Africatown

Thank you St Martin’s Press for this gifted copy.

I’m a huge fan of learning as much as I can about history and this is a story of resilience, perseverance, and heartbreak. I just know it’s going to take me on a breathtaking journey though a part of history unknown to me.

Just read this synopsis and tell me you aren’t intrigued too!👇

𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: In 1860, a ship called the Clotilda was smuggled through the Alabama Gulf Coast, carrying the last group of enslaved people ever brought to the U.S. from West Africa. Five years later, the shipmates were emancipated, but they had no way of getting back home. Instead they created their own community outside the city of Mobile, where they spoke Yoruba and appointed their own leaders, a story chronicled in Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon.

That community, Africatown, has endured to the present day, and many of the community residents are the shipmates’ direct descendants. After many decades of neglect and a Jim Crow legal system that targeted the area for industrialization, the community is struggling to survive. Many community members believe the pollution from the heavy industry surrounding their homes has caused a cancer epidemic among residents, and companies are eyeing even more land for development.

At the same time, after the discovery of the remains of the Clotilda in the riverbed nearby, a renewed effort is underway to create a living memorial to the community and the lives of the slaves who founded it.

💬 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭?

AOTD: Web found a new recipe for us to try out: Simple Creamy and Spicy Calabrian Chili Shrimp Pasta. I’ll post a link to it in my stories.