Episode 14: The Clotilda
Sometime in the summer of 1860, just over 100 kidnapped africans children came ashore in Mobile Bay, part of the gulf coast of Alabama.
The reports on the specific number of slaves on board vary anywhere from 109 to 116.
The slave trade had been outlawed for over 50 years at this point, but that didn’t stop William Foster from seeking a profit on the exploitation of human lives.
More than 8,000 captives were brought to the American South by slave traders following the 1807 ban.
American shipowners, merchants, seamen and corrupt officials, a majority of then based out of New York City, continued shipping captive Africans well past when it was legal.
The ship that brought the slaves in was a 86 foot double masted schooner, called the Clotilda.
SHOW NOTES:
1:00 William Foster
William Foster constructed the Clotida1855.
Though originally intended for the Texas trade, Foster couldn’t resist the lucrative business proposal from wealthy Alabama business owner, Timothy Meaher. Together Meaher and Foster orchestrated their smuggling scheme right under the noses of the federal government. You see Meaher had more than just the stakes of his cargo at risk, he had also allegedly wagered several Northern businessmen a thousand dollars that he could smuggle in the Africans into Mobile Bay.
1:55 Voyage to Africa
When the ship set sail with Foster at the helm, they departed under the facade of bringing a cargo of lumber to the Danish Virgin Islands. While there was lumber on board, later to be used to build some semblance of bunks for the prisoners, the Clotilda also hid below 125 barrels of water, and 80 casks of rum. In addition, she had many provisions such as rice, beef, pork, sugar, flour, bread, and molasses.
On board they carried nine thousand dollars in gold, intended for the purchase of one hundred twenty five Africans from the west coast, which today would be worth about three hundred thousand dollars. That currency in human slaves was worth twenty times that in the 1860s version of Alabama. Their voyage to Africa across the Atlantic was anything but smooth.
The captain and crew suffered through massive storms, pirate attacks and other sea trials. It took Foster and his crew of eleven two and a half months to make the the crossing to Ouidah, a port town in The Kingdom of Dahomey, known today as Benin. Supposedly, it wasn’t until the crew reached Africa that Foster told them of the true intention of their voyage, to bring back human cargo.
When the Clotilda finally arrived in Oiudah, she anchored offshore, over a mile out, for about a week. In this time sneaky excursions and trade deals ashore were made to bring the captives on board and prep for the return voyage to Alabama.
3:10 Return to America
For thirteen days following departure, the Africans were held below in the hold, in complete darkness, with minimal rations, just enough to keep them alive. After the thirteen day quarantine they were allowed up on deck to walk about. The return voyage to the united states took about 45 days. It was July 9 and under the cover of darkness, the Clotilda sailed into the Alabama sound and anchored off Point-of-Pines in Grand Bay, the last documented slave ship to enter america
4:20 Scuttled to Silence
The Clotilda smelled of rank and filthy human bodies.
The crime hung obvious in the air. There was no doubt of the type of cargo the ship had carried across the Atlantic. The perpetrators knew the punishment for illegally bringing slaves into the United States, and the death sentence was among the worst. To hide his crime, Foster burnt the ship, scuttling it to silence.
He later claimed to have sold the Clotilda for six thousand dollars, but it was just a facade to try and further hide his transgressions.
5:10 After the Emancipation
The survivors of the Clotilda pooled the wages they earned from selling vegetables and working in fields and mills to purchase land from the Meaher family. And yes, the family of the same man who had been the investor in their purchase to bring them to the united states in the first place. In managing to buy these small plots of land, the freed slaves formed their own tight-knit community just three miles outside of Mobile known as Africatown.
Of the Clotilda’s survivor’s, many of their descendants still live in Africatown today, growing up with stories of the ship that brought their stolen ancestors to Alabama.
6:15 Africatown
But In May 2019, something happened that changed the future for Africatown and it’s community.
While she may have evaded discovery for over one hundred and fifty years, it was finally announced that the Clotilda had at long last been discovered.
With the new finding of the shipwreck comes the interest and funds needed to preserve Africatown as a historical part of America.
Currently a museum is planned to open in the summer of 2022, a step towards progress for Africatown.
The museum will include a gallery of West African artefacts and some salvaged parts of the Clotilda Shipwreck.
Because the ship was the last slave ship in America, it is also the best documented record on file of the middle passage, many of the freed slaves living into the 20th century.
The finding of the Clotilda brings that record to a full circle.
There are more regeneration projects on the way for africatown, including a footbridge connecting the two areas of the community divided by the freeway built in the 90’s.
Further Reading:
