Barracoon
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Written in 1931 but unpublished until 2018, Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” is a remarkable work of oral history and literary testimony. It recounts the life of Cudjo Lewis, born Kossola, believed to be the last surviving person brought to the United States aboard a slave ship. In 1927, Hurston travelled to Plateau, Alabama, to record his memories of childhood in West Africa, his capture by Dahomean raiders, the Middle Passage aboard the Clotilda, and his subsequent enslavement and life after emancipation. Through Cudjo’s recollections, the book gives intimate expression to the violence of the Atlantic slave trade and the profound rupture of exile, while preserving the memories of a man whose story might otherwise have been lost.
Combining Hurston’s gifts as a writer with her training as an anthropologist, Barracoon allows Cudjo to tell his story in his own distinctive voice, retaining the rhythms and expressions of his speech. Its long-delayed publication offers an extraordinary contribution to African American history and literature, illuminating not only the brutality of slavery but also the endurance of memory, cultural identity and community. Both a deeply personal account and an invaluable historical document, it reveals another dimension of Hurston’s literary achievement.
From the book
“I want to go back in de bush where my mama born, where I born, where I belong.”
— Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon
On Barracoon
“A stunning addition to several overlapping canons of American literature.”
— Tayari Jones, The Washington Post