The last known U.S. slave ship is too “broken” and decayed to be extracted from the murky waters of the Alabama Gulf Coast without being dismembered, a task for
The last known U.S. slave ship is too “broken” and decayed to be extracted from the murky waters of the Alabama Gulf Coast without being dismembered, a task force of archaeologists, engineers and historians announced following a yearslong investigation.
The wooden schooner at the heart of the investigation was commissioned in 1860 by Timothy Meaher, one year before the Confederacy was created and decades after the importation of slaves was made punishable by death in 1808. Captained by William Foster, the ship traveled to West Africa and illegally smuggled 110 Africans back to Alabama. Foster then attempted to burn and sink the ship to hide the crime.
Before the state-funded $1 million investigation, it was unclear how well the ship had weathered the over 160 years under water. Some had hoped it was intact enough to be fully excavated and turned into a museum on land. Delgado didn’t rule out that option, but said that process would require the ship to be disassembled “piece by piece, nail by nail,” and could compromise some of the remaining physical clues about the experiences of the enslaved people aboard.
“Since we’ve been able to learn more about what they really experienced and how small that cargo hold was and how on top of each other they were, it’s very chilling,” said Ellis, who is in his early 40s and a sixth-generation descendant of Clotilda survivors Pollee and Rose Allen. “And it makes me want to continue the effort of reconciliation and healing for the descendants.”
Zora Neale Hurston’s bestselling book “Barracoon” documents the life of Cudjo Lewis, the Clotilda’s last surviving enslaved African. Released in 2018, “Barracoon” includes stories about Lewis’ upbringing in Africa, experiences aboard the slave ship and during his enslavement, and his part in finding Africatown. Lewis died in 1935 at the age of 94.
Africatown Slave Ship Descendants Underwater Preservation Alabama Historical
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