Welcome to Litsy!

This is a short book but heavy read. This is the story Kossola told to Zora, chronicling his life in Africa to his journey through the Middle Passage on the Clotilda (the last illegal slave ship) at only 19 years old; his enslavement for 5.5 years in Alabama, and his life after being told by Union soldiers of his freedom. The last survivor of the Clotilda lived through slavery. The Civil War. Reconstruction. Jim Crow. This book will break⬇️

“Know how we gittee free? Cudjo tellee you dat. De boat I on, it in de Mobile. We all on dere to go in de Montgomery, but Cap‘n Jim Meaher, he not on de boat dat day. Cudjo doan know (why). I doan forgit. It April 12, 1865. De Yankee soldiers dey come down to de boat and eatee de mulberries off de trees close to de boat, you unnerstand me. Den dey see us on de boat and dey say “Y‘all can‘t stay dere no mo‘. You free, you doan b‘long to⬇️

This is a fascinating piece of ethnographic history. I‘m glad I listened to the audiobook because I get why it is important to write an oral history in the dialect as spoken but I think it would have been difficult to understand. Hearing it was clearer I think.

CW: lots of violence, brutality, murder, and tragedy.

Zora Neale Hurston was not just a great literary voice, she was an intelligent one. She understood just how important Cudjo/Kossola‘s story was to history. He had clear memories of his life in Africa, and of the Middle Passage. He had seen so much heartbreak and loss. It‘s a frustrating read. He just wanted to go home. I‘m including this picture with his granddaughters, Mary & Martha, because you could tell how much joy they brought him.

Starting my October #bookspin today!

@TheAromaofBooks

My October #bookspin and #doublespin
Looking forward to a great reading month! Thank you for hosting, Sarah!
@TheAromaofBooks

It almost took a century to be published, but I am so glad this book is now available in print. It‘s the first non-fiction book I‘ve read that has a first-hand account of the Middle Passage and being enslaved in the American South. Kudos to Hurston for recognizing the importance, and documenting, Cudjo‘s story. The audiobook was extremely well done, and I highly recommend reading in that format!

✨formerly 4thhouseontheleft✨

Trying to come back to participating in the #WeeklyForecast now that the number of books I read in a week is climbing again!

Two of these are for my last 3 remaining #Booked2022 prompts, #blackcentricimprint and #writtenbyajournalist. Shara Wheeler is my fun read for the week.

It‘s extraordinary that we have this story of a man violently stolen from his home and forced into slavery, to then be freed some 5 years later and unable to return home. It is a difficult book, both emotionally and because it‘s written in dialect, true to the man who spoke the words. We owe him and millions more the time it takes us to listen.

This book is a tremendous, gorgeous piece of history. A brilliant historian & anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, interviewed the last surviving slave from Africa and told his story in his own words. It‘s a brutal story from his capture through the years following his freedom. It‘s a short story, but the book contains numerous essays about the subject & the author. I wish this were required reading in history class, but in this day and age, ⬇️

This was fascinating, and also wretched, to hear the personal account of one of the last remaining survivors of the last slave ship to the States, as told by himself in 1920s Alabama to one of my favorite authors, Zora Neale Hurston. Cudjoe Lewis recalls vivid memories as a child back in his native home in West Africa, before being kidnapped, as well as of the family he established and tragically lost, as a freed man on American soil.

#thoughtfulthursday Thanks for the tag @BrittanyReads !

1) tagged
2) IRL
3) 5–it‘s such a remarkable piece of history
4) only when reading IRL books for work, because I‘m one of those who likes my books to be like new 😁 I do highlight my ebooks. I find it very helpful

A day late but I still love responding to these so I couldn‘t pass it up! @MoonWitch94

“The four men responsible for this last deal in human flesh…were natives of Maine…”

The captain and owner of the ship, Clotilda, which made the final illegal run for slaves, was from Nova Scotia.

I thought these were enlightening facts—northerners were often as racist as southern slave owners, they just lacked an economy that supported slavery, so they moved south. 😡

#Benin #readingafrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

“The Viking press again asks for the life of Kossula, but in language rather than dialect.…” The dialect was a vital and authenticating feature of the narrative. Hurston would not submit to such a revision.

I love that Hurston stood her ground, even though it cost her the publication of the book during her lifetime. An anthropologist/historian true to her profession.

