(SLAVERY.) Letter describing a celebration for Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the last slave voyage to America. Letter signed as "Dad" to daughter Mrs. I. Rothman of New York. 2 pages, 11 x 8½ inches, on 2 sheets of business letterhead; mailing folds, minimal wear. With original stamped mailing envelope. Mobile, AL, 23 October 1931
Cudjo Lewis (circa 1841-1935), born Oluale Kosolane, was one of the last known African survivors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the United States. In 1860, he and 115 others were smuggled aboard the slave ship Clotilda to Mobile, Alabama, long after the slave trade had been banned. They were enslaved until emancipation came, and then established a settlement called Africatown near Mobile. The vast majority of freed slaves gained citizenship in 1868 under the 14th Amendment decreeing birthright citizenship, but Lewis was naturalized as an immigrant later that year. Late in life, he gained recognition as the last surviving adult from the Clotilde (two small children from the Clotilde outlived him). He was interviewed by Zora Neale Hurston in 1927, and his story served as the basis for her novel Barracoon.
This letter describes a large celebration held in Mobile on 23 October 1931 to honor Lewis and raise funds for his support. The author was Mobile jeweler Heyman Gabriel (1874-1948), himself an immigrant to America, writing to his daughter Matilda Gabriel Rothman in New York. He describes his attendance at "the Cudjoe Lewis celebration . . . The old darkie represents certainly the primitive up to the modern, the wilds of Africa to the civilized people of America. . . . The audience consisting of probably 150 white people and fully as many Negroes, if not more. . . . a southern people accustomed to slavery conditions and owning slaves, paying tribute to the last colored man brought by force to American shores. . . . The program was entertaining . . . hearing and feeling the expression of their wild nature as the various high sounding notes betrayed to one. A special quartette, sisters and brothers and grandchildren of one of the slaves that came over on that boat sang two beautiful numbers without any accompaniment whatsoever. Another number, a tenor without piano accompaniment burst forth in a song and broke into yodeling just remarkable, wonderful and beautiful. One of the touching scenes was when a Protestant minister in line with all white people passing this old darkie's chair for the purpose of shaking hands with him layed his hand upon this ex-slave's head and blessed him."
