Barracoon

Zora Neale Hurston begins her introduction, which gives some background information on Cudjo’s story, by declaring that “the African Slave trade is the most dramatic chapter in the story of human existence.” While many people have written about slavery, supporting and condemning it, few former slaves have had their say. In particular, almost no one who lived through the Middle Passage has been able to tell their story. Now, there’s only one survivor of that journey alive, a man named Cudjo Lewis who lives in Plateau, Alabama.

Hurston first meets Cudjo in 1927, when her mentor, the anthropologist Franz Boas, dispatches her to record his experience of the Middle Passage for publication in a magazine about African American history. She supplements her interviews with research in archives, such as those held by the Mobile Historical Society.

In 1859, three brothers—Jim, Tim, and Burns Meaher—and a captain named Bill Foster colluded to launch an illegal but profitable slave-trading expedition. Captain Foster, owner of the swift ship the Clotilda, secretly leaves Mobile for the port of Dahomey in West Africa. While he stops for repairs at the Cape Verde Islands, his crew mutinies; Foster promises to increase their wages, but never actually does so.

Eventually, he arrives at Dahomey, a kingdom known for trading slaves. Foster meets with the Prince of Dahomey and is impressed with the large palace and evident wealth. Trying to impress Foster, the Prince tells him to select any member of his court as a gift; he chooses a relative of the Prince, a man named Gumpa, who is the only Dahoman man transported to America on the Clotilda.

After this ceremonial visit, Foster goes to the barracoons, which are overflowing with captives awaiting sale. Historically, European powers have tried to incite different tribes against each other in order to generate a supply of captives, but the King of Dahomey has made slave-trading his explicit business and raids his neighbors every year in order to capture people to sell. Still, the King claims that he only makes war when a neighboring kingdom has insulted him. In this way, “whole nations” are “exterminated” by the slave trade.

When Captain Foster arrives, the yearly wars have just concluded, so the barracoons are full. He chooses 130 slaves, both men and women. They are loaded onto his ship by Kroo men, members of another tribe. When most of the slaves are aboard, Foster sees all the Dahoman ships in the harbor display black flags, and realizes that they are planning on recapturing the slaves and holding them for ransom. However, because the Clotilda is such a fast ship, he’s able to get away.

After thirteen days, Foster allows the slaves to come onto the deck for exercise. They are cramped and ill from being unable to move around. When Foster finally reaches America, he places all the slaves back in the hold in order to avoid detection. The ship hides in the Mobile Bay until word can be sent to the Meaher brothers, who arrive with a tugboat to tow the Clotilda to a safe location. When he receives the message, Jim Meaher goes to the local church, where the tugboat pilot is attending services and calls him away.

That night, the tugboat tows the Clotilda up a tributary of the Mobile River to a secluded island. There, the slaves are transferred onto a steam boat (ironically, named after Chief Justice Taney, who spearheaded the Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision) and taken to another plantation. Captain Foster sets fire to the Clotilda but later regrets this decision, as it was an expensive and useful ship.

The slaves are kept hidden on the plantation for eleven days, after which they are given clothes and transported to Burns Meaher’s planation. In order to avoid detection, they have to spend every day hiding in the swamp while the Meahers secretly communicate with other slave-owners who are interested in purchasing them. After a few sales, most of the slaves are divided between the Meaher brothers and Captain Foster.

Only a year later, the Civil War breaks out. In 1861, the Meaher brothers are fined for illegally bringing slaves into the country. After the Civil War, the Africans of the Clotilda build a village and name it Africatown; it’s now known as Plateau, “but still it’s dominant tone is African.”

Having done her research, Hurston sets out to find Cudjo, a man who calls himself “the tree of two woods.” He is the only person left on the planet who has experienced a life in Africa, captivity and enslavement, as well as life as a free man in America. Hurston wants to know how he conceives of his experiences, and how “a pagan [lives] with a Christian God.”