The survivors of the Clotilda : the lost stories of the last captives of the American slave trade

Title:

by:

Durkin, Hannah.

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9780063072992

Publication Information:

Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2024]

Summary:

"Joining the ranks of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Zora Neale Hurston's rediscovered classic Barracoon, an immersive and revelatory history of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on US soil, told through the stories of its survivors-the last documented survivors of any slave ship-whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways"--

Format:

Books

Publication Date as Range:

2024

Language:

English

Subject Terms:

Enslaved persons -- Biography.

African Americans -- Biography.

Enslaved persons -- History -- 19th century.

Slave trade -- History -- 19th century.

West Africans -- History -- 19th century.

Human trafficking -- Alabama -- History -- 19th century.

Mobile (Ala.) History 19th century.

Africatown (Ala.) Biography.

Available:

Collection	Call Number	Library	Collection	Status	Item Holds
New Adult Non-Fiction	306.362 D	Searching... Main Library	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

Joining the ranks of Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Zora Neale Hurston's rediscovered classic Barracoon, an immersive and revelatory history of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on US soil, told through the stories of its survivors--the last documented survivors of any slave ship--whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways.

The Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on American soil, docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860--more than half a century after the passage of a federal law banning the importation of captive Africans, and nine months before the beginning of the Civil War. The last of its survivors lived well into the twentieth century. They were the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history.

In this epic work, Dr. Hannah Durkin tells the stories of the Clotilda's 110 captives, drawing on her intensive archival, historical, and sociological research. The Survivors of the Clotilda follows their lives from their kidnappings in what is modern-day Nigeria through a terrifying 45-day journey across the Middle Passage; from the subsequent sale of the ship's 103 surviving children and young people into slavery across Alabama to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement in Selma; from the foundation of an all-Black African Town (later Africatown) in Northern Mobile--an inspiration for writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Zora Neale Hurston--to the foundation of the quilting community of Gee's Bend--a Black artistic circle whose cultural influence remains enormous.

An astonishing, deeply compelling tapestry of history, biography, and social commentary, The Survivors of the Clotilda is a tour de force that deepens our knowledge and understanding of the Black experience and of America and its tragic past.

The Survivors of the Clotilda includes 30 artworks and photographs.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian Durkin (Josephine Baker and Katherine Dunham) provides a sweeping history of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land in America. In 1860, more than 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, 110 captives were transported to Alabama by a consortium of wealthy white men. Durkin depicts in harrowing detail their kidnapping and the destruction of their village in what is now Nigeria, the horrific Atlantic crossing, their tormented experiences as enslaved people, and their building of new lives in post--Civil War Alabama. A community founded by the survivors just north of Mobile, called African Town (later Africatown), had laws and customs that preserved the inhabitants' Yoruba traditions. In Gee's Bend, another town where survivors settled, residents came to specialize in a celebrated style of African-inspired quilt-making. Durkin tracks the survivors' descendants, uncovering how some were early participants in the civil rights movement, and how the art and folklore they created was influential during the Harlem Renaissance. Durkin's in-depth view is based largely on the survivors' own words and perspectives (some lived into the 20th century and related their stories to various writers, most notably Zora Neale Hurston), and is woven together with her extensive archival research. It's a stirring saga of resilience that sheds new light on Black life in postbellum America. Photos. (Jan.)

Booklist Review

Scholars have written books about the Clotilda--a ship that carried over 100 people of African descent to Alabama in 1860 to enslave them--most notably Zora Neale Hurston's Barracoon, released in 2018. British historian Durkin begins with Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis, whose story Hurston recorded in 1928, detailing how Lewis and other residents of his town, Tarkar, were kidnapped from the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day southern Benin). But Durkin also goes into great depth to highlight the stories of many of the other previously unknown Clotilda survivors. Her text answers questions about the conditions on the ship, the enslaved people's religious beliefs, the plantations they were sent to, and how they survived their unspeakably cruel enslavement. She discusses how many of the survivors helped Lewis build Africatown, just north of Mobile, and who formed a very special community for years after the Civil War ended. Durkin's book fills in many of the gaps about West Africa and Alabama in the 1860s, and focuses on the survivors of the Clotilda instead of the white men who illegally built the ship. The Survivors of the Clotilda, a comprehensive account of one of the most important parts of American history, is a triumph.