Historical Background
The year 2019 saw the identification of the Clotilda’s wreck in the depths of the Mobile River. The Clotilda was the last known ship to traffic enslaved Africans to the United States in 1860. Although the “importation” of African captives to the United States was banned in 1808, the Clotilda’s illegal slaving voyage showed that the transatlantic slave trade persisted. The Clotilda’s “human cargo” consisted of 110 people, almost entirely children and young adults, who endured violent—and ultimately permanent—separation from their homeland in West Africa. With a knowledge of recent freedom, the Clotilda survivors endured five years of brutal enslavement on Alabama plantations and steamboats. After emancipation from slavery, a group of Clotilda survivors and US-born freedpeople came together to found an independent community north of Mobile, Alabama, known as “African Town” in 1866. Other survivors laid roots in communities across Alabama’s Black Belt and other areas of the South. Throughout their lifetimes, Clotilda survivors proudly asserted their African identities, sharing their memories, cultures, languages, and values from their homeland with family members and the many people who were inspired by their stories.
The Alabama Historical Commission, the State Historic Preservation Office, is committed to preserving the Clotilda, recognizing it as an invaluable artifact that evidences a difficult chapter in human history. The shipwreck serves as a powerful reminder not only of an illegal slaving voyage, but of the experiences of millions of Africans and African descendants whose lives were shaped by the transatlantic slave trade. The Clotilda survivors’ legacies live on in their families and in the institutions and communities they built—rooted in Africatown, extending across Alabama, the United States, and the world.
1. Origins
The people who would become known to history as the Clotilda survivors were primarily from the former Oyo Empire of present-day western Nigeria and Benin. Their names—Kossola, Abake, Gumpa, Kupollee, Zuma, as examples—carried stories of their family’s lineage and hopes for their futures. They were farmers, traders, artisans, and healers. At least one was a nobleman. Many were skilled in quilting, woodworking, and herbal knowledge. Extended family networks, spiritual traditions, and strong communal relationships shaped their daily lives and society.
In 1860, these young people’s lives would be forever altered as they fell victim to the transatlantic slave trade, becoming the last known group of Africans trafficked to the United States.
Yoruba Ògbóni/Òsùgbó Edan Figures The male and female edan figures are a symbol of the Ògbóni/Òsùgbó elders society that worked to uphold peace, harmony, well-being, and justice in Yoruba societies. The Clotilda survivors would draw on these traditions of governance when they formed African Town in 1866.
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville; Gift of Rod McGalliard. Image courtesy of Harn Museum of Art
Fon Scepter This bronze and wood axe from the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey was a symbol of royal authority and performed both secular and religious functions. Gumpa, a young nobleman from Dahomey, was among the captives forced onto the Clotilda.
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville; Gift of Drs. John and Nicole Dintenfass. Image courtesy of Harn Museum of Art
Yoruba Elders’ Society Drum This drum was used in gatherings of the Ògbóni/Òsùgbó, a Yoruba society of female and male elders with political, judicial, and religious powers to select and advise rulers. The central carved figure’s bell and flywhisk are symbols of the orisha deity of the depths of the sea, Olókun, who brings wealth and wisdom.
Image courtesy of Chazen Museum of Art
2. Capture
Most of the young people who would become known as the Clotilda survivors were kidnapped by Fon warriors from the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin). In April 1860, Dahomeyan warriors descended upon a sleeping town before dawn. Amidst the violent chaos and destruction of the raid, many Clotilda survivors were captured, with the majority being ripped apart from friends and family members never to be seen again. This raid marked the first of many painful separations over the course of their lives. Those townspeople who were not captured were killed.
After the raid, the Fon warriors forced their captives —mostly children, teens, and young adults— to embark on a roughly 250-mile journey to Ouidah, an area known as “Slave Coast.” They were bound together by iron neck collars and chains.
Coffle of African Captives Shackled and forced to march overland by traders, African captives were sold and imprisoned along African coastlines prior to crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a forced journey known as the Middle Passage.
Livingstone, David, and Charles Livingstone. Narrative of an expedition to the Zambesi and its tributaries; and of the discovery of the lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. -1864.
