"My people in Afficky, you unnerstand me, dey not rich. Dass de truth, now. I not goin' tellee you my folks dey and rich and come from high blood. Den when you in de Afficky soil an' astee de people, dey say, 'Why Kossula over dere in Americky soil tellee de folks he rich?' I tellee you lak it tis. Now, dass right, ain' it?"
At first, the phonetic writing of Cudjo's words are difficult to understand. Yet, a pattern soon emerges, and any editing of how he speaks would seem inauthentic. His words come from interviews conductedgle Hurston, who visited him at his home in Plateau, Alabama, in 1927.
The reader is never quite comfortable when reading Barracoon. We often compartmentalize the slave trade and slavery during the 1800s, the barbarity and inhumanity a singular source of disgust and a horrific evil of American history. Here, we follow Cudjo from captive, to slave, to free man—but he is never truly released from bondage.
He was a slave the moment the Dohamey captured him, and he died a slave. In his story, we see the individual, and can see ourselves. Statistics distance us, here we feel the watermelon juices drip down our chins sitting on a stoop in the humidity of the Alabama summer, a free man who is far from free.
About Barracoon
Over a three-month period in 1927, Cudjo Lewis shared with Hurston his experiences of being sold into slavery and brought to America near the end of slavery. He was presumed to be the last survivor of the Middle Passage. The work was not published until 2018, Lewis' vernacular being one of the reasons why.
About Zora Neale Hurston
Born in Notasulga, Alabama, Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. In addition to Barracoon, she penned four novels, the most popular being Their Eyes Were Watching God. The central theme of her works were the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American Woman.