#Benin #readingafrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

I started this one today for #Benin #ReadingAfrica2022 @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

And another list—these are the books I own and have lined up to read for the #readingAfrica2022 challenge—in case anyone needs ideas. Ive been wanting to read the tagged book for years so I‘m very excited.

(E-ebook; A-audiobook, IRL-in real life book)

@KristiAhlers In case you want to join in and need ideas. 😉

I‘ve read quite a few books detailing the experience of black people in the US after Emancipation and reconstruction. This was another angle that was really good for me to hear. It made me realize how many people in Africa, even native Africans, were also to blame for the slave trade. Greed does horrible things!

1. No, I don't think so. I do like finding references to the title while I am reading. Especially if the title seems obscure.

2. My latest one word title I enjoyed.

Do you have time to play? @MeganAnn @batsy @zezeki

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

A fascinating study by a fascinating person. I didn't realize that Hurston was an anthropologist and focused on African folklore among the surviving slaves of the early 20th century. Kossolu was even more special because he was the last to be kidnapped from his home and brought to America. Very poignant. All he wanted was his family and to return home. My heart broke when Hurston realized that the folklore she was raised wasn't accurate.

#ConflictedWorlds Day 19 Person Vs #Memories

How tragic to be among the last and to have to keep retelling tragic events so that the old memories are kept alive.

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

More interview than fiction. Heartbreaking.

“All these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold. The Kings and Captains whose words moved ships. But not one word from the cargo. The thoughts of the “black ivory,‘ the ‘coin of Africa,‘ had no market value. Africa‘s ambassadors to the New World have come and worked and died, and left their spoor, but no recorded thought.”

“How many limbs God give de body so it kin be active?” “Dey say six; two arms two feet two eyes. I say dey cut off de feet, he got hands to ‘fend hisself. Dey cut off de hands he wiggle out de way when he see danger come. But when he lose dey eye, den he can‘t see nothin‘ come upon him. He finish. My boys is my feet. My daughter is my hands. My wife she my eyes. She left, Cudjo finish.”

I enjoyed this short audio book I found on hoopla. This was my #bookspin November pick. In it Zora Neale Hurston tells the story of Cudjo, brought over on the last slave ship from Africa. It is told from interviews she had with him. His memories of life in Africa, his journey to America, life as a slave during the Civil War, and more.

Hurston writes verbatim what Oluale Kossola (Cudjo Lewis) told about his life. Reading in his dialect added to the raw authenticity of this story. He tells of his life in Benin (he lived- NO SHIT- maybe 5 miles from where I lived in Benin), his imprisonment in Dahomey, the voyage to America, his enslavement, and his life as a freed man in America. It tells of hardship and heartbreak with little reprieve. It was an honor to read this book.

Took a day trip today to meet up with my dad and did some audio booking while I drove. I listened to this whole book in less than 4 hours and it was so good! I loved the history in the introduction. I love that Hurston kept the dialect and refused to change it to standard white diction.

A man born in Africa, enslaved in America, and freed to see yet more tragedy recounts his youth in Africa and the folk tales he remembers. It is a very short but very lively reminiscence.

Definition of barracoon: barracks used for temporary confinement of slaves. Zora befriended 86yo Kossola (aka Cudjo) and wrote down his oral-autobiography. His life was tragic AND miraculous. Editor Deborah Plant's afterword is as fascinating as the main narrative, but written in completely different tones. Academic vs Yoruba via Alabama dialect. Avoid lexicon whiplash by taking a break between the main text and the info following it. #dw2020reads

So glad I read this book. Eye opening. I appreciated the prologue and epilogue and thought it was wise of Hurston to resist pressure placed on her to modify Cudjo‘s speech- I feel like his words and personality really came through with the use of the vernacular.

What a great life story that needed to be told. Although I‘m disappointed that it languished for so long, no one wanted to publish it in dialect, I‘m also grateful Hurston stuck to her guns there, like her fiction of Their Eyes Were Watching God, it wouldn‘t have been the same book without it‘s authentic central voice. This is the story of the last living person, from the last slave ship to America, and his story from his life in Africa ...⤵️

Stopped by the library to pick up my Black History Month read... can‘t wait to dive in. I snuck a look at the first couple of pages and I think it‘s going to be a good one.

