Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"


Book: Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References

Basic Information:

Author: Zora Neal Hurston

Edition: ePub on Libby from the Fresno County Library

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 0060921706 (ISBN13: 9780060921705)

Start Date: January 12, 2021

Read Date: January 20, 2021

193 pages

Genre: History, Biography, Interracial Understanding

Language Warning: None

Rated Overall: 3½ out of 5

Updated January 3, 2022 from APNews articles on the ship Clotilda



History: 4 out of 5


Synopsis:

The main part of the book consists of what is considered the last slave cargo to reach America. The person is Cudjo Lewis, or as he preferred to be called, Kossula. He tells his story from the time he lived in Bante, Benin through the massacre his village endured. During this massacre, he was captured and sold to be a slave. He spends 70 days traveling across the Atlantic before coming to close to Mobile Alabama. There he is a slave for over five years until being freed by Union soldiers.


But he continues to be part of his master’s plantation until him and several other people who came directly from Africa purchase land called AfricaTown. Here he lives, marries, and has children. His children die before him and then his wife. This is where the story ends.


But surrounding the story is background. Deborah Platt has put together notes on the story which are helpful, also a glossary of terms. The Zora Neal Hurston society as well as Alice Walker also have information in the book. Finally Alice Walker’s essay on finding Hurtons’s grave is included.



Cast of Characters:
  • Oluale Kossula-Cudjo Lewis-Storytelling, part of the cargo of the last slave ship from Africa. Teller of story of his life. Wikipedia article
  • Zora Neale Hurston-author, person who Kossula told his story to. Wikipedia article
  • Captain William Foster-Skipper of the Colitilda, the ship which brought Kossula to America
  • Jim Meaher-plantation owner, Kossula’s master
  • Abila-Sleely, Kossula’s wife

Expectations:
  • Date Became Aware of Book: June 2020
  • How come do I want to read this book: Our book group read Their Eyes Were Watching God by the same author
  • What do I think I will get out of it? An idea of what it meant to be a slave taken from Africa.

Thoughts:


Foreword: Those Who Love Us Never Leave Us Alone with Our Grief: Reading Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" Alice Walker

Alice Walker provides a good overview of what you are about to read. She captures what Hurston tries to present:

how lonely we are too in this still foreign land:

lonely for our true culture, our people,

our singular connection to a specific understanding of the Universe

And yet I think Walker misses one important point in this: There is not a unified African people, but that they are peoples. I think Walker is looking at this from the aspect of a Black American looking back at something which is not.


At the end of his life, Kossula is asked by his neighbors to speak in parables, to bring his wisdom and “medicine to them. Here is the medicine: That though the heart is breaking, happiness can exist in a moment, also. Good thoughts.


Introduction xv

This is Deborah Platt’s Introduction.


Clotilda - the ship which brought the last cargo of slaves to America. The Smithsonian has a May 22, 2019 article on finding the ship.


In this Introduction, there is a good summary of Kossula’s life: Oluale Kossola had survived capture at the hands of Dahomian warriors, the barracoons at Whydah (Ouidah), and the Middle Passage. He had been enslaved, he had lived through the Civil War and the largely un-Reconstructed South, and he had endured the rule of Jim Crow. He had experienced the dawn of a new millennium that included World War I and the Great Depression. Within the magnitude of world events swirled the momentous events of Kossola’s own personal world.


This introduction talks about Kossula’s life being a sequence of separations. In some ways, that is true of all of us. But in his case, they seemed to be much more dramatic. I think it was the circumstances, but maybe also enhanced with the storytelling.


The author goes through a summary of Kossula’s life. I will say reading Hurston’s story it is not as clear as this introduction. So it is a good thing to read this to get the arc of what Kossula is saying.


A couple of things the Introduction brought up which I found enlightening:

  • Africans opposed to ending the traffic persisted in the enterprise. These were the tribes which were capturing other African tribes to sell them to the slave traders. I think overall, Africans cannot be looked at as a homogenous group, but as individual units.

  • From 1801 to 1866, an estimated 3,873,600 Africans were exchanged for gold, guns, and other European and American merchandise.


Barracoon

Preface

From Hurston.

Interesting take. Hurston says that she is trying for the truth rather than detail fact. What does she mean by that? The thought back of the act was to set down essential truth rather than fact of detail, which is so often misleading. I think she is saying that sometimes details can lead you astray.


Introduction

This is Hurston’s introduction. The African slave trade is the most dramatic chapter in the story of human existence. She says that those who ran the slave ships have had their say, she wants to give voice to the slaves who were brought over.


