Zora Neale Hurston explores the life of a slave trade survivor in 'Barracoon'

Though published 87 years after completion, Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Lastbook is a timely work. As American society debates whether to tear down Confederate memorials and reexamines the narrative of slavery and the Civil War, Hurston’s interviews with the last-known survivor of the slave trade serves as a reminder of whose story has often been disregarded throughout American history.