Researchers are returning to the Alabama coast near Mobile to assess the sunken remains of the last known slave ship to bring captive Africans to the United States. Experts have described the wreck as the most complete slave ship ever discovered.
The United States outlawed the importation of enslaved people in 1808. But in 1860, wealthy businessman Timothy Meaher wagered that he could bring a shipload of Africans across the ocean. Clotilda sailed to what’s now Benin, a country in West Africa. Captain William Foster took aboard about 110 Africans who had been captured by warring tribes. He then sneaked back into Mobile Bay under the cover of darkness. Clotilda was sunk to hide the crime.
Researchers identified ship wreckage in the river as Clotilda in 2019. While small parts of the two-masted wooden schooner have been retrieved, most of the ship remains intact on the river bottom. That includes a pen used to imprison the individuals held captive.
Working from a barge topped with a crane, divers felt their way through murky water to the wreckage. A crew has taken fallen trees off the submerged remains of the ship, scooped muck out of the hull, and retrieved pieces to see what’s left of Clotilda. Workers pulled up some barnacle-encrusted timbers from the ship.
A final report will take a while. But the wreck is in remarkably good shape because it’s been encased for decades in protective mud, officials say.
Some people want to display the wreckage in a new museum. Whether that’s possible depends on factors like the condition of the wood, the stability of the wreck, and the river environment around it. Raising the ship would cost millions of dollars.
After the Civil War and Emancipation, Clotilda survivors didn’t have enough money to return home. Some pooled their earnings, bought a piece of land, and started a community called Africatown just north of Mobile. Many of their descendants still live there.
Enslaved Africans lost their freedom and suffered cruelty and humiliation at the hands of those who perpetuated slavery. Many of their descendants also lost part of their heritage—the knowledge of who their ancestors were and where they came from. But descendants of the Africatown founders know more than most.
Lorna Gail Woods is one of those descendants. The Clotilda find shows that her ancestors’ stories were true, Woods told Smithsonian Magazine. “This is proof for the people who lived and died and didn’t know it would ever be found.”
Why? The story of Clotilda is part of the heritage of the Africatown descendants as well as the history of the United States. Learning the past, both good and bad, helps us understand the present day—and not repeat tragic past mistakes and errors.
Pray for those currently in bondage; remember what God has done in the past and is doing today. (Deuteronomy 32:6-7)
