author
Emma Langdon Roche
1878–1945
A Mobile, Alabama writer and artist, she is best remembered for preserving stories of the South and for publishing early interviews with Cudjoe Lewis, one of the last known survivors of the slave ship Clotilda. Her work blends local history, observation, and a strong sense of place.
1 Audiobook
Historical sketches of the south
by Emma Langdon Roche
About the author
Born in Mobile, Alabama, on March 26, 1878, Emma Langdon Roche studied at the Convent of Visitation and later at the Art Students League in New York City. She worked across several fields and was described in Alabama reference sources as an artist, writer, and farmer.
Roche is best known for Historic Sketches of the South (1914), a book that gathered regional history and included material based on her interviews with Cudjoe Lewis, also known as Kossola. Those interviews gave her an important place in the record of the Clotilda story and the history of Africatown.
She also wrote on nature and everyday observation, including Habits of Native Birds and Diseases of Trees. Roche died on April 5, 1945, leaving behind a body of work that connects art, local history, and firsthand memory.