Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

12 reviews

ibadella's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

i read a few chapters of Barracoon during my anthropology degree, and have found the revisit incredibly enriching

the combination of Kossola’s brilliant storytelling and Hurston’s compassionate approach to interviewing makes this brief read so very rich. Hurston’s ethnographic approach is thoughtful, innovative, and personal, contrasting to the salvage anthropology practiced by her contemporaries through her consideration for Kossola’s and the residents of Africatown’s wellbeing and privacy. She situates herself within the tale as an active but nonjudgemental participant, transparently admitting her personal interests, questions, and impressions. the whole book is heartily framed by essay additions which contextualize and offer discussion of the layers of understanding presented in this single story

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Slavery

nneka23's review against another edition

dark informative sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Trafficking, Slavery, and Racism

tey_lynn's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Child death, Gore, Death, War, Murder, Kidnapping, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

Moderate: Xenophobia

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Upgrading to a five. The book itself wasn’t especially compelling, but I could feel it changing me on some celular level to read it. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else.

The depth of his loneliness almost broke me, but it took me some time to get there. He’s so matter of fact in his telling, but then again, I wish I could’ve heard his actual voice. That would’ve made a huge difference in how I imbibed this book.

My only fear from this experience is that there will be others out there who read it and walk away thinking and saying, pointing to his words, that not all slave masters were horrible people. That is a lie I’d hate to see perpetuated, because no matter how kind they might’ve been, they still only had slaves because they lacked respect for the dignity of these African lives and refused them any agency.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Slavery, Body horror, Death, and Gun violence

zoenelson's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Zora Neale Hurston provides us with an account of one of the last slaves brought to the United States through a participant-observer methodology. She provides Cujo's story through his own narrative. 

As readers, we confront uncomfortable truths about U.S. history and are forced to dismantle the falsehoods we've been deceived into believing. In my mind, Cudjo's story puts words and history to the collective trauma of millions of Africans forced into slavery in the U.S.

Besides Cudjo's words, I loved the editor's notes. She provided important context and a wealth of original thought to this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking and Slavery

Moderate: Child death, Death, Grief, Violence, and Racism

sophmcgraw's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Child death, and Slavery

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.0

I thought the introduction was really interesting, but I'm not sure why I had a hard time getting into the story. It's very possible that I would like this more at a more focused time in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Trafficking, Classism, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent, Bullying, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, and Confinement

Minor: Gaslighting, Murder, Gore, Abandonment, and Genocide

tinyflame4's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Violence, Colonisation, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping, Animal death, and Racism

seph268's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Trafficking, Gore, Grief, and Slavery

lindsayerin's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Racism, Slavery, Child death, Death, Grief, and Trafficking