3. Conspiracy
For weeks, the children and young adults were imprisoned in a barracoon, or slave holding pen, before they were sold to William Foster, a sea captain from Mobile, Alabama. Foster had been enlisted by Timothy Meaher, a wealthy enslaver, to smuggle Africans into the United States on his ship, the Clotilda, in a bet. Together, Foster and Meaher conspired to defy the United States’s 1808 ban on the “importation of [African] slaves.” The Clotilda was well-suited for the illegal voyage as it was built for speed and was equipped with an unusually large hold. Meaher and Foster planned to sell the African captives to other enslavers upon the Clotilda’s return to Alabama.
Transatlantic Slave Trade from Africa to the Americas, 1500–1866 An estimated 12.5 million Africans were trafficked to the Americas between 1500 and 1866. The Clotilda’s illegal voyage was one of around 36,000 documented slave ship voyages to cross the Atlantic from the 1500s into the 1860s.
Source: David Eltis and David Richardson, Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010). Reproduced by permission of Yale University Press.
4. Crossing
Stripped of their clothing, with the males bound in shackles, an estimated 110 captives were packed into the Clotilda before departing West Africa for Mobile. Their ages ranged from two to 40 years old, with the majority being teens and young adults selected for their prime labor and reproductive years ahead. Only 103 people would survive the crossing. For more than six weeks at sea, the young people were locked into a pitch-black and poorly ventilated hold, where they were forced to wallow in their own vomit, excrement, and other bodily fluids. Fleeting moments of relief came when they were brought onto the deck to move their bodies beneath the open sky.
Despite these terrifying conditions, bonds of community formed aboard the ship. One of the captives who would be known as Dinah in the United States claimed to save a small piece of raffia cloth as a keepsake from home. Most of the captives, however, could only attempt to hold onto their memories, languages, and spiritual traditions.
5. Upholding Tradition, Rebuilding Community
The Clotilda’s captives reached Mobile, Alabama, on July 9, 1860. Many were taken to different parts of the state to begin forced labor as enslaved people. Some remained in Mobile, enslaved by the Meaher family. News of the illegal trafficking spread quickly. Timothy Meaher and Captain William Foster tried to evade federal authorities and destroyed evidence of their criminal voyage by burning, sinking, and abandoning the vessel in the Mobile River.
After nearly five years of brutal enslavement on Alabama plantations and steamboats, a group of the Clotilda survivors reunited in the years following the US Civil War (1861–1865). When their dream of returning to Africa was not realized, these survivors, along with a few formerly enslaved African Americans, established a new home north of Mobile in 1866. They worked hard and pooled their money to purchase land. They built each other’s houses, as well as a school and a church. They gave their new community a name that reflected an enduring connection to their homeland: “African Town.” There, they maintained their West African identities and values, continued to speak their languages, and established their own set of laws and governance.
Zuma and Grandchildren in African Town, c. 1912 African Town’s success was evident by 1912. The population grew to between two and three thousand residents. Nearly everyone owned their own homes and there were at least a dozen stores, all Black-owned.
Image courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “Historic sketches of the South” New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Old Landmark Baptist Church Clotilda survivors attended Stone Street Baptist Church in Mobile before establishing their own place of worship: the first Old Landmark Baptist Church (Union Missionary Baptist Church today), which opened in 1872. It served as a center for spiritual life and education in the newly formed African Town.
Photograph by Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA)
A Tradition of Educational Excellence In 1910, African Town residents raised funds to build a new high school to accompany the schoolhouse built by the Clotilda survivors. Mobile County Training School later became part of the Rosenwald network of schools to expand educational opportunities for Black students in the South.
Image courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History
6. Enduring Legacies
The lives of the Clotilda survivors encompass far more than the violence and trauma of their kidnapping and enslavement. Though forced into unimaginable circumstances, they endured by holding onto their West African identities, traditions, and values. Through hardship and injustice, they built loving families, sustained close-knit communities, and worked tirelessly to provide for themselves and others. Themes of mutual support, cultural pride, spirituality, and the quest for justice shape many of their powerful stories.
Scholars have pieced together details of their lives through what survivors shared with children and grandchildren, as well as through interviews, court records, newspaper accounts, and other historical documents. Some even left first-person accounts, making their experiences among the most thoroughly documented histories of the Middle Passage.
