A barracoon is a type of barracks used historically for the internment of slaves or criminals. In the Atlantic slave trade, captured individuals were temporarily transported to and held at barracoons along the coast of West Africa, where they awaited transportation across the Atlantic Ocean.

What is meant by the term barracoon?

A barracoon (a corruption of Portuguese barracão, an augmentative form of the Catalan loanword barraca ('hut') through Spanish barracón) is a type of barracks used historically for the internment of slaves or criminals.

Where does barracoon take place?

Zora Neale Hurston's Long-Unpublished Barracoon Finds Its Place After Decades of Delay. In 1927, a man in Alabama–the last survivor of the last known ship ever to bring enslaved humans from Africa to the U.S.–received a visitor.