Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America

Love black history. The book covered information about the area of my childhood.

While the book started out reading like a doctoral thesis, I ended up really appreciating the extensive, thorough research and the excellent writing.I read this for a nonfiction book club, and the main criterion for a thumbs-up from our group is whether or not we learned something. This book definitely fit the bill."Dreams of Africa in Alabama" tells the story of the last slave ship that came to America and the stories of the Africans that settled in Alabama. They had a completely different experience than Africans that had been brought over earlier, and the book described these differences and how they interacted with each other, the "original" African Americans, and their owners.Interviews with members of this community highlighted many poignant stories about their capture, the passage to America, their initial experiences and their lives after emancipation.It was also well written, with extensive notes and bibliography.

This book is a well researched, emotional tale of the last enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. illegally in 1860. It traces their brutal capture and imprisonment, the Americans who planned the illegal journey and purchase, the Middle Passage, their conditions while enslaved, and the life they built for themselves in Africatown, Alabama after the Civil War ended. It is sad and emotional but also a story of perseverance and resilience.

I purchased the book for a conference on the history of The last slave ship Clotilda and Africatown. I also got a chance to hear from the author during the conference. This book did not disappoint me!! So much knowledge to share with students.

Need to hear all sides

It's hard to say I loved this book because it upset me terribly reading about these Africans' lives before they were kidnapped and after they were enslaved. It was fascinating learning about the different African sects and their ways of life. It was very distressing to read the truth about their lives in America. I was appalled to realize I'd never been taught this history decades ago in school. I was impressed by the way the freed Africans established their own town -- "Africatown" -- and lived in harmony though the odds of their success were hampered at every turn by Whites. IMHO this should be required reading for every high school student.

Impeccably researched, very well-written book exploring how it happened that the last slave ship came through the port of Mobile, Alabama in the summer of 1860.As it happened, a scofflaw businessman from Alabama decided to hedge his bets in covertly bringing in slaves from Africa on the slave ship Clotilda in defiance of laws outlawing international slave trade. This is a splendid account of the slave ship Clotilda and its 110 women, men and children who were delivered into an already existing slave community.The author covers how these slaves handled life after emancipation in 1860 and tried, but failed, to return to Africa and then started a settlement later called Africatown, which makes the book also one fit for anthropological study on how these last slaves held onto their customs and social systems and language into this century despite the fact that the final Clotilda survivor passed away in the 1930s.

The author presents a great deal of information with a fluid and sensitive writing style. This is a narrative with a lot of anthropological and historical information. The author discusses the nuances of the personalities and the possible motivations of many of the individuals. She succeeds in creating a sense of place.

A fine well researched book that provides answers as well as factual information, I recommend it to anybody wanting to know more about this period of US history.

Gives a good insight into history as it happened rather than as we would like it to be.