Cudjoe Lewis
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Cudjoe Lewis (* circa 1841 in Benin as Oluale Kossola ; † July 17, 1935 ), also Cudjo Lewis , was a slave in the United States . He was the third last survivor of the last Middle Passage (banned since 1808) (see Atlantic slave trade ) in 1860.
Life
Lewis came from the Isha tribe from the Yoruba people from what is now Benin . In 1860 fighters from the Dahomey kingdom conquered his hometown of Tarkar , killed many of his comrades and captured the rest with him and dragged them off to Ouidah .
There they were trapped in a barracoon, namely a barracks, for 21 days. Then they were taken to the Clotilda ship to be taken to the United States. The trip lasted 45 days and ended in Mobile, Alabama . The landing took place secretly in the dark, then the ship was sunk. Nevertheless, the arrival of the captured Africans was discovered. Despite the illegality of importing slaves, he and his comrades were sold and remained slaves until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Contemporary witness report
Barracoon. The story of the last American slave (Original: Barracoon. The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” ) is a contemporary witness report from the years 1927 to 1928 by Zora Neale Hurston , which was published posthumously in 2018.
The book is based on Hurston's interviews with Cudjoe Lewis from 1927 to 1928.
After the manuscript was finished in 1931, Hurston could not find a publisher willing to publish it because it was written in a vernacular language and because it described African participation in the transatlantic slave trade. The manuscript remained unpublished until 2003 and was part of the Alain Locke Collection at Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center .
Excerpts from the manuscript were first published in 2003 in the biography of Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Valerie Boyd, entitled Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston . The full book was published in 2018 and is a bestseller. The first German book edition was published in 2020.
German edition
- Zora Neale Hurston: Barracoon. The story of the last American slave. From the American by Hans-Ulrich Möhring , Penguin, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-328-60130-2 .
Web links
- Deutschlandfunk - Press broadcast on June 8, 2020 with a review
- Eyewitness report of slavery: kidnapped in chains - taz.de May 11, 2020
- "Barracoon": Zora Neale Hurston and Cudjo Lewis on slavery NZZ February 28, 2020
- DNB, catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Last Slave Ship Survivor Gave an Interview in the 1930s. It Just Surfaced - HISTORY. May 3, 2018, accessed June 9, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Zora Neale Hurston 'Barracoon' Excerpt. April 29, 2018, accessed June 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Cudjo Lewis / Encyclopedia of Alabama. October 20, 2009, accessed June 9, 2020 .
- ^ Zora Neale Hurston study of last survivor of US slave trade to be published / Books / The Guardian. December 19, 2017, accessed June 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Zora Neale Hurston's 'Barracoon' Gets Published, More Than 60 Years Later: NPR. May 5, 2018, accessed June 9, 2020 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lewis, Cudjoe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lewis, Cudjo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Slave in the United States and contemporary witness |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1841 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Benin |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 17, 1935 |