Wreck of ‘Clotilda’, the last slave ship to America, identified in Alabama river
- In 1860, the wooden ship illegally transported 110 people from what is now the west African nation of Benin to Mobile, Alabama
- The Clotilda was then taken into delta waters north of the port and burned to avoid detection
The last ship known to smuggle slaves from Africa to the United States has been discovered in Alabama’s Mobile River, nearly 160 years after it was deliberately sunk, a historical commission said.
The Alabama Historical Commission, in a post on its Facebook page, called the effort to locate the ship, the Clotilda, a “year-long scientific investigation”.
The Clotilda was discovered by a company called SEARCH Inc in collaboration with the commission and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Clotilda has previously been documented by historians as the last ship known to bring African captives to the United States.
It operated in secret, decades after Congress banned the importation of slaves into the country in 1807.
The Clotilda carried 110 men, women and children from Africa to Alabama in 1860, according to the 2007 book “Dreams of Africa in Alabama” by Sylviane Anna Diouf, who relied on testimony from the slave traders and their captives.