Dreams of Africa in Alabama

By Sylviane A. Diouf

Subjects: Slave ships, Alabama, social conditions, Biography, West Africans, Slavery, united states, African Americans, Enslaved persons, Minorities, Alabama, history, Slavery, Slavery, united states, history, West africans, Mobile (ala.), United States, Alabama, Slave trade, africa, Sklave, Slavery and bondage, Clotilda (Ship), Slaves, united states, Slave trade, Social conditions, Slaves, Slave-trade, History, United states, race relations, Race relations, Alabama, biography, Africans, united states

Description: Sylviane A. Diouf reconstructs the lives of 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria who were brought ashore in Alabama in 1860 under cover of night, recounting their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describing their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women. After emancipation, the group reunited from various plantations, bought land, and founded their own settlement, known as African Town. They ruled it according to customary African laws, spoke their own regional language and, when giving interviews, insisted that writers use their African names so that their families would know that they were still alive. African Town is still home to a community of Clotilda descendants. --from publisher description