The Last Ship to Bring Enslaved Africans to America Arrived in 1860 | Smithsonian Channel

in may 2018 editor deborah plant published barracuda the story of the last black cargo by writer and anthropologist zora neale hurston it was written in 1931 but remained unpublished for over 80 years [Music] when we look at the narrative that zornell hurston safeguarded for us she's showing us this humanity which was denied you know this whole cultural wealth of african-american peoples [Music] the book contains interviews with cujo lewis or cosola who was brought to america on the clatilda thought to be the last ship to bring enslaved africans to america [Music] the public library in mobile alabama houses remarkable archival material about the clatilda these are the original photographs from the clatilda collection timothy mayer who is the financer of the trip right yes captain william foster right it's here on the back some inscription captain foster brought less cargo of slaves from wida kingdom of dalmate in west africa southern alabama in 1860. okay by 1860 the united states was no longer involved in the international slave trade but we know that there were many shipbuilders and investors who were involved illegally mayor commissions foster to acquire enslaved people from the benin region and bring them back into the united states illegally once they are off-boarded in the mobile area captain foster actually burns the ship so that no one can find out about this illegal transaction the 110 people are sold off to planters and many of them are kept by the mayor family in the library of mobile alabama publisher deborah plant investigates archival materials from one of the last survivors of the clotilda the final slave ship known to arrive on u.s shores and here's our coastal right yeah and he's smiling you don't see him smiling a lot yes but he's smiling here cujo lewis or cosola was one of the 60 enslaved africans kept by timothy mayer and his two brothers in 1928 zora neale hurston interviewed cosola these conversations provide an incredibly rare count of what it was like for a captive transported from africa to a life of enslavement in america's deep south but the real significance of hurston's interviews is what they tell us about kosola's west african heritage and his identity when zoranil hurston interviews coastal she calls him by his african name and he's so happy that he hears his name called he says my name not cujo lewis it coleslaw and he goes on to explain that people like timothy mayor could not call his name properly but he says my mama she named me kosala as we remember his name we are remembering his whole idea vision and wisdom about who he is and this allows us to see what happened on the continent we began to see not only what happened to us but the effects of the trauma in some ways what slavery tells us is that resistance is at the heart of who they are in order to survive resistance in large and small ways maintaining language maintaining culture finding ways to strike blows for freedom [Music]

Channel: Smithsonian Channel

Views: 10,109

Keywords: Smithsonian, National Museum of African American History, Protest, MTV, documentary, black history, American history, Indigenous peoples, movement, slavery, history of slavery, docu-series, slavery documentary, One Thousand Years of Slavery, 1000 years of slavery, black slavery, 1000 years, one thousand years, Smithsonian slavery, Smithsonian One Thousand years of Slavery, legacy of slavery, black slaves, US history, slave documentary, history, slave, Clotilde, Zora Neale Hurston, 1860

Id: xUSt7h5OmT4

Length: 4min 56sec (296 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 08 2022