by Zora Neale Hurston

ISBN: 9780008297664

Published: 2018-04-23

A major literary event: a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade - illegally smuggled from Africa on the last "Black Cargo" ship to America. The never-before-published work covers the life of Kossola, also known as Cudjo Lewis, who in 1927 was one of the last living survivors of the Atlantic slave trade. Barracoon is phenomenal because Cudjo's story begins when he is free and a young man living in Africa. It describes the circumstances of his capture by Dahomian warriors and his detention in a barracoon while awaiting his trade to slavers. It describes how he was smuggled out of Africa onto the last "Black Cargo" ship, the Clotilda, and tells of his journey through the Middle Passage, to his arrival in the United States on the Alabama River near Mobile, Alabama. The narrative...