Corbis via Getty Images (Zora Neale Hurston); Amistad Press (book)
Zora Neale Hurston wrote Barracoon in 1931.
He was 85 years old, walked with a cane, and lived alone in a small cabin in Mobile, Alabama. From his appearance alone, Cudjo Lewis, who also went by the name Kossala, wouldn’t have stood out on the streets of his city in 1927, but this elderly man with a gray goatee and a pipe in his mouth had an extraordinary story to tell: He was the last known living person to have been captured in Africa and brought to the U.S. as a slave.
In the summer of 1927, Lewis greeted a visitor from New York City, a budding writer named Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston would later pen the famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, which today is read in English classes across the country. But before she was a novelist, she’d been a cultural anthropologist and collector of folklore, and she had come to meet with Lewis and write a book about him.
“I want to know who you are,” Hurston told Lewis, “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?”
The book, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo,” is based on a series of interviews Hurston conducted with Lewis in 1927 and 1931. (Barracoon is a word for the barracks built along the west coast of Africa, where enslaved Africans were held before they were herded onto ships.)
He was 85 years old, walked with a cane, and lived alone in a small cabin in Mobile, Alabama. Cudjo Lewis, who also went by the name Kossala, had a gray goatee and a pipe in his mouth. From his appearance alone, this elderly man wouldn’t have stood out on the streets of his city in 1927. But he had an extraordinary story to tell. He was the last known living person to have been captured in Africa and brought to the U.S. as a slave.
In the summer of 1927, Lewis greeted a visitor from New York City, a budding writer named Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston would later pen the famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, which today is read in English classes across the country. But before she was a novelist, she’d been a cultural anthropologist and collector of folklore. She had come to meet with Lewis to write a book about him.
“I want to know who you are,” Hurston told Lewis, “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?”
Hurston titled the book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.” It’s based on a series of interviews Hurston conducted with Lewis in 1927 and 1931. Barracoon is a word for the barracks built along the west coast of Africa. It’s where enslaved Africans were held before they were herded onto ships.