86 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019L. RICCIARINI/PRISMA
A
FTER THE UNION VICTORY in the Civil War, slavery came
to an end in the United States, and the captives of the
Clotilda were free. More than 30 of them who had lived
and worked near Mobile, Alabama, purchased their own
tracts of land in an area north of the city. Several communities de-
veloped: Plateau, Lewis Quarters, Magazine, Prichard, Happy Hills,
and Kelly Hills, which became collectively known as Africatown.
Drawing on their African heritage, residents built homes and busi-
nesses, grew crops and tended livestock, and founded churches and
schools. Africatown flourished, reaching a population of 12,000 in
the 1960s. Industrialization and blight have since hurt the commu-
nity, whose population has dropped to fewer than 2,000. The wreck
of the Clotilda has become a beacon of hope for Africatown. Not only
does its discovery confirm the stories of their ancestors, the wreck
could also attract visitors, bringing in those who are hungry to learn
about the legacy of the ones who survived the Clotilda and slavery.STORIES FROM
AFRICATOWN
to buyers who had prepurchased them. Foster
sank and burned the Clotilda to the waterline.
Foster had covertly entered the Port of Mo-
bile without showing the Clotilda’s manifest
and without paying customs duties as required
by law. Consequently, the collector of customs
reported Captain Foster, and he was summoned
to court. Foster was heavily fined but not pros-
ecuted for violating the Piracy Act.
Timothy Meaher was arrested, but he also
escaped prosecution. Fellow slaveholder and
pro-slavery advocate Judge William G. Jones of
the Circuit Court of the United States for the
Fifth Judicial Circuit (Southern District of Ala-
bama) accepted Meaher’s false alibi. He escaped
prosection and punishment by death. Meaher
successfully smuggled the last cargo of enslaved
Africans into the United States. He won his bet.Legacy of Africa
After their arrival, the Africans from the Clotilda
were enslaved on various plantations throughout
Alabama, including the Bogue Chitto Plantation
in Dallas County and the Meaher Plantation inCHILDREN OF AFRICATOWN, DESCENDANTS OF CHARLIE LEWIS, A CLOTILDA SURVIVOR, GATHER
FOR A FAMILY PORTRAIT NEAR WHERE THEIR ANCESTORS SETTLED AS FREE PEOPLE.
ELIAS WILLIAMS/NGS