Africatown

Driving across the Cochran Africatown bridge, you might miss the history just below and to the side of the roadway.  The run-down houses and industrial facilities look like many other older communities across the United States, but this one has a unique history.  Founded after the Civil War by former enslaved persons brought to Alabama on the Clotilda, along with other small communities like Plateau and Lewis Quarters, the community became a refuge for the shipmates struggling to assimilate to the culture of Mobile, Alabama.  Arriving just five years before they would be emancipated on the last slave ship to land in America, this group hung tight to the culture and social hierarchy familiar from their communities in Africa, leading to the town name Africatown.

Nick Tabor’s Africatown is an homage to the struggles of former enslaved persons after emancipation, as well as the plight of the lower income historic areas and their legacy.  This well researched and documented work tracks the life of several shipmates, showing the continual discrimination they faced throughout life.  Tabor also documents the environmental discrimination and activism it spurred more recently.  Utilizing interviews and written records performed by the author as well as journalists and writers like Zora Neale Hurston, this book reveals a fight for equality, preservation, and the safety of citizens in one of America’s most historically important towns you may never have heard of.

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I give Africatown 4 out of 5 stars.  Tabor follows a timeline from prior to the launch of the Clotilda through to the current century, giving readers so many details and facts.  I found some chapters in the middle that focused more on the legal and cultural happenings outside the community difficult to engage with.  I was expecting a book that focused more on the formation of the community and the happenings within its borders.  I did find the sections on the shipmates’ lives in Africa before enslavement and those about the environmental discrimination very interesting and left me wanting to know more! 

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I’ve been reading passages of this novel to my husband (who doesn’t read much) and recommending this book to friends who appreciate southern history and Civil Rights reads.  I would also recommend this book to those who enjoyed Roots by Alex Haley or have watched the Netflix documentary Descendant.  Given discussions of slavery and injustice, I feel this is an important read for all generations, but would direct this to the more mature audiences over 13.

I chose Africatown for my book set in Alabama for the US States reading challenge.  This is Tabor’s first book and released in 2023 – we featured it as a new release on the blog.  I have never heard of Africatown or the Clotilda, but have researched and read antebellum histories my entire life.  While surprised to learn new things, I shouldn’t be – I felt the same way when I first heard about the Tulsa Massacre a few years back.

If you’re looking for some other great reads set in Alabama, check out the list on the weekly agenda.  What’s your favorite book set in the state?

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Cottonmouths, Kelly J. Ford
• Current audio book: When Women Were Dragons, Kelly Barnhill
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston