Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to AmericaOxford University Press, USA, 9 mar 2007 - 340 pagine In the summer of 1860, more than fifty years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. Timothy Meaher, an established Mobile businessman, sent the slave ship, the Clotilda , to Africa, on a bet that he could "bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses." He won the bet.This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women. After emancipation, the group reunited from various plantations, bought land, and founded their own settlement, known as African Town. They ruled it according to customary African laws, spoke their own regional language and, when giving interviews, insisted that writers use their African names so that their families would know that they were still alive.The last survivor of the Clotilda died in 1935, but African Town is still home to a community of Clotilda descendants. The publication of Dreams of Africa in Alabama marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.Winner of the Wesley-Logan Prize of the American Historical Association (2007) |
Sommario
Introduction | 1 |
Known Africans Deported to Mobile on the Clotilda | 6 |
1 Mobile and the Slave Trades | 7 |
2 West African Origins | 30 |
3 Ouidah | 55 |
4 Arrival in Mobile | 72 |
5 Slavery | 90 |
6 Freedom | 126 |
8 Between Two Worlds | 182 |
9 Going Back Home | 207 |
Epilogue | 233 |
The Numbers of the Illegal Slave Trade | 241 |
An Essay on Sources | 245 |
Notes | 251 |
Bibliography | 295 |
329 | |
Altre edizioni - Visualizza tutto
Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the ... Sylviane A. Diouf Anteprima limitata - 2009 |
Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the ... Sylviane A. Diouf Anteprima limitata - 2007 |
Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the ... Sylviane Anna Diouf Visualizzazione estratti - 2007 |
Parole e frasi comuni
According African Americans African Town Alabama arrived asked Barracoon become believed Book born brought called captain captives Census Church close Clotilda coast companions Convict cotton County Court Cudjo cultural Dahomey death Dennison enslaved Federal followed former Foster four freedom friends give given hands Historic Sketches History hundred Hurston James January John July king knew known labor land Last later leave letter Lewis lived looked March Meaher Mobile County Mobile Public Library months Narratives Negro never Office once origin Ouidah parents passed percent person plantation Pollee population possible Press probably reason Records Report River Roche seen sent shipmates Slave Ship Slave Trade Slavery sold South Southern story thought Timothy told took United University wanted West women York Yoruba young