Zora Neale Hurston’s Interview With A Freed Slave Led To An Incredible Discovery
How Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” led to finding the last slave ship
In the 1920’s, anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston made a groundbreaking discovery for black history: A surviving freed slave that boarded the last slave ship to the United States.
In the late 19th century, after the Civil War, slavery became “outlawed” in the United States. Of course, some were outraged by the outcome of the war. Some took matters into their own hands and refused to abide by the new law of liberating slaves. A ship took one last trip on the Atlantic trade route. On that ship was Olulae Kossula, who we also know as Cudjoe Lewis, or who we thought to be the longest surviving free man from the last black cargo.
Who Was Cudjoe Lewis?
The other day I decided to pick up the story, Barracoon: The Story of The Last Black Cargo via audiobook. I also did some digging, curious of the research the interview could have led to. This book gives a more intimate side to a slave’s experience in the slave trade after the ban of slave importation. Lewis’s story will be successfully recorded by anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston had her struggles trying to get information from Lewis but not as much as…
