{"product_id":"9780062748218","title":"Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo","description":"\u003cp\u003eHurston, Zora Neale\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"desc_summary0062748211-content\" class=\"expandContent\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eBestseller\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the author of the classic\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eTheir Eyes Were Watching God\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ecomes a landmark publication of the American experience, now in paperback!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“A profound impact on Hurston’s literary legacy.”\u003c\/strong\u003e— \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the New York Times' Most Memorable Literary Moments of the Last 25 Years!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1927, Zora Neale Hurston traveled to Plateau, Alabama, to visit eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis, a survivor of the\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eClotilda\u003c\/em\u003e, the last slaver known to have made the transatlantic journey. Illegally brought to the United States, Lewis was enslaved fifty years\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eafter\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ethe transoceanic slave trade was outlawed. At the time, Cudjo Lewis was the only known person alive who could recount this integral part of the nation’s history. As a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, Hurston was eager to hear about these experiences firsthand. But the reticent elder didn’t always speak when she came to visit. Sometimes he would tend his garden, repair his fence, or be lost in reveries of his homeland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHurston persisted, though, and during an intense period of about three months, she and Cudjo Lewis communed over her gifts of peaches and watermelon, and gradually Lewis, a poetic storyteller, began to share heartrending memories of his childhood in Africa; the attack by, Amazons, the female warriors who slaughtered his townspeople; the horrors of being captured and held in the barracoons of Ouidah for selection by American traders; the harrowing ordeal of the Middle Passage aboard the\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eClotilda\u003c\/em\u003e, as “cargo,” along with more than one hundred other souls; the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War; and finally his role in the founding of Africatown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBarracoon\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ereflects Hurston’s skills as both a social scientist and a writer, and brings to life Cudjo Lewis’s singular voice, in his vernacular, in a poignant, powerful tribute to the disremembered and the unaccounted for others of the Middle Passage. This profound work is an invaluable contribution to our history and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Amistad Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47723985600745,"sku":"9780062748218","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0406\/5548\/7129\/files\/9780062748218_fe47d.jpg?v=1725563229","url":"https:\/\/redstickreads.com\/products\/9780062748218","provider":"Red Stick Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}