The Story of Cudjo Lewis — The Last Living Slave Brought To America | All That Is Interesting

By Gabe Paoletti, All That Is Interesting

Due to the nature of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and the practices of American slave owners, enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. lost much of their connection to the West African cultures from which they originated.

Cudjo Kossola Lewis, the last known survivor of the Atlantic slave trade, bridged this gap, connecting his traditional African culture to his horrible experience as a slave, and in the process became an icon among writers and academics in the 1930s trying to better understand the full story of slavery in the United States.

Cudjo was born with the name “Kossola” in the Banté region of West Africa, which is today encompassed by the nation of Benin, in 1840. He grew up in a Yoruba community in a large family of 17 siblings.

University of South Alabama, Cudjo Lewis

University of South Alabama, Cudjo Lewis

Full article @ All That Is Interesting