rick2's review against another edition
4.0
The actual book is very short and quite interesting. Cudjo lived one hell of a life. Full of sorrow and pain.
However, the editors notes and extended introduction was petty and frustrating.
However, the editors notes and extended introduction was petty and frustrating.
pamiverson's review against another edition
4.0
Ms. Hurston was an anthropologist before she was a novelist, and this is an example of her bringing both skillsets together. Written in the 1930's but published only recently, she tells of interviewing an old man, the last survivor of the slave trade (he was captured and brought to this country decades after slave trade was outlawed). A very human account.
colin_cox's review against another edition
5.0
This past semester, like most semesters, I taught Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery. It’s a seminal entry in the slave narrative genre, and for many of my students, it's an emotional tale that reaffirms certain foundational assumptions about what America, when at its best, can be. This is an oversimplified reading of Washington, but one that’s all too familiar from first-year students. Even after studying smart critiques of Washington, many students cling to a reading of him as a figure who articulates significant and optimistic ideas about what America represents, instead of seeing him as a smart, well-intentioned yet complicated and potentially shortsighted figure.
Given a chance, I would ask future students to read Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon as a response to Washington. In this short but affecting text researched and written in 1927, Hurston articulates Langston Hughes’ “dreamed deferred” in harrowing detail. Barracoon tells the story of Cudjo Lewis or Kossola, a captive of the last slave ship to make the transatlantic journey from Africa. Repeatedly, Kossola voices his desire to return to Africa instead of remaining displaced in a country that has little room (both figurative and literal) for him. Unlike Up From Slavery, Kossola’s story is not one of triumph and success; it doesn't speak to the enduring spirit of a people and a place. Instead, Hurston leaves her reader with this singular, isolated figure who “In spite of his long Christian fellowship...is too deeply a pagan to fear death” yet remains “full of trembling awe before the altar of the past” (94). As Hurston suggests, it's a past brimming with the worst sorts of violence and objectification. Of course, it's a violent past that didn't begin in America, even if America is where the worst of it reached its zenith.
Given a chance, I would ask future students to read Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon as a response to Washington. In this short but affecting text researched and written in 1927, Hurston articulates Langston Hughes’ “dreamed deferred” in harrowing detail. Barracoon tells the story of Cudjo Lewis or Kossola, a captive of the last slave ship to make the transatlantic journey from Africa. Repeatedly, Kossola voices his desire to return to Africa instead of remaining displaced in a country that has little room (both figurative and literal) for him. Unlike Up From Slavery, Kossola’s story is not one of triumph and success; it doesn't speak to the enduring spirit of a people and a place. Instead, Hurston leaves her reader with this singular, isolated figure who “In spite of his long Christian fellowship...is too deeply a pagan to fear death” yet remains “full of trembling awe before the altar of the past” (94). As Hurston suggests, it's a past brimming with the worst sorts of violence and objectification. Of course, it's a violent past that didn't begin in America, even if America is where the worst of it reached its zenith.
amh007's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
A fascinating piece of scholarship. I am very glad I read it.
leigh_reidelberger's review against another edition
5.0
This is such a powerful story.
There are moments in history we like to think we understand and know about, like the slave trade, slavery in America, when the slaves were 'freed', but so much of that history has been condensed to focus on the highlights. Most people will never be exposed to the personal narratives and experiences, like those written about in Barracoon.
Hurston does an excellent job of sharing Cudjo's story. She writes it in his dialect and that makes the story all that more powerful, like you can really hear him tell his story.
There are moments in history we like to think we understand and know about, like the slave trade, slavery in America, when the slaves were 'freed', but so much of that history has been condensed to focus on the highlights. Most people will never be exposed to the personal narratives and experiences, like those written about in Barracoon.
Hurston does an excellent job of sharing Cudjo's story. She writes it in his dialect and that makes the story all that more powerful, like you can really hear him tell his story.
jiyoung's review against another edition
4.0
Published posthumously, Barracoon is the collection of interviews Hurston conducted with Cudjo Lewis, at the time the last known survivor of the last known slave ship to come to the US. Cudjo, originally named Kossola, was captured by the Dahomey people and sold/shipped off to America. This is the story of his life, starting from the traditions and politics of his forefathers all the way through his capture and travails in enslavement. Hurston preserves Cudjo’s speech by spelling out his accent and vernacular as separate from standard English; this book is thus a vessel of Cudjo’s oral storytelling. Very interesting and heartbreaking snapshot of history from the perspective of a jovial, resilient man.
fawna's review against another edition
5.0
Kossula gave us a gift when he told his story. Zora Neal Hurston gave us a gift when she wrote it down and refused to write it in standard English. Robin Miles gave us a gift in her narration of this audiobook. I was transported as I listened, and I know my brain would have stumbled over the dialect if I read this myself. I only wish Cudjo's story was longer; the first 20% is an intro and the backstory on ZNH seeking and writing this book. Even the appendix is filled with Kossula's gems.
tammiesven's review against another edition
3.0
This could have been an article it was so short. There was very little to it. What was there was good but I felt like I was reading an essay of a student trying to stretch it out so it meets the word count requirement.
missamandamae's review against another edition
5.0
I was astounded when I first heard this book was being published - I’m a student of southern history, but I had never heard about slaver ships bringing in new slaves from Africa after the trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. So that was my initial draw to the book, learning about the slave trade and slavery from a man interviewed in the 1930s who had experienced it. Then to further learn that this was Zora Neale Hurston’s work that had gone unpublished was another astounding fact about it.
Hurston maintained the dialect of her interviewee, and that takes some getting used to, but it was enough like the WPA interviews with former slaves that it didn’t take long to acclimate. This poor man. There are moments where he recounts how he was captured and torn from his family, and he drifts away with his thoughts, staring at the fire. And later on he tells of all the deaths in his family formed here in the States and you wonder how this man could go on.
This was a short but powerful read, putting a different perspective on slavery and race in the country in front of you. This was not that long ago.
Hurston maintained the dialect of her interviewee, and that takes some getting used to, but it was enough like the WPA interviews with former slaves that it didn’t take long to acclimate. This poor man. There are moments where he recounts how he was captured and torn from his family, and he drifts away with his thoughts, staring at the fire. And later on he tells of all the deaths in his family formed here in the States and you wonder how this man could go on.
This was a short but powerful read, putting a different perspective on slavery and race in the country in front of you. This was not that long ago.
hxkiim's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.75