LibGuides: The Clotilda: A Centuries-Old Open Secret: Voices of the Clotilda

Violent Uprooting, Captive Passage, Slavery and Legacy

This page shines a light on how the inhumanity of others has been revealed through preserved oral tradition, research and technology.

Dignity Justified
It is an overview of the survival and perseverance of 3 of the 110 young men, women, and children who survived the violent uprooting and captive passage from Africa to Alabama aboard the slave ship, Clotilda. When we “ Lift Every Voice and Sing,” we are also honoring the legacy of Koosola, Redoshi, Matilda, their descendants and the descendants of 11 million captives from Africa to America.
Africatown and the 21st Century Stain of Slavery
Descendants of the survivors of the Clotilda fight for respect and environmental justice

Netflix

'Descendant' is now streaming, but should you give it a watch?

Excerpt: "While the historical significance of the story and the discovery itself should be enough to entice audiences, for me, the major takeaways from this film lie more in the current residents of Africatown and how the Clotilda represents a pattern of arrogant, despicable and racist behavior that has been thrust upon this community.

In one of the key themes in the documentary, the family responsible for the Clotilda's existence still remains in [Mobile] and owns factory land that engulfs this small community on all sides. These factories have been found to be largely responsible for a substantial increase in cancer cases in this community, and represents a form of environmental racism that is all too common in predominantly black/[brown] communities all over the U.S. No matter how many generations have passed since the Clotilda's voyage, the film shows all the different ways that systemic racism has harmed these families since their ancestors arrived in this country. Notably, no one from Timothy Meaherls descendents (the family of the man who orchestrated the Clotilda's voyage) agreed to be interviewed for this film." [Andrew Morgan, "Should you watch 'Descendant' on Netflix?"]

Should You Watch 'Descendeant' on Netflix? Review of the Documentary
Produced by Night Tide production, Higher Ground Productions (the company run by the Obamas) acquired the rights with Netflix to this documentary in early January 2022

Media

Matilda McCreary: The Hidden Story of the Last Transatlantic Slave Trade Survivor

Redoshi, renamed "Aunt Sally Smith"

What's in a Word?

Barracoon -

a temporary

cage

for holding slaves,

indentured servants or

prisoners

New York Times Bestseller: Baraccon by Zora Neal Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston and Cudjo's Own Story
Zora Neale Hurston was an author and anthropologist, known for her works such as Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules and Men. In 2018, another impactful work from Hurston, Barracoon, was published. This book told the story of Cudjo Lewis, who was born as Oluale Kossola. Kossola was thought to be the last of the 110 survivors of the Clotilda, which was one of the last slave ships to travel from the United States to Africa. Even though the transatlantic slave trade was abolished in the United States in 1807, thousands of Africans were still brought illegally to the United States to be enslaved until the 1860s.
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Hurston began working as an investigator for Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in 1927. Hurston was recommended by her professor, Franz Boas, for a $1,400 fellowship that Woodson and the American Folklore Society’s Elsie Clews Parson were offering. She was to travel for six months throughout Florida and other places in the South to collect folklore from the Black people living there.

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston; Alice Walker (Foreword by); Deborah G. Plant (Introduction by)
ISBN: 9780062748201
Publication Date: 2018-05-08

Subject of Barracoon: Cudjo Lewis

Abaché and Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis in the 1910s. Mr. Lewis was brought to America as a slave aboard the Clotilda.Credit...Historic Sketches of the South, 1914