Interesting take on the road to slavery: it is the first leg of their journey from humanity to cattle.


She introduces us to Cudjo Lewis and is living at present at Plateau, Alabama.


She also talks about Captain William Foster, who was the skipper for the Clotilda. How he went to West Africa and procured this batch of slaves. It is said that “ I]t had long been a part of the traders’ policy to instigate the tribes against each other,” He bargained with the Dahomey tribe to give him their captives, which they wanted to sell as slaves.


The questions she wants to find out from Kossula were: How does one sleep with such memories beneath the pillow? How does a pagan live with a Christian God? How has the Nigerian “heathen” borne up under the process of civilization?


I

Talks about Hurston first meeting Kossula. He was happy to meet her, to tell his story, but at his own pace and at his own price. He talked about his family and got in Africa. His grandfather was something like a chief of staff for the King, with several wives. American name is Cudjo Lewis. She outlines what she wants to do, which he is grateful for. They talk about religion in America and Africa. Talks about how a wife is taken. He gets tired of talking and tells Hurston to leave.


Kossula’s reaction when Hurston approached him about telling his story: I want you everywhere you go to tell everybody whut Cudjo say, and how come I in Americky soil since de 1859 and never see my people no mo’.


You callee me Cudjo. Dat do.’ But in Afficky soil my mama she name me Kossula. I use the name Kossula since that is what he wanted to be called.


Some men in de Affica soil don’t gittee no wife ’cause dey cain buy none. Dey ain’ got nothing to give so a wife kin come to dem. “Some men in the Affrican soil don’t get no wife because they cannot buy none. They ain’t got nothing to give so a wife can come to them” Two things. When you read Hurston, know that you will be reading Black Southern English. Just sound out the words and you will understand it. Second, interesting that the dowry system is active there. It does explain somewhat how Black women are viewed.


II The King Arrives

There are strict rules of order within the tribe Kossula is part of. One of them is that the leopard is the Kings, including its whiskers. When a man killed a leopard, which is not bad in itself, he was to give the leopard to the king, which this man did. But he had plucked one of the whiskers and kept it for himself. Kollusa tells of the trial, verdict and how the death sentence is carried out.


III

Kossula’s grandfather dies. He talks about how he is mourned, particularly by his wives.


This is the refrain which the village said about Kossula’s grandfather: Only yesterday he was worried about his wives and chillun and here he lies today in need of nothing!


IV

Kossula turns 14 and starts his initiations into becoming a man. He is taught the ways of the village and forest. Initiation does not come once, but is a many event process. When I come away from Afficky I only a boy 19 year old. I have one initiation. A boy must go through many initiations before he become a man. I jus’ initiate one time.


Hurston knew that Kossula could be soften up with food. So she brought him a watermelon. Her comment is that Watermelon, like too many other gorgeous things in life, is much too fleeting. She wanted to savor it.


V

He starts to be interested in females. Also three emissaries from the king of Dahomey came to his village. They demanded half of the food grown. He [the king of Dahomey] keep his army all de time making raids to grabee people to sell so de people of Dahomey doan have no time to raise gardens an’ make food for deyselves. Kossula’s king said no-meet us like two kingdoms do. But Dahomey bribes a traitor and attacks at night when the village is sleeping. All gates are blocked and most of the village is killed. Kossula is tied up and forced to walk to a sea port.


VI Barracoon

Kossula gets marched to the Dahomey capital for three days. Then marched to the ocean. There he is bought and put on a ship. For 70 days they sailed across the ocean to American.


VII Slavery

Kossula describes his life as a slave, being whipped. But the African men would not let their women be whipped: One man try whippee one my country women and dey all jump on him and takee de whip ’way from him and lashee him wid it. He doan never try whip Affican women no mo’. Working very hard, but never fast or hard enough. He was a slave for five years and six months until freed by the Union soldiers. 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.


VIII Freedom

But now free, what does that mean? No home to go to, no job, except to his former master. He works in a saw mill. Kossula tries to talk to his former master to give him and his former slaves land. The former master just laughs. The Africans band together to buy a plot of land, setting up their own town, including judge, mayor and laws. This is AfricaTown. A settlement for people who came directly from Africa.


Dat mean he buy de whiskey. It belong to him and he oughter rule it, but it done got control of him


IX Marriage

Kossula finds a woman he wants. They marry by agreeing to marry. Then they join a church. But the church requires a license. Den in de church dey tell us dat ain’ right. We got to marry by license. Kossula has an interesting take on this: So den we gittee married by de license, but I doan love my wife no mo’ wid de license than I love her befo’ de license.


