"The Clotilda": Secret Slave Ship Found in 2019

In Mobile, Alabama, there is a small neighborhood known as Africatown. For over a hundred years, rumors and legends lived mostly by word of mouth and some scattered journal entries with the hidden history of how the Africatown came to be. In 2019 the rumors were substantiated.

Just as many of the locals believed, Africatown was the product of a crime that was committed in 1860. The African slave trade was outlawed in 1808. This meant that bringing people from abroad in order to sell them into slavery was illegal and punishable by death.

However, despite the trade being illegal, slaves already in the US were able to be lawfully bought and sold until 1865. This sounded like a lucrative opportunity to cash in on to ship builder and plantation owner Timothy Meaher.

Legend has it that in 1860, Meaher made a bet that he could secretly bring a ship of slaves from Africa and sell them, despite the fact that doing had been punishable by death for over 40 years at that point.

Meaher hired Captain William Foster and sent him to Benin, West Africa where he bought Africans captured by warring tribes, and smuggled them back to Mobile, Alabama. He brought the ship up the Mobile River, secretly unloaded the ship and then set it on fire to hide the evidence.

Federal prosecutors were after Meaher, so everyone aboard the Clotilda was sworn to secrecy. Five years later, slavery was abolished. This meant the Clotilda was the final ship in U.S. history to ever bring Africans over to be bought and sold.

The newly freed slaves from the Clotilda pooled their resources and tried to pay to return to Africa but couldn't afford to do so. Instead they purchased land and turned it into Africatown. They built homes, farms and businesses. Many of their descendants still live there today.

Africatown was set up to be its own autonomous village, complete with a chief, laws, churches and a school. There are many personal records left behind from the first residents of Africatown explaining the hidden history of the Clotilda and the origin of Africatown.

Public records of exchanges between the Meahers led to the Clotilda's discovery. It was burned, partially exploded, and under 8 feet of muddy water. This discovery is the first step in reconciliation by validating the experiences of Africatown's ancestors.

The Meaher family remains powerful today. They still own much of the land and industries surrounding Africatown. In 2021, the Meaher family met with Mobile Mayor Stimpson and sold the city a business they would turn into a food bank and office for Africatown redevelopment.