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A review by missamandamae
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston
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 Then to further learn that this was Zora Neale Hurston’s work that had gone unpublished was another astounding fact about it.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.