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The Clotilda: A Centuries-Old Open Secret: Home

This guide will explore the significance of the last known slave ship in the United States, The Clotilda

Unlocking the Secrets

                            

 

It was finally found in 2019.

 

WEB of SOULS

TIMOTHY MEAHER - wealthy Mobile, Alabama planter made a bet that he could bring a shipload of captives from Africa, right under the noses of authorities, even though the slave trade to the United States had been legally prohibited since January 1, 1808.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM FOSTER - recruited and financed by Meaher, Foster built and owned the Clotilda.                 -

OLUALE KOSSOLA (later renamed Cudjo Kazoola Lewis),  was among the 110 children and young adults kidnapped from various areas of GHANA, NIGERIA, and BENIN. They were taken to Mobile, Alabama where they then were enslaved and divided up between Foster and the Meaher brothers. 

 After being freed by Union soldiers at the end of the Civil War, shipmates pooled their money and were able to buy plots of land from the Meaher family.  They established a small village which they proudly called African Town [AFRICATOWN].  It was a clear way of demonstrating who they were, who they wanted to remain, and where they wanted to be.

 

 

Historical Framework: Timeline

 

  • 1808 (January):  Federal law abolishes the transatlantic slave trade
  • 1860:  wealthy Alabama plantation owner decides to kidnap and smuggle 100+ free Africans from Benin, into Mobile, Alabama
  • 1860:  this plantation owner/businessman purchases the schooner, Clotilda, from a shipbuilder/captain for $35,000 to accomplish his mission
  • 1860 (early-July):  Clotilda arrives in Alabama, Africans are transferred to their enslavers
  •  1860 (mid-July):  Clotilda, now empty, is set afire and sunk by the shipbuilder, to hide the evidence of the illegal activity
  • 2019:  Clotilda is discovered at the bottom of the Mobile River in Alabama.  

 

 

 

Significance of the Discovery of the Ship

Finding the Clotilda makes it possible to see the history of the slave trade in human terms.  It brings the story out of  the shadows of the past, into the light of the present.

Historical Framework: The Ship

The schooner Clotilda is the last known United States slave ship to bring free people from Africa and enslave them in the United States.  Constructed in 1855 by shipbuilder/captain William Foster, it was eighty-six feet long and twenty-three feet wide.  Foster sold the Clotilda to a prominent Mobile, Alabama businessman, Timothy Meaher in 1860, after he was approached by Meaher about commanding an illegal slaving voyage to Ouidah (now Benin in West Africa). 

The ship set sail, under the cover of darkness, on March 3, 1860.  It sailed under the pretense of bringing a cargo of lumber to the Danish Virgin Islands.  It reached Ouidah on May 15.  On July 9, the Clotilda entered the Mississippi Sound, docked until nightfall and then was clandestinely tugged up the Mobile River to Twelve-Mile Island.  Here, the Africans were transported to a second ship, the Czar, and sent further up the river to be surreptitiously transferred to their respective new "owners."  The Clotilda and the evidences of the slave voyage, was then set afire by William Foster.

Diving for the Clotilda

The Wreckage

Historical Framework: Southern Backdrop (1860-1877)

 

1860  South Carolina secedes the Union

1861  Lincoln is president

1861  Confederate States of America established  under Confederate President, Jefferson Davis

1861  Civil War begins

1862  Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

1865  Lincoln assassinated

1865  Andrew Johnson is president

1865   Civil War ends

1865  Reconstruction begins

1866  Ku Klux Klan founded

1877  Reconstruction ends

 

What's in a Name?

 

The Clotilda 

is a tangible link in American history 

to the names and stories passed down

through generations of "her" descendants.