The author of this book traveled to Plateau, Alabama, (a town that was once called African Town, built by former slaves, and renamed when the railroad came through), to interview the last surviving former slave from the last shipment of slaves that came through the Americas. In fact, the Atlantic Slave Trade had been outlawed some fifty years before the capture of Kossola. Kossola was born around 1841 in West Africa. He was in the Isha subgroup of the Yoruba people, who lived in the town of Bante. He was captured in a raid and transported to the United States on the slave ship Clotilda. He arrived in the United States in 1860, after 45 days at sea. He was given an American name, Cudjo Lewis. He gives a very detailed and moving account of his enslavement and his life thereafter. I could tell from his speaking that he really missed his home, his family, his culture, and his community. I am sure everyone who was enslaved did, but you could really see how much he was affected by his memories.

I am trying my very best to read as many of these shorter books as I possibly can so I can continue downsizing for my move, and this happened to be one of the ones that were in the 200 pages or less category. I finished this pretty quickly last night, as I couldn't sleep (of course). I have to say that my biggest complaint about this book was that it was difficult to read. The author wrote how the interviewee spoke, as opposed to how words are actually spelled. While it did give personality to the story, and made you feel as though you were talking to the subject, I hated that. I cannot stand reading text messages or social media posts where people cannot be bothered to spell out the words correctly, and this put me in mind of that. Other than that, the story was very engaging. I think it was great that this person was able to tell his story. It is so important to get accounts of people who lived through slavery, genocide, wars, et cetera. Without these accounts, we would be missing out on such an important part of the historical narrative.