They have six children-five boys, one girl. Because they are Africans, they get picked on (by blacks with more roots in America) and learn to fight. Reputation as wild boys. The girl dies at 15 years old. One of the boys is shot dead by the black sheriff.


we give our chillun two names. One name because we not furgit our home; den another name for de Americky soil so it won’t be too crooked to call. Stands to reason. A name which they could use around the rest of society. But a name to connect them to the place where the family came from. I wonder how much of that is done today?


There is a take charge spirit. In AfricaTown, they do not wait for things to happen. When there is a need for a school building, they build it. We Afficky men doan wait lak de other colored people till de white folks gittee ready to build us a school. We build one for ourself den astee de county to send us de teacher’


He talks about singing in church during the service for his daughter. He knows the English words, but his heart sings it in his native tongue. I know de words of de song wid my mouth, but my heart it doan know dat. I think this shows the depth of sorrow can only be expressed without translation.


The sheriff which killed his son gets religion. Kossula tries to forgive him, but also wants to see sorrow by the sheriff. I try forgive him. But Cudjo think that now he got religion, he ought to come and let me know his heart done change and beg Cudjo pardon for killin’ my son


X Kossula Learns About Law

Kossula is hit by a train. He has three broken ribs and no longer will be able to work. It is advocated that he sue the railroad company. He engages a lawyer who sues for $5,000. The court decides that Kossula should receive $650. The lawyer leaves the state with the money.


XI

He talks about his children. Also about how all of his remaining children died. Very sad looking and remembering your own children’s deaths. His thinking is that once his house, the house he was sitting in as well as his family house was full, De house was full, but now it empty. This is the saddest line in the whole book.


Kossula is talking about his son when Kossula says: He say de deputy kill his baby brother. Den de train kill David. He want to do something. But I ain’ hold no malice. This sounds like an old man speaking, a man who is tired of the things of this life rather than a saintly person. It is still much better than what I think I would be like.


XII Alone

His wife is concerned about her dead children. Then she dies. People come to him now to have him tell stories.


De wife she de eyes to de man’s soul. And when one's wife dies, Kossula feels blinded to life. There is no more to give.


The present was too urgent to let the past intrude. Kossula did not want to dwell in the past, so he rather lives now. Still he gave time to Hurston, so that what he knew and felt could be shared.


I am sure that he does not fear death. In spite of his long Christian fellowship, he is too deeply a pagan to fear death. I found this was a strange sentence by Hurston. Being Christian should say that you do not fear death. Do African’s not fear death? I need to see what she saw to make further comments.


Appendix

Takkoi or Attako-Children's Game

A couple of games Kossula remembered from his childhood. I wonder if they still play these games in the villages they came from.


Stories Kossula Told Me

Hurston convinced Kossula to tell her some of the stories or parables he remembered from Africa. So that Kossula could smoke his pipe in the garden, he made lids for it. The pipe lids are just another of the evidences of the primitive, the self-reliance of the people who live outside the influence of machinery. I am having issues on reconciling what Hurston’s commentary on machinery with the simplicity of what she saw in Kossula. I know several inventive people who are able to create something to fit a need.


He talks about what is important on a person’s body: legs, arms, eyes. He then says: My boys is my feet. My daughter is my hands. My wife she my eye. She left, Cudjo finish. Without his eyes, he cannot see anything more.


The Monkey and the Camel

Story about a red-buttbaboon and a greedy camel.


Story of de Jonah

A little different telling of the story of JOnah, but similar ending.


Now Disa Abraham Fadda de Faitful

Abraham and Lot with Sodom and Gommorrah


The Lion Woman

Lion losing her cubs; man comes close to losing his life to her.


Afterword and Additional Materials Edited Deborah G. Plant


Afterword

Written by Deborah G. Platt. She says that Hurston describes Kossula as a poetical old gentleman . . . who could tell a good story.


And then it is interesting that Hurston says that He was “left to tell” the story of a massacre that befell the town of Bantè. It is a common enough phrase, but last year read of another massacre, this time in Rwanda which is titled Left to Tell. There is a feeling of destiny in this phrase, something controlling that this is a story which needed to be told. I wonder how much of that mysticalness Hurston meant to say.


But as an ethnographer, Hurston’s motivations were different: “The quotations from the works of travelers in Dahomey are set down, not to make this appear a thoroughly documented biography, but to emphasize his remarkable memory. This is not meant to be a history text, but something more personal, it is a story of a people.


