Library of Congress Hurston began working as an investigator for Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in 1927. Hurston was recommended by her professor, Franz Boas, for a $1,400 fellowship that Woodson and the American Folklore Society’s Elsie Clews Parson were offering. She was to travel for six months throughout Florida and other places in the South to collect folklore from the Black people living there. One task from Woodson was to examine historical records relating to Fort Mose, a Black settlement in St. Augustine, Florida established in the seventeenth century. Also during this expedition, Hurston first interviewed Kossola in Mobile, Alabama. Based on this interview, the article, “Cudjo’s Own Story of the Last African Slaver,” was published in The Journal of Negro History along with the Fort Mose material. Unfortunately, there is evidence that this article was largely plagiarized from another book, Historic Sketches of the Old South by Emma Roche. However, Hurston did get a chance to redeem herself by conducting a series of interviews with Kossola in 1928 that would constitute the basis of Barracoon.2 ![]() Historic Sketches of the South (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1914) Kossola offers Hurston a comprehensive recollection of his life. He begins his story with his grandfather who worked as an officer to the king, which was an important starting point for him. Kossola then discusses his parents, family, and childhood games. He also explains the cultural practices of his people, such as their marriage and funeral rites, justice system and initiations into manhood. He then details the raid by Dahomey on his town, Bantè, that led to his capture and the journey to the barracoon in Ouidah, where he was imprisoned until he was sold to William Foster, the captain of the Clotilda and one of the co-conspirators to the capture of Kossola and 109 others. They arrived illegally in the U.S. in 1860, where they were enslaved until the end of the Civil War in 1865. After gaining their freedom, he and others from the Clotilda bought the land to establish Africatown. Kossola would get married and have six children. Sadly, Kossola faced further hardships as he was unable to work after being hit by a train and denied justice under the legal system. Kossola survived his wife and children, and his yearning for his family and homeland is apparent in his narrative. Overall, by telling his story Kossola ensured that his experiences and others alike would never be forgotten.6 ![]() Illustrated London News, 1849 written by Sydney Coleman [1] Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: the Story of the Last "Black Cargo", ed. Deborah G. Plant (New York, NY: Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2019). [2] Valerie Boyd, Wrapped in Rainbows: a Biography of Zora Neale Hurston (London: Virago, 2004), 142-167. [3] Hurston, Barracoon [4] Ibid. [5] Zora Neale Hurston, Zora Neale Hurston: a Life in Letters, ed. Carla Kaplan (New York: Anchor /Doubleday, 2003). [6] Hurston, Barracoon [7] Ibid. [8] Hannah Durkin (2019) Finding last middle passage survivor Sally ‘Redoshi’ Smith on the page and screen, Slavery & Abolition, 40:4, 631, DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2019.1596397 |
Last updated: March 27, 2021