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Barracoon : the story of the last "black cargo" / Zora Neale Hurston ; edited and with an introduction by Deborah G. Plant.

By: Contributor(s): Publisher: New York : Amistad, [2018]Edition: First editionDescription: xxviii, 171 pages : illustrations, photographs ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062748201
  • 0062748203
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 306.3/62092 B 23
LOC classification:
  • E444 .L49 H87 2018
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{u2019}s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo{u2019}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{u2019}s past{u2014}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{u2019}s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston{u2019}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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Shelving location Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book NMC Library Stacks E444 .L49 H87 2018 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 33039001446599

Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-171).

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.

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{u2019}s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo{u2019}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{u2019}s past{u2014}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{u2019}s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston{u2019}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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