Fort Mosé-Hurston had gone there to collect information on this settlement outside of St Augustine, Florida. Talking with Kussola was a side trip, imposed on her. Hurston was not the first to have talked with Kossula: Other anthropologists, folklorists, historians, journalists, and artists alike had sought him out.


The white people had held my people in slavery in America. They had bought us, it is true and exploited us. But the inescapable fact that stuck in my craw, was: my people had sold me and the white people had bought me. This may have been the central piece to the whole story, the reason why Kossula never went back to Africa, besides the cost.


Their African Dream was inextricably bound up with Timothy Meaher’s American Dream, and their dream of return would be forever deferred. Interesting that the American Dream comes up. In both Coates’ book, Between the World and Me and Perkin’s book, Dream with Me, this comes up. But Platt ties it to the African Dream which neither talk about. To Kossula, it was to be rejoined with his people, even though I suspect, this dream was more to be with those who were dead.


Africatown is more than a historic site. It is a place expressive of African ingenuity and a prime model of the processes of African acculturation in the American South.


“Slavery is not an indefinable mass of flesh,” as Ta-Nehisi Coates writes (Between the World and Me). I did not pick up on this line when I read the book.


Though nearly a century has passed between the completion of the final draft of her manuscript and the publication of Barracoon, the questions it raises about slavery and freedom, greed and glory, personal sovereignty and our common humanity are as important today as they were during Kossola’s lifetime.


"In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" Alice Walker

This is the article which started the revival of Hurston’s work.


There is some fiction in how she lived her life. Such as at one place Walker is told that she died of malnutrition. Hurston’s doctor contradicts this and said she was well fed, and very heavy towards the end of her life. She dies of a stroke in a welfare home. When Walker hears malnutrition, she talks about Phillis Wheatley-first African-American author, who died at age 31 in poverty.


She quotes Robert Hemenway, Hurston’s biographer: Bitter over the rejection of her folklore’s value, especially in the black community, frustrated by what she felt was her failure to convert the Afro-American world view into the forms of prose fiction, Hurston finally gave up


Walker was not well known when she wrote this article. To get information she told people she was Hurston’s illegitimate niece who had not ever seen her. And I hate myself for lying to him. Still I ask myself, would I have gotten this far toward getting the headstone and finding out about Zora Hurston’s last days without telling my lie. So do the ends justify the means?


She[Hurston] was always studying. Her mind—before the stroke—just worked all the time. Sounds like Hurston was smart until almost the end.



Evaluation:

One of the things which you get impressed with being a white guy is how much I have benefited from America’s time of slavery and the succeeding years of oppression. This is true. What is not talked about is how Africans were also involved in the slave trade and how they benefited. Also how there was slavery in Africa before America was discovered.


If that was all there was to Barracoon, then it would be an interesting book and worth reading. But there is more. Hurston traces the life of Kossula, Curdo Lewis, through his time in Africa, his capture and shipping across the Atlantic to America. This is his years in slavery and finally to the early 1900’s. Hurston let's Kossula tell his story in his own words, including the phonetic sounding of it. If it was not for reading Their Eyes Were Watching God, I am not sure I would have continued reading it because of the formation of familiar words with unfamiliar spellings.


This is a short book. So each sentence could tell a whole story of Kossula’s life. Read it with care and attention. Not so much for great truths, but for the life of one simple man whose story told sheds some light on both his world and ours.


 
Notes from my book group:

When you read of Kossula’s life, what are your thoughts of the man? How would you graph his life? Some of the great national and world events such as the Civil War, World War I, and the Great Depression happened in his lifetime. How was he touched by them? What touched his life? Deborah Platt describes his life as a sequence of separations. Is that how you would describe his life? What are the separations of his life?


What do you think Hurston saw in Kossula’s story which made it worthwhile telling?


When Hurston says she is trying to get to truth rather than detail fact, what does she mean? Does she mean that facts do not lead to truth? Can you give other examples where this is true?


Hurston starts off the story by saying that The African slave trade is the most dramatic chapter in the story of human existence. Does she support this in any way? What other chapters in human history would she consider as being dramatic? What made the African slavery so dramatic?


Hurston uses the phrase that slavery is the first leg of their journey from humanity to cattle. React to this statement. What about slavery leads Hurston to make this statement?


The questions Hurston wants to answer are:

  • How does one sleep with such memories beneath the pillow?

  • How does a pagan live with a Christian God?

  • How has the Nigerian “heathen” borne up under the process of civilization?

How does Kossula’s story answer these questions?


It was a great victory for humans and slaves like Kossula when the Union soldiers freed them. How was freedom a trap for the ex-slaves? How did Kossula and his fellow ex-slaves react to their freedom, but also the trap of being without possessions? Place yourself in the liberating army. Is there anything you could have done for Kossula and his friends after liberation?


