The Survivors of the Clotilda by Hannah Durkin

Hello my lovely readers!

Oh boy, was this book a doozy. It wasn't about the subject, per se, but the question of should an author's race matter when writing about Black history, because I had some major issues with this book. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS

The Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on American soil, docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860—more than half a century after the passage of a federal law banning the importation of captive Africans, and nine months before the beginning of the Civil War. The last of its survivors lived well into the twentieth century. They were the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history.

In this epic work, Dr. Hannah Durkin tells the stories of the Clotilda’s 110 captives, drawing on her intensive archival, historical, and sociological research. The Survivors of the Clotilda follows their lives from their kidnappings in what is modern-day Nigeria through a terrifying 45-day journey across the Middle Passage; from the subsequent sale of the ship’s 103 surviving children and young people into slavery across Alabama to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement in Selma; from the foundation of an all-Black African Town (later Africatown) in Northern Mobile—an inspiration for writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Zora Neale Hurston—to the foundation of the quilting community of Gee’s Bend—a Black artistic circle whose cultural influence remains enormous.

An astonishing, deeply compelling tapestry of history, biography, and social commentary, The Survivors of the Clotilda is a tour de force that deepens our knowledge and understanding of the Black experience and of America and its tragic past.

MY THOUGHTS

I posed the question of whether a author's race should matter when writing about Black history and the majority of comments were a resounding YES!!!

Personally, I'm a fence rider, as I can see both sides. Yes, white people have written about Black history with a particular, stereotypical slant in the past and to probably make a quick buck. But what if they're writing about someone or something that has not received recognition? Do we let these underrated Black history makers languish in obscurity because we're waiting on a Black person to write about them?

However, I do prefer when a Black person write about Black history, because who knows our history better than the people who lived it? 

Ultimately, I want to consume books on Black history, regardless of who writes it, but I can completely understand and respect readers who only want to read books by Black authors.

Now, this leads me to Survivors of the Clotilda. Oh, woof. This book. Author Hannah Durkin seemed to be wayyy to cautious in her handling of Black history that it came off as ridiculous. 

First, the word nigger is a racial slur. I think we ALL know that. However, when referring to it in a historical context, it is perfectly fine (in my opinion) to write it in a book, regardless of your race. Durkin did not do that. She continuously censored the word even when it was a direct quotation of a white supremacist or slave owner during the 1860s. Why? If you're going to write about Black history, STAND ON IT. 

She also used every other word except: slave, slave owner, plantation in this book and it was incredibly annoying. Here's a list of words:

• enslaved laborers
• slavery-based violence (what does this even mean?)
• murderers (instead of slave owners or mob)
• imprisoned shipmates
• entrapped freed people on their former prisons (HUH!?)
• pale-faced former captors
• human trafficker
• white terrorists
• ex bondspeople
• propertyless farm laborers
• black workforce
• African American husbands (she always used this when referring to the Clotilda shipmates who later married)

Lady, put down the thesaurus and just present the history as it is. It was incredibly confusing because I wouldn't know what she was talking about. Once when she referred to a plantation as a prison, I literally thought we moved onto the U.S. prison system.

It felt like she provided too much context and only sprinkled in the lives of the Clotilda shipmates. I would've preferred it if she maybe did chapters on each of the shipmates or something of that sort. 

The only few gems I got from this book were about West African death rituals, every now and then when a shipmate died.

It's disappointing because I was looking forward to reading this book as I enjoy learning about the Clotilda. Another library book lets me down. On to the next one!