Slavery records | "Clotilde", a ship that …

American archaeologists have discovered remains of the ship "Clotilde", considered the last to have transported slaves from Africa to the United States in 1860. According to members of the research team, the discovery was located in the Mobile River, in the state of Alabama. "Physical and forensic evidence" that "strongly suggests that it's about the" Clotilde ", said marine archaeologist James Delgado.

The research team at Search Inc., the archeological society, said after testing that it was the ship that, according to historical records, was set on fire after four months of sailing in the Atlantic with 110 Africans. on board traveling to the United States. from his captain, William Foster, to hide evidence of the crime. According to these records, the last voyage of the "Clotilde" would have taken place in 1860, half a century after the ban on the importation of slaves, in 1808.

"The discovery of" Clotilde "is an extraordinary archaeological find," said Lisa Demetropoulos Jones, executive director of the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC), who explained that the ship "represented the One of the darkest periods in modern history "and that the discovery of its remains offers" tangible proofs of slavery ".

The announcement of the Historic Commission of Alabama on what they believe to be the remains of the Clotilde has been received with joy by the descendants of Africans transported in this boat. "The descendants of" Clotilde's "survivors have been dreaming of this discovery for generations," said Demetropoulos Jones at a conference.

"The discovery of" Clotilde "provides new information on a lost chapter of American history," said Fredrik Hiebert, a resident archaeologist of the National Geographic Society, who supported the research done by Search Inc., whose help has been requested by the AHC. "This discovery is also a fundamental part of the history of Africatown, which was built by the resilient descendants of the last slave ship in the United States."

According to National Geographic, Clotilde's story began "when Timothy Meaher, a rich landowner and shipbuilder from Mobile, allegedly bet a thousand dollars with several northern businessmen to smuggle a shipment of Africans to Mobile Bay, the federal authorities. "

Thus, according to historians, the Clotilde would have brought to Alabama 110 slaves among men, women and children of Benin.