strengthen anti-smuggling laws not only as an
encroachment upon their states’ rights but also
as a threat to both their economic livelihood and
social status as masters of slaves.
Even under the threat of death, smuggling
continued in order to feed the heightened de-
mand for laborers in the black belt. Federal efforts
to prevent slave smuggling were undermined by
various ruses deployed by smugglers and by quid
pro quo relationships among slave smugglers,
consular agents, judges, and other authorities
charged with enforcing federal anti-smuggling
laws on land and at sea.
The federal government continued to
strengthen existing anti-smuggling laws in the
1840s and 1850s. American ships departing for
Africa had to notify the district attorney. The
vessel would then be searched to confirm that
it was not outfitted for a slaving voyage. Mon-
etary rewards increased for American citizens
who informed on slave smugglers, giving in-
formants $250 for each African captured as
contraband. Moreover, Congress funded
measures to regulate ship registries moreclosely, requiring Americans to consent to a right
of search by American and British steamers pa-
trolling the West African coast.A Wager
The Clotilda smuggling venture was hatched
in 1860 in defiance of the federal government’s
anti-smuggling legislation. Timothy Meaher, a
wealthy plantation and steamboat magnate of
Mobile, Alabama, made a bet that he could suc-
cessfully smuggle Africans into the United States
without being prosecuted. Meaher originally
hailed from a family of shipbuilders in Maine. He
relocated to Mobile where he established a ship-
yard, a lumber mill, a plantation, and a steamboat
business, thereby positioning himself to profit
from all aspects of the cotton boom.
By 1850 Alabama had surpassed Mississippi
as the leading cotton producer in the black belt
region. Meaher himself transported over 1.7
million bales of cotton from various plantations
to the Mobile docks in the course of his steam-
boat business that he operated along with his
brothers James and Byrne. Timothy Meaher’sJOURNEY’S
BEGINNING
T
HE “SLAVE COAST” was the Euro-
pean name coined for a portion
of West Africa that became a
primary supplier of enslaved la-
bor between the 17th and 19th centuries.
One of the main ports was the city of
Ouidah (Whydah), part of the kingdom
of Dahomey after 1727. The leaders of Da-
homey would conduct campaigns to seize
people from other African states. These
captives would be sold as slaves to Portu-
guese, French, and British merchants, who
shipped them to nations in the Americas,
particularly Brazil. The Clotilda’s captives
in 1860 began the Middle Passage in Oui-
dah. Historians estimate that more than
one million people were trafficked through
this city alone before the trans-Atlantic
slave trade ended in the late 19th century.LORTEMUSDDAHOMEY, SHOWN ON A “MAP OF THE SLAVE COAST” FROM
MEMOIRS OF THE REIGN OF BOSSA AHÁDEE, KING OF DAHOMY, 1789
BRITISH LIBRARY/ALBUMDOY LEALE MLIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMACCALL RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT
GAMBLING MAN
Born in 1812 to
Irish immigrants,
Timothy Meaher
relocated from Maine
to Alabama in the
1830s, where he
made his fortune in
shipbuilding, trade,
and farming. He lived
in Alabama until his
death in 1892.