Abake/Matilda McCrear (c.1858–1940)
Defying Norms, Demanding Justice
Matilda McCrear’s grandson, Johnny Crear, grew up hearing stories about his grandmother’s defiant spirit. “I was told she was quite rambunctious,” Crear recalled in an interview with the BBC.
In her seventies, McCrear carried out a remarkable act of resistance. After decades of laboring as a sharecropper in Alabama’s Black Belt, McCrear struggled to support herself and her family. When she learned that Kossola, a fellow Clotilda survivor, had received public attention and financial support, McCrear demanded the same. She walked fifteen miles from her home to the courthouse in Selma to seek compensation for herself and for Redoshi/Sally Smith, another Clotilda survivor. Although a judge denied her claim, McCrear’s bold action stood as a powerful challenge to the racial and gender constraints of her time.
ABOVE Portrait of Abake/Matilda McCrear In this undated studio portrait, ritual markings, or scarification, are visible on McCrear’s left cheek. Many Clotilda survivors had scarification on the face and/or body specific to their particular town of origin or kinship group.
Image courtesy of the John Crear Family Collection
Dinah Miller (c.1847–1933)
Inspiring Generations of Creatives
Dinah Miller was one of the earliest known named quilters of Gee’s Bend, a collective of Black women in Wilcox county, Alabama, celebrated for their visionary approach to quiltmaking. Gee’s Bend quilters often transformed worn and discarded materials into functional works of art. Bold geometry and vibrant compositions mark their creations, earning them national and international acclaim. Miller was the matriarch of more than five generations of expert quilters who carry her legacy forward through their artistry.
ABOVE “Housetop” Sampler Containing “Nine Patch” and “Southern Star” Arlonzia Pettway (1923–2008) Dinah Miller’s great-granddaughter Arlonzia Pettway recounted listening to tales of Miller’s journey from Africa as a child seated on her quilts. Pettway would go on to become an expert quilter in the famed Gee’s Bend tradition.
Photograph by Stephen Pitkin/Pitkin Studio, image courtesy of Souls Grown Deep Foundation
Oluale Kossola/Cudjo Lewis (c.1841–1935)
Shaping Historical Narratives
Oluale Kossola’s memory and voice have helped to shape our understanding of the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on individuals and communities. As one of the oldest Clotilda survivors and a revered leader of Africatown, Kossola was an invaluable living connection for scholars and journalists dedicated to preserving these histories. A gifted storyteller, he shared Yoruba tales and parables from his youth, along with stories of his family and community in Africatown. His legacy is perhaps most powerfully carried forward through Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston. In this record of Kossola’s oral storytelling, Hurston offers an unparalleled account of a Middle Passage survivor’s enduring trauma and resilience following forced migration and enslavement.
ABOVE Oluale Kossola and Great-Grandchildren After the death of his wife and six children, Oluale Kossola lived on the family compound with his son Iyadjemi/Aleck’s widow and her three children.
Image courtesy of the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama
7. Preserving Memory,
Honoring History
For generations, descendants have worked to preserve and share the memory of the Clotilda survivors. They formed preservation societies, held annual gatherings, and placed historical markers across Africatown. Many have also traced their lineage, recorded oral histories, and preserved family photographs and objects. Stories of the Clotilda survivors have drawn the attention of scholars, journalists, artists, and many others. The 2018 publication of Zora Neale Hurston’s manuscript, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”, sparked renewed interest in Africatown, the lives of its founders, and its community today.
Despite these preservation efforts, doubt persisted. Many questioned the very existence of the Clotilda. For more than twenty years, the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) supported efforts to find the Clotilda. In May 2019, following extensive research and a comprehensive assessment, the AHC announced the identification of the Clotilda’s wreck in the Mobile River. The shipwreck provided direct evidence of the stories passed down by generations of Africatown residents. Identification of the vessel served as a tangible link to the past for descendants and for many across the global African diaspora whose ancestors’ experiences had long been obscured or denied.
Historic Sketches of the South Frontispiece Emma Langdon Roche was an artist and writer from Mobile who wrote Historic Sketches of the South in 1914. The book features stories and essays based on interviews of the residents of Africatown.
Image courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. “Historic Sketches of the South” New York Public Library Digital Collections.