I loved this book. The story of “the last black cargo” was moving and heart breaking. Hurston tackled a topic that was overlooked for far too long - how sad that there was such a reluctance to publish when she first wrote it. The story itself is actually very short, but powerful none-the-less. I also liked the forward of the book - almost longer than the story itself but provided great background & context. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Thanks @brainsergion !

This is the story of Cudjo Lewis who was the last survivor of the last known slave ship to arrive in America near Mobile, AL. It was recorded in his own words and dialect in 1927. The author‘s fight to keep that central prevented it from being published until 2018. The story is important to be told, but the book is flawed in that we are limited in what we do hear from him. The rest is appendix, introduction, and random fables Cudjo told.

Cudjo Lewis (Kossola) was on the last ship of the Middle Passage, traded into slavery from his home in West Africa in 1860, over 50 years after abolition. In the late 1920s/early 30s, Zora Neale Hurston met with him to hear his stories, his life. With Kudjo‘s voice written in dialect, this book recounts their meetings, his life and his stories. Hearing Kudjo‘s words, I came away from it stunned at just how recent it all was. 💔

Having carefully decided which books I wanted to finish this week in my #weeklyforecast, I‘ve obviously gone straight back to this (which wasn‘t on the list).

Kossola has told us of his journey to America, briefly of his time as a slave, then of freedom and the establishment of Africatown. You feel like you‘re sat in his back garden with him & Zora, listening to his tales, at times suspecting he might prefer not to be re-living everything. 👇

I read the epigraph, the forward by Alice Walker which of course was good, the intro, & the editor‘s note, the whole time wishing I could just skip to the book. Finally I was “allowed” to read the book, the best part & what I wanted to read in the first place. I read a few pages of the afterward. I consider it complete. I read the author‘s original work. Dang can I just read the book and not what a bunch of other people thought about it? ⬇️

6: A short, transcript-like retelling of the stories told to Zora Neale Hurston by the last living person to have been brought from Africa to the States to be a slave. I loved reading his voice. This book is not riveting, but it's powerful, informative, and important.

This morning‘s reading, along with a good amount of Google maps to look up Ouidah, Benin and Mobile, Alabama. I thought the dialect would make this hard to read, but Kossula‘s voice comes through so clearly.

Such an important piece of narrative history. The story of Cudjo Lewis one of the last African men who was brought over to America on a slave ship. His story was heartbreaking and his life after being “freed” was still fraught & painful. Despite his hardships Cudjo Lewis displayed such dignity & humanity. I HIGHLY suggest the audio as the narrator really captures the flavor of the dialect.
Challenge Prompts below 👇🏼

Chilling. And I haven‘t even got as far as the contents page yet.

A pretty insightful history of how the last shipment of slaves landed in the U.S. #TIL when these slaves were freed and denied the option to go back to Africa, they banded together, worked hard and saved their money to be able to purchase land from their previous slave owner, who wouldn't even give them a discount. 4⭐️s #NFNov #PopSugarReadingChallenge #PopSugar2019 #Pop19 #PublishedPosthumously

I know what I will be doing during my Thanksgiving break! Has anyone read any of these titles?

I've been working non-stop so my reading time has suffered. I never got to post a #WeeklyForecast! I started Barracoon and the history behind the last slaves brought to America is fascinating. I'm close to finishing Salt Slow, and working on The Case Against Sugar.

#TIL there is a state park in Mobile, AL named after Timothy Meaher, the rich slave owner who smuggled in the last known illegal shipment of slaves. Nothing to see here.🙄🤬 #NFNov

I finished this one earlier today on audio, and it seems like the perfect pick for the #soaringscores prompt. Cudjo Lewis was the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade when ZNH wrote this book in 1927. The audio, not to mention Zora herself in writing the book, did an excellent job maintaining the integrity of Cudjo‘s speech. Definitely a worthy read. #nowwearefree

Hurston is a powerful woman who interviews people to learn about unreported on cultures. There was a lot of introduction to this book, to set the scene and put everything in context.

Excellent book, worth the read. I posted previously wondering how much of the story is embellished by both Lewis and Hurston.
From a historical stand point we are lucky to have this story embellished or not told by the man who lived it. This important because it shows that even though the trade from Africa was lawfully ended it did not end.