Clotilda
United States Slave Ship Found
In July 1860 The Clotilda, an African slave ship carrying over 100 slaves was burnt off of Mobile Alabama.
The ugly story starts with a Alabama plantation owner bet a friend that he could smuggle in a group of slaves from Africa aboard a sailboat named the Clotilda. On their way back to Alabama with some 110 enslaved men and women from West Africa, the boat’s captain and crew started to worry that the authorities were on to them.
The crew unloaded their captives under cover of night and ditched the Clotilda, setting it ablaze on the banks of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.
In 2017, a reporter in Alabama may have found evidence of their illicit voyage for the first time. Ben Raines of AL.com relied on historical records which included the journal of the vessel’s captain, William Foster, and a newspaper interview given 30 years later by the expedition’s financier.
A storm has revealed what appeared to be the burned-out wreckage of a ship alongside a swampy island in the delta, a few miles north of Mobile. When Raines saw the iron spikes and charred wood poking out of the mud he had this overwhelming feeling that’s the final resting place of the Clotilda.
Comments
Post a Comment