The Discovery of the Clotilda: The Last American Slave Ship

The Discovery of the Clotilda: The Last American Slave Ship

In 1860, the schooner Clotilda smuggled 110 African young men, women, and children from the port in Ouidah (present-day Benin) into it's hold, more than 50 years after importing enslaved people was outlawed in the US. 

One hundred and nine African captives survived the brutal, six-week passage from West Africa to Alabama in cramped hold, and went on to found the city of Africatown.

After transferring the captives to a riverboat, Clotilda’s captain burned the ship to the waterline to hide their crime. Clotilda kept her secrets over the decades, even as some deniers contended that the shameful episode never occurred.

The schooner Clotilda—the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America’s shores—has recently been discovered in a remote part of Alabama’s Mobile River following an intensive yearlong search by marine archaeologists.

Come and hear about the people of Africatown, and see how archaeologists pieced together clues to identify the long-lost slave ship.

Presenter: Kamau Sadiki - Engineer, Explorer & Underwater Archaeology Advocate, and among the team to discover/identify the Clotilda