#10: Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis
This early 1900s photograph is of a truly remarkable man. Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis, born Oluale Kossola, was one of the last survivors of the Atlantic slave trade. Lewis was enslaved and forcibly transported aboard the Clotilda in 1860. He was born in West Africa around 1841 and was later captured and sold to an American businessman who ran the Clotilda ship.
After the Civil War, Lewis and his fellow enslaved Clotilda prisoners were emancipated and tried to raise enough funds to return home. When they were unable to raise enough money, they turned to Lewis to lead the charge in establishing Africatown near Mobile, Alabama. Africatown became a successful Black community and a safe haven for formerly enslaved people. Looking at Lewis in this photograph, we can only imagine what he saw, experienced, and felt over the course of his life.