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A review by anitahp
The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning by Ben Raines
5.0
I grew up near Mobile, Alabama. This history was never spoken about at school or in the media or any other place I remember. I knew the name Africatown, but didn't know anything about its history until the last few years. It pained me to read this book and know that there are still people living here today that want to protect the family members who committed these atrocities against their fellow humans. This book was informative, well researched, and extremely detailed. It tells the story of the Clotilda, the last slave ship, and gives some hope for the future of the town founded by those who made the journey inside the ship.
What I Liked:
The research was so well done. It feels like no stone was left unturned. I want to read more about it, but this gave me such a great foundation to build on.
It was written in such a way that it gave the facts but also expressed the emotions of the people it was talking about. I could feel how they felt, and that's so important in a historical account like this. It made me angry for them and sad for them and angry with those who did them harm. It made me angry (well, angrier) at my state for committing atrocities again and again toward these people, even after they were no longer slaves - slashing their community in half and destroying it with pollution. I remember the stench from the paper mills when we would drive to Mobile. We called it "The Mobile Funk". So much harm was done to these families who never even asked to be brought here.
I loved reading about the resilience of these people. They created a community there in Africatown, they created a structure and a way to organize and care for each other. They turned it into a thriving town. I've seen the blight it has become and it is depressing. I liked the way the book gives hope for the future, especially since the ship was found. There are ways to make this an important historical site - if Alabama and Mobile will allow it. This book made me want to find ways to help.
I loved the description of finding the ship. What an adventure! And what an important find! It was exciting to read.
What I Didn't Like:
I know it is sometimes necessary and these were quotes from actual people, so it was accurate, but the use of the n-word in the first half or so of the book (used by the slavers, mostly) was jarring. I'm not a person who cares about language most of the time - curse words don't bother me in my media, but that word gets me. If you are going to listen to the audio, make sure there are no kids around because the last thing we want is for kiddos to hear that word and start using it.
Final Thoughts:
This really should be required reading in high school history classes, especially in the South. We never even heard about this in our Alabama History classes. Those were all glorifying the state and not really going into any of the bad things in our history. We learned more about the state flower and bird than the slave trade that was booming along our shores for a number of years. Hiding this history doesn't make it go away. While it was hard to read about humans enslaving other humans, it wasn't a hard book to read. Does that even make sense? I liked that it focused on the resilience of the people and how they built a community. I liked that it didn't shy away from the terrible things that were done by individuals AND by government officials who made decisions to place undesirable industries right beside this community. It's important that people know this.
I highly recommend this book if you are looking to learn more about this topic. I found it fascinating and really learned a lot. It's shocking how much I didn't know, considering this happened literally in my own back yard, but that's how much people like to cover things up down here. I think things are changing slowly, but it really needs to be faster. And I really hope I get to attend the grand opening of the Clotilda Museum one day, because that's what they need to do - this should be preserved and the people who were brought here should be remembered. And we need to face our dark history and attempt to make up for it. It's important that we do this.
What I Liked:
The research was so well done. It feels like no stone was left unturned. I want to read more about it, but this gave me such a great foundation to build on.
It was written in such a way that it gave the facts but also expressed the emotions of the people it was talking about. I could feel how they felt, and that's so important in a historical account like this. It made me angry for them and sad for them and angry with those who did them harm. It made me angry (well, angrier) at my state for committing atrocities again and again toward these people, even after they were no longer slaves - slashing their community in half and destroying it with pollution. I remember the stench from the paper mills when we would drive to Mobile. We called it "The Mobile Funk". So much harm was done to these families who never even asked to be brought here.
I loved reading about the resilience of these people. They created a community there in Africatown, they created a structure and a way to organize and care for each other. They turned it into a thriving town. I've seen the blight it has become and it is depressing. I liked the way the book gives hope for the future, especially since the ship was found. There are ways to make this an important historical site - if Alabama and Mobile will allow it. This book made me want to find ways to help.
I loved the description of finding the ship. What an adventure! And what an important find! It was exciting to read.
What I Didn't Like:
I know it is sometimes necessary and these were quotes from actual people, so it was accurate, but the use of the n-word in the first half or so of the book (used by the slavers, mostly) was jarring. I'm not a person who cares about language most of the time - curse words don't bother me in my media, but that word gets me. If you are going to listen to the audio, make sure there are no kids around because the last thing we want is for kiddos to hear that word and start using it.
Final Thoughts:
This really should be required reading in high school history classes, especially in the South. We never even heard about this in our Alabama History classes. Those were all glorifying the state and not really going into any of the bad things in our history. We learned more about the state flower and bird than the slave trade that was booming along our shores for a number of years. Hiding this history doesn't make it go away. While it was hard to read about humans enslaving other humans, it wasn't a hard book to read. Does that even make sense? I liked that it focused on the resilience of the people and how they built a community. I liked that it didn't shy away from the terrible things that were done by individuals AND by government officials who made decisions to place undesirable industries right beside this community. It's important that people know this.
I highly recommend this book if you are looking to learn more about this topic. I found it fascinating and really learned a lot. It's shocking how much I didn't know, considering this happened literally in my own back yard, but that's how much people like to cover things up down here. I think things are changing slowly, but it really needs to be faster. And I really hope I get to attend the grand opening of the Clotilda Museum one day, because that's what they need to do - this should be preserved and the people who were brought here should be remembered. And we need to face our dark history and attempt to make up for it. It's important that we do this.