This book covers the vast history of the defendants of the Africans enslaved on the Clotilda ship. Although this book pitches itself as a historical mystery (and it is) I would add that at its heart it’s about people and the ramifications of such a traumatic history. Raines ends with hope and reconciliation without brushing over or underreporting the hardships, atrocities, and discrimination that Clotilda’s survivors and ancestors experience(d). ( )

This book closely follows the life of Cudjo Lewis, the last surviving slave captured, transported and enslaved, from Benin, Africa. His life, his ambitions, trials, successes and tragedies, along with his memories of others on the Clotilda, is explored. The atmosphere that existed then, the abuses and racism, ostracism and murder, even after slavery was abolished, is brought to the light of day. In the book “Barracoon”, Nora Neale Hurston also immortalizes Cudjo, a man brought against his will to America, with so many others. Each yearned to return to Africa, but knew it would be impossible. They were all captured and sold by other African tribes, then their villages were destroyed. The cost to return and start again was impossibly prohibitive and entirely unfeasible.

Purchased by Timothy Meaher, to work his plantation, they were trapped and helpless. He got away with his crimes against humanity, even though they were acknowledged. After the the slaves were freed, the Clotilda slaves started Africatown, a thriving, self-sufficient community with schools, businesses and happy residents. Progress, if you can call it that, eventually destroyed the town, with the help of the Meahers, who, fearful of prosecution for their crimes had tried to destroy the evidence, first by burning the Clotilda and later, sinking the remains. Eventually, the Meaher sons were responsible for bulldozing the town to make way for change and continue to hide their past crimes.

Helping to destroy Africatown, was a road that divided it, a train that traversed it, and the exodus of its young, because it offered no future, but while the town died, the terrible journey for the Clotilda survivors lives on as it is exposed and remembered on these pages, by Ben Raines, and it cannot be erased from the pages of history.

Importing slaves from Africa was illegal, but Meaher, a wealthy, powerful Alabaman, still commissioned a crew and ship to bring human cargo from Africa, to his home in Alabama, to work on his plantation. He was very much a believer in, and a supporter of slavery. The Clotilda was the last known slave ship, and this book follows the course of its journey and the victims of its crimes. It clearly defines and illustrates the heinous and blemished history of that time.

The narrative uses the language of the slaves, in the voice of Cudjo, which lends authenticity to the descriptive terms that are used, even using terms we consider slurs today, that were frequently used then. It might feel offensive to some readers.. ( )

Journalist and environmental activist Raines stumbled upon the story of the Clotilda while working in the Alabama swamps. In The Last Slave Ship, he does a nice job of combining the history of slave ships, Alabama, Africatown (where many descendants of the Clotilda lived), and his work to uncover the shipwreck. ( )

This history is astonishing in that these Africans were enslaved for only 5 years before the end of the Civil War; so unlike most Americans freed at this time, they remembered their lives and family in Africa, and they had a recent memory of independence and freedom.
This book is well-organized, well-written, and well-intentioned, but lacks depth. It feels like an expanded magazine article, rather than a work of history. It's good, but I wanted more, especially about the individual lives of these Africans, only one of whom is profiled in depth. ( )

An amazing story, well told

I would recommend this to anyone, white or Black, because this is all our story. And as Faulkner once wrote, the past isn't past. These people's stories will enrage you and break your heart but they are so well-written that it's as much a page-turner as a good novel. You won't be able to put it down and you will want to keep learning more. And if you're white, you will be renewed in your determination to apologize and make amends. ( )