Historic Sketches of the South
New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1914. 1st ed. Hardcover. frontis, photos, 148p. Original blue cloth. 21 cm. Top edge gilt. Some cover spotting and wear, mostly on and round backstrip which is otherwise sound. Spine lettering darkened. No jacket. Roche came from a prominent white femily in Mobile, Alabama. The first part of this book is Roche's discussion of slavery and what she saw as Black inferiorioty. What makes this book special is that pages 65-148 focus on the Clotilde, probably the last known American-owned slave ship, which brought a cargo of African captives to Mobile, Alabama, in 1859, and the subsequent experiences and opinions of those captives, based in part on Roche's interviews with Cudjoe Lewis (also known as Kazoola) and Poleete, two of the African captives on the Clotilde. Portions of the Roche book appear almost word for word (and sometimes word for word) in Zora Neale Hurston's article "Cudjo's Own Study of the Last African Slaver," in The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct. 1927), at pages 648-664. Very Good. Item #96128
Price: $500.00