When Hurston first found Cudjo Lewis and asked for his story, the man thrilled that someone would finally tell his story, or even hear his real name. Hurston provides her own impassioned commentary alongside a vivid portrait she paints of a man devastated but no longer enslaved. She writes in Cudjo's own words, immortalizing his dialect, and develops a sense of kinship with him that results in a rare instance where trauma is handled with care and empathy.Publisher Description:
A major literary event: a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God that brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade--abducted from Africa on the last "Black Cargo" ship to arrive in the United States.