Dreams of Africa in Alabama

Starred review from March 15, 2007
At a time when international slave trade had been outlawed and civil discord on the broader issue of slavery was brewing, an Alabama businessman took up a bet that he could bring slaves from Africa in open defiance of local officials. In the summer of 1860, he did just that with the slave ship " Clotilda," bringing back 110 men, women, and children from Dahomey, sneaking them in among the already existing slave community. In this fascinating book, Diouf details how the last enslaved Africans to be brought to the U.S. were integrated into American slave culture and how they fared five years later, after emancipation. When their efforts to return to the west coast of Africa failed, the Africans founded their own settlement, which came to be known as Africatown. They managed to maintain their language, customs, and social structures into the twenty-first century, though the last survivor of the " Clotilda" died in 1935. Timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, this book will appeal to readers interested in the retention of African culture by enslaved black Americans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)