Real Men Read – Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’

Thursday, April 25, 2019
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

A major literary event: a newly published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, with a foreword from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade—abducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.

Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo’s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston’s perspective with the compassion and singular style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it. Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.

Real Men Read is an open forum book discussion covering nonfiction books and fiction books that appeal to men…and even some women.  Our tradition in Real Men Read is to stick with books that have a colon in the title, even if it’s fiction. All are invited! Discussions are generally on the fourth Thursday of each month unless otherwise noted. To have a book set aside for you, contact Dave Anderson at 859-781-6166.

Cold Spring Branch