The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors

The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors

by Natalie S. Robertson
The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors

The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors

by Natalie S. Robertson

Hardcover

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Overview

Debates on reparations for slavery have emerged on national and international levels. However, much of the discourse centers on the legitimate slave trade. Few people are cognizant of the fact that the transatlantic slave trade consisted of both a legal trade and an illegal trade that began after January 1, 1808. Despite statutory prohibitions against slave smuggling, American citizens continued to smuggle African captives into the United States up to and beyond the threshold of the Civil War. The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA is the only well-documented work of serious nonfiction that chronicles the transatlantic smuggling expedition of the slaver Clotilda during the slave trade's illegal period, dramatizing the plight of her captives from the point of capture in the West African interior to the point of disembarkation in Mobile, Alabama in 1860, and tracing the specific means by which the captives triumphed over their tragedy.

Thirty members of that fateful cargo established AfricaTown in Alabama, where many of their descendants still live. In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Cudjo Kazoola, the last survivor of the Clotilda. In The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA Natalie S. Robertson uses ethnography, cartography, linguistics, and oral history to connect the story of the Clotilda captives to their origins in Africa, through their ordeals on the middle passage, all the way to the issue of reparations in the present day. She incorporates indigenous African perspectives, Hurston's interviews, and sources such as the Clotilda's log, meshing diverse voices into a narrative that reveals the centrality of slavery, Africanisms, and resistance in American culture even today.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780275994914
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 03/30/2008
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Natalie S. Robertson teaches at Hampton University and is the editor of African American History in Transatlantic Perspective (2002) and The Ancient and Global Dimensions of Black History (2000).

Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One Prelude to Peril
Chapter Two Voyage of the Slaver Clotilda
Chapter Three The Dahomean Dimension
Chapter Four Atlantic Passage
Chapter Five In the Jaws of the Lion
Chapter Six Central Nigeria
Chapter Seven The Founding of AfricaTown
Chapter Eight Spirit of Our Ancestors
Chapter Nine Cross-Roads
Bibliography

What People are Saying About This

Dr. William H. Cosby

"A masterful reconstruction of the slave ship Clotilda's transatlantic smuggling voyage within the context of the illegal period in the slave trade, emphasizing the extent to which her West African captives rose above their victimization as enslaved peoples by drawing on their indigenous ideas, practices, worldviews, and values. A must read for those seeking to understand, and be inspired by, the genius, the resiliency, and the spirit of our ancestors and for those desiring a new, well-documented reference on the African origins of Black peoples. Would make a great feature film for all audiences."

Dr. Cynthia Jacobs Carter

"Dr. Natalie Robertson gives a riveting account of a little known true story about the Clotilda Ancestors and their descendants. She speaks with a clear voice that is as informative as it is bold and compelling. With a researcher's skill, she lays the groundwork that enables them to speak their long-silenced truths."

Dr. Akintunde Akinyemi

"This is a long overdue and most welcome addition to the scholarly library on transatlantic slavery. One valuable contribution of the book is that it raises the voices of indigenous chiefs and scholars who have been overlooked in previous studies. Nothing surpasses this book in originality, depth, and scope. The book will help Africans and African Americans to expand and deepen their transatlantic cultural connections."

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante

"This is a brilliant historical analysis which is well written, profoundly enlightening, and daring, demonstrating the highest form of intellectual and historical analysis. Full of facts and sure to become a major work in African American history. Robertson must be commended for such a fine piece of scholarship that constitutes a remarkable achievement. Should be required reading of every American."

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