BARRACOON The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

Zora Neale Hurston’s previously unreleased work offers a rare glimpse of the experiences of the last surviving person to have been taken from Africa, brought to the United States as a slave, and then freed. Capturing the dialect, accent, and intonation of Cudjo Lewis, then living in Alabama, presents a challenging task for narrator Robin Miles, who must deliver one of the integral aspects of Hurston’s work: a reconstruction of Lewis’s African and Southern accents. Miles’s rendition is well done, with clear, deliberate diction that places appropriate emphasis on Lewis’s emotional reactions. Also included is an introduction to Hurston’s work. Traditional music at transition points sets the mood of the rural South. S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2018 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2018]