Barracoon

Barracoon records interviews Hurston conducted in 1927 with Cudjo Lewis, also called Oluale Kossola, who was among the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade to the United States. He describes his childhood in West Africa, his capture, the voyage on the Clewotilda, and his life in Alabama in slavery and freedom. Hurston preserves his voice and dialect. Though it was written long before, the book was not published until 2018 in some accounts, and earlier editions are dated 2004 here. It is a sober, valuable first-hand testimony.