Africatown

Africatown. . Near here in circa 1860, Timothy Meaher unloaded approximately 110 smuggled Africans of Yoruba ethnicity from the schooner Clotilda, the last known documented slave ship to force enslaved people of African descent to the United States. He shared his illicit human cargo with his brothers and sold the rest to upstate plantations. The ship was torched to the hull and sunk by its owners to prevent discovery. After the Civil War, many freed Clotilda captives traveled to Magazine Point, and founded their own settlement, known today as Africatown. The settlement was isolated at first and gave the survivors a haven to continue practicing their traditional African culture. The people of Africatown elected their own officials, established their own church, purchased land collectively, and maintained traditional familial ties. According to oral tradition, the survivors returned to their point of origin, in Africatown, with hopes that they would return to their homeland. Never able to, they remembered their languages, customs, social structures, and taught their children about Africa. The following generations maintained the customs passed down to them, while slowly integrating themselves with Mobile's African-American society. Eventually, Africatown was annexed by the City of Mobile. The last recognized survivors of the Clotilda, Kazoola (Cudjo Lewis) and Redoshi (Sally Smith) died in 1935 and 1937, respectively. In 2019, the Clotilda was found near this site in the Mobile River delta, where the vessel currently rests.