The Last Slave Ship
After the war ended and slavery was abolished,
the displaced Africans from the Clotilda put
down roots as free Americans, but they didn’t
relinquish their African identities. Settling
among the woods and marshes upriver from
Mobile, they built simple homes, planted
gardens, tended livestock, hunted, fished,
and farmed. They founded a church and built
their own school. And they created a tight-
knit, self-reliant community that came to
be known as Africatown. Many of their
descendants still live there today. The story of
these extraordinary people—their trials and
triumphs, their suffering and resilience—
is one the people of Africatown are proud to
remember, and a legacy they are fighting to save.