the very genial Michael W Twitty s The Cooking This book was suppressed for over 70 years because the myth of poor, exploited Africans capturing and selling their countrymen to the evil white slavers suited America with their collective guilt and wish not to offend African Americans further But you cannot build a house on shifting sands, and this book, by one of America s absolute top journalists of the era, provides part of the missing foundation.I read it ator less the same time as the very genial Michael W Twitty s The Cooking Gene A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old ...All these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold Here, Zora Neale Hurston expresses why she wrote this book.I have had difficulty rating this book That the book has now finally come to be published IS of course wonderful It should have been published decades and decades ago BUT, but, but I do have some complaints with the final product.Only half of this book is in fact Cudjo Lewis story, his story, told by him Zora Neale Hurston was absolutely right in demanding that his All these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold Here, Zora Neale Hurston expresses why she wrote this book.I have had difficulty rating this book That the book has now finally come to be published IS of course wonderful It should have been published decades and decades ago BUT, but, but I do have some complaints with the final product.Only half of this book is in fact Cudjo Lewis story, his story, told by him Zora Neale Hurston was absolutely right in demanding that his voice should be heard and that he was to be allowed to speak in his own dialect Cudjo Lew...I have thought long and hard on this and I do not feel like I can give this any formal review This is a case in which I feel I would be trespassing on the author s words, and by this I mean Kossulo s, by superimposing any thoughts of my own There are pieces of history we will never get back For many of us, this is why we write to re imagine the stories of slavery, for instance, because we do not have words to tell us This is a living, breathing document and should be treated as such Just I have thought long and hard on this and I do not feel like I can give this any formal review This is a case in which I feel I would be trespassing on the author s words, and by this I mean Kossulo s, by superimposing any thoughts of my own There are pieces of history we will never get back For many of us, this is why we write to re imagine the stories of slavery, for instance, because we do not have words to tell us This is a living, breathing document and s...I chose to listen to this in audio book form, and think it was a great way to hear Cudjos story The narrator does a fantastic job with the dislect and I felt like I was there hearing Cudjo speak his own story The last cargo of slaves brought here, at an age, eighteen I believe, that would allow him to remember his life in Africa, and when he was taken Heartbreaking Was interesting hearing about his life in Africa, strange of course to my American ears, but that is what it was.What I didn t I chose to lis...Though the United States passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in 1807 , boats continued to deliver abducted Africans to America forthan 50 years The last shipment of slaves arrived in Alabama on the ship Clotilda in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.One of the African men on the Clotilda was Oluale Kossula, also known as Cudjo Lewis, who survived five years of slavery, became a free man, and helped found the black enclave of Africatown or Plateau near Mobile, Alabama Though the United States passed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in 1807 , boats continued to deliver abducted Africans to America forthan 50 years The last shipment of slaves arrived in Alabama on the ship Clotilda in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.One of the African men on the Clotilda was Oluale Kossula, also known as Cudjo Lewis, who survived five years of slavery, became a free man, and helped found the black enclave of Africatown or Plateau near Mobile, Alabama.In 1927, when Cudjo was in his mid eighties, he was interviewed by Zora Neale Hurston the American folklorist, anthropologist, and author In this book Hurston relates Cudjo s story, much of it in his own words.Cudjo LewisZora Neale Hurston Cudjo describes his ancestry and his early life in the African village of T...We cry cause we slave In night time we cry, we say we born and raised to be free people and now we slave We doan know why we be bring way from our country to work lak dis It strange to us Well, what to say I m ambivalent about this one The part Zora Neale Hurston actually wrote is beautiful and raw and touching In 1927, she interviewed Kossula Cudjo Lewis , then 86 years old, who was one of the last black slaves brought to America He, along with 100...How to rate and review a book that has no real comparison or companion, that has been my quandary since finishing Barracoon The rating is for the very fact of its existence, for Zora Neale Hurston s truly wonderful and difficult work of taking down Cudjo Lewis s story of childhood, capture, sale to slavers, and transport across the Atlantic on the last slave ship to reach the United States in 1859, and of his life after the freedom granted during the Civil War up to the 1920s.As Kossula Cudjo How to rate and review a book that has no real comparison or companion, that has been my quandary since finishing Barracoon The rating is for the very fact of its existence, for Zora Neale Hurston s truly wonderful and difficult work of taking down Cudjo Lewis s story of childhood, capture, sale to slavers, and transport across the Atlantic on the...Cudjo Lewis s life story is important He was brought to America illegally, at the tail end of slavery His owners kept him and his shipmate slaves secret between them, using their labours for about 6 years before slavery was abolished These people were then abandoned to a life in America, a place they did not see as home, with no way back to the home they wanted to return to Free life in America was hard on African born freed slaves They were shunned, it seems, by both White Black Cudjo Lewis s life story is important He was brought to America illegally, at the tail end of slavery His owners kept him and his shipmate slaves secret between them, using their labours for about 6 years before slavery was abolished These people were then abandoned to a life in America, a place they did not see as home, with no way back to the home they wanted to return to Free life in America was hard on African born freed slaves They were shunned, it seems, by both White Black Americans This is a side of s...Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Oluale Kossola before he died in the 1930 s to create this first person narrative by one of the last people to be transported to the United States through the middle passage It is interesting in that, among the existing records of that period in time, it is written from the perspective of someone who lived slavery rather than perpetuated it It wasn t written with an agenda It is a record of a history.It is a story of a culture and a life lived far from home and Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Oluale Kossola before he died in the 1930 s to create this first person narrative by one of the last people to be transported to the United States through the middle passage It is interesting in that, among the existing records of that period in time, it is written from the...

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
  • English
  • 25 December 2017
  • Paperback
  • 193 pages
  • 0060921706
  • Zora Neale Hurston
  • Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"