Description

“Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” by Zora Neale Hurston, novelist, folklorist and anthropologist.

The book selected for the 2023-2024 Common Read/Common World program at the University of South Alabama is “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo.’” Barracoon, authored by Zora Neale Hurston, was published eight decades after it was written. It offers a first-hand account of the journey of the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States.

Barracoon, originally completed in 1931, was finally published by Amistad an imprint of HarperCollins in 2018. This book is based on Hurston’s 1927 interviews with West African-born Cudjo Lewis, whose original name is Oluale Kossola. At the time, he was believed to be the last survivor of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. In Barracoon, Lewis’ story is shared in his own words and voice. Lewis resided in the Africatown community of Mobile, Ala., until his death in 1935. 

The work by Hurston is now a New York Times Bestseller. It tells of the essential account of one man’s total life of being born free, enslaved, and free again.