The legacies of the Clotilda survivors endure. Individuals and communities connected to this history confront ongoing challenges while holding fast to expansive visions for the future—visions grounded in memory, ancestry, and lived experience. The Clotilda Memorial represents one part of a greater, shared legacy that is shaped by descendants, historians, artists, and Africatown community members alike: a commitment to carry forward knowledge that must not be forgotten, and to ensure that the past remains a living guide for what comes next.
Landing Event and Ancestor Festival (L.E.A.F.) Clotilda descendants Annette Reeves, Kendall Anderson, Kaden Pratt, and Ronald McCloud place a ceremonial wreath at the site of the Clotilda’s wreck to honor their ancestors during the 2025 L.E.A.F. event.
Photograph by Molly Harrell
Editorial Note
This historical narrative is provided to support the development of artist submissions to the request for proposals for the Clotilda Memorial. It was particularly inspired by Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade (2024) by Hannah Durkin, and Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America (2007) by Sylviane A. Diouf, whose scholarship presents nuanced, full portrayals of the lives and legacies of the individuals trafficked aboard the Clotilda. To make this history accessible to general audiences, details of violence and sexual abuse have not been included.
For more information on the stories of the Clotilda survivors, their descendants, Africatown and connected communities, please see a selection of additional resources listed below. Please note this list of resources is not exhaustive.
Additional Resources
- Sylviane A. Diouf, Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- James P. Delgado, Deborah E. Marx, Kyle Lent, Joseph Grinnan, and Alexander DeCaro, Clotilda: The History and Archaeology of the Last Slave Ship. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2023.
- Hannah Durkin, The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade. New York: Amistad, 2024.
- Zora Neale Hurston, Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black” Cargo. New York: Amistad, 2018.
- Ben Raines, The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022.
- Natalie S. Robertson, The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of Africatown USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors. London: Praeger, 2008.
- Emma Langdon Roche, Historic Sketches of the South. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2008.
- The Sanders Sisters, Matilda’s Story Through the Eyes of Four Sisters. Boynton Beach, FL: Spines, 2026.
- Nick Tabor, Africatown: America’s Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2023.
- Ellen Wexler, “These Descendants Never Forgot the Story of the Last American Slave Ship,” Smithsonian Magazine. October 21, 2022. Read on web
- Joel K. Bourne, Jr., “Their ancestors survived slavery. Can their descendants save the town they built?” National Geographic. February 15, 2019. Read on web
- “Afrikan by Way of American | History of Africatown | Full Documentary | HVP.” Hiztorical Vision Productions, 2021. Watch on YouTube
- “Clotilda: Last American Slave Ship (Full Episode) | Shipwrecks of America.” National Geographic, 2025. Watch on YouTube
- “Clotilda: The Return Home (Full Episode) | DOCUMENTARY SPECIAL | National Geographic.” National Geographic, 2026. Watch on YouTube
- “DESCENDANT.” | Full Documentary | Higher Ground Productions and Participant Media, 2022. Watch on Netflix
- “Africatown Heritage House.” PBS, 2023. Watch on PBS
- “Descendants of Africans on slave ship on reconciliation with family of Alabama enslaver.” 60 Minutes, 2024. Watch on YouTube
- “Finding Your Roots | Slave Trade | S6 E8.” PBS, 2020. Watch on PBS
- “The last known slave ship | 60 Minutes Archive.” 60 Minutes, 2019. Watch on YouTube
- “What the Discovery of the Last American Slave Ship Means to Descendants | National Geographic.” National Geographic, 2019. Watch on YouTube
- Alabama Historical Commision: Clotilda
https://ahc.alabama.gov/Clotilda.aspx - AHC Language Guide
Read PDF - Clotilda Descendants Association
https://theclotildastory.com/our-story/ - Clotilda the Exhibition at Africatown Heritage House — Historical Backgrounder
Read PDF
- Clotilda the Exhibition at Africatown Heritage House – Historical Timeline
Read PDF - Clotilda the Exhibition at Africatown Heritage House – Learn More About Africatown
Read PDF - Mobile Public Library Digital Archives
https://digital.mobilepubliclibrary.org/items/browse?collection=5
Collection of 140 items related to the Clotilda and survivors