How does the people of AfricaTown organize? What was important to the people of AfricaTown? How did they come to achieve their goals? Is there a model which can be used today? How is it faring now? Platt says that Africatown is more than a historic site. It is a place expressive of African ingenuity and a prime model of the processes of African acculturation in the American South. Explain how Kossula’s story shows this.


Why did the people of AfricaTown have two names?


When you read of Kossula’s capture and sale to be a slave, what thoughts do you have? Does this give American slavery a new perspective to you? If so, what is it? Does it justify slavery? Why do you think African tribes enslaved each other?


Kossula tells Hurston several parables or stories. Which ones spoke to you? Why? Are they stories which travel well across cultures and time?


Deborah Platt says that Their African Dream was inextricably bound up with Timothy Meaher’s American Dream, and their dream of return would be forever deferred. How are they bound together. What is the American Dream Platt talks about? What is the African Dream? Are thay at war with each other or can they coexist? Ta-Neshi Coates says that The Dream. He uses this as a placeholder for the American perfect life. He says the Dream is built on the backs of blacks. He says that it rests on the known world of slaves and now repression of blacks. Is this the Dream Platt is talking about?



Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.

Why the title of Barracoon?

Does this story work as a piece of history or anthropology?

Did the ending seem fitting?

Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?

In what context was religion talked about in this book?

Was there anybody you would consider religious?

How did they show it?

Was the book overtly religious?

How did it affect the book's story?

Why do you think the author wrote this book?

What would you ask the author if you had a chance?

What “takeaways” did you have from this book?

What central ideas does the author present?

Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, …?

What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?

Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?

Does the author depend on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?

What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?

Are these idea’s controversial?

To whom and why?

Are there solutions which the author presents?

Do they seem workable? Practicable?

How would you implement them?

Describe the culture talked about in the book.

How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?

What economic or political situations are described?

Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?

How did this book affect your view of the world?

Of how God is viewed?

What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?

Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?

What was memorable?



New Words:
  • Barracoon (Introduction): a type of barracks used historically for the internment of slaves or criminals.
  • Juju (II: The King Arrives): a spiritual belief system incorporating objects, such as amulets, and spells used in religious practice in West Africa
  • Dashiki (In Search of …): a colorful garment worn mostly in West Africa. It is called Kitenge in East Africa and has been a dominant wear in Tanzania and later Kenya and Somalia. It is also known as Java since it is worn in Indonesia.

Book References:
  • The Big Sea by Langston Hughes,
  • Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Historic Sketches of the South by Emma Langdon Roche
  • Cudjo’s Own Story of the Last African Slaver by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography by John Swed
  • Voyage of Clotilde
  • The New Negro by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
  • Social Rituals and the Verbal Art of Zora Neale Hurston by Lynda Marion Hill
  • Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans From the Era of the Slave Trade by Philip Curtin
  • Prince among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South by Terry Alford
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • The American Slave by George P. Rawick

Good Quotes:
  • First Line: The African slave trade is the most dramatic chapter in the story of human existence
  • Last Line: But he is full of trembling awe before the altar of the past.
  • Watermelon, like too many other gorgeous things in life, is much too fleeting. Chp IV
  • De wife she de eyes to de man’s soul. Chp XII Alone
  • The present was too urgent to let the past intrude. Chp XII Alone
Table of Contents:
  • Foreword: Those Who Love Us Never Leave Us Alone with Our Grief: Reading Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" Alice Walker xi
  • Introduction xv
  • Editor's Note xxix
  • Barracoon
    • Preface 3
    • Introduction 5
    • I 17
    • II The King Arrives 25
    • III 33
    • IV 37
    • V 43
    • VI Barracoon 51
    • VII Slavery 59
    • VIII Freedom 65
    • IX Marriage 71
    • X Kossula Learns About Law 77
    • XI 83
    • XII Alone 91
  • Appendix 95
    • Takkoi or Attako-Children's Game 95
    • Stories Kossula Told Me 96
    • The Monkey and the Camel 101
    • Story of de Jonah 103
    • Now Disa Abraham Fadda de Faitful 106
    • The Lion Woman 107
  • Afterword and Additional Materials Edited Deborah G. Plant
    • Afterword 117
    • Acknowledgments 139
    • Founders and Original Residents of Africatown 145
    • Glossary 147
    • Notes 155
    • Bibliography 171
    • "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" Alice Walker 175
  • Readers' Guide 203
  • More Zora Neale Hurston 207

References:
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