76 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
MICHAEL RUNKEL /AGE FOTOSTOCKAFRICATOWN
FREEDOM BELL. A
REPLICA STANDS IN
THE COURTYARD OF
THE MOBILE COUNTY
TRAINING SCHOOL.From
Slavery to
Freedom
March 2, 1807
The U.S. Congress approves
legislation “to prohibit the
importation of slaves into any
port or place within... the
United States,” which will go
into effect on January 1, 1808.May 15, 1820
Because traffickers ignored
the 1808 law, the Act of
1820 declares participation
in the international slave
trade to be piracy, a crime
punishable by death.April 1860
The king of Dahomey’s forces
raid a Yoruba farmstead in
West Africa, kill its leaders,
and seize captives who will
be held in Ouidah to be sold
to slavers from the Americas.May 1860
Purchased for $9,000,
110 African prisoners board
the Clotilda and will endure a
horrific 48 days as they
make the Middle Passage
to Alabama.April 12, 1865
Union soldiers inform the
Clotilda survivors that
they are free. Unable to
return to Africa, they
will build their own
home, Africatown.LEAVING
A MARK
Timothy Meaher
smuggled Africans
into the United States
in 1860. Meaher
State Park in Alabama
(above) is named
for his family, who
donated the land.O
ne dark night in July 1860, fire
danced over the waters of Mobile
Bay as a schooner was set ablaze.
She was the Clotilda and had just
illegally smuggled 110 West Af-
ricans into the United States on the eve of the
Civil War. The perpetrators hoped to erase proof
of their illegal voyage, by setting her on fire, but
the ship could not stay hidden forever.
On May 22, 2019, a collaboration of the Ala-
bama Historical Commission, National Geo-
graphic Society, Search Inc., National Muse-
um of African American History and Culture,
Slave Wrecks Project, and National Park Service
identified the slaver Clotilda. The search for the
shipwreck had taken years of intensive work, of-
ten complicated by the fact that the surrounding
waters are packed with many other shipwrecks
from years past. Meticulous historical research
paired with cutting-edge archaeology proved
that this ship was indeed the long-lost Clotilda,
ELIAS WILLIAMS/NGS the last American slave ship.