Op-Ed: The Clotilda is the only American slave ship ever found. It needs to be preserved. (via latimesopinion)
The wreck of the Clotilda, the last ship to transport enslaved Africans to the United States, sits entombed in mud at the bottom of the Mobile River in Alabama. It is the only ship from the American slave trade ever found. In fact, out of more than 20,000 vessels that participated in the global slave trade, only 13, counting the Clotilda, have been found.
The discovery of the Clotilda presents a one-of-a-kind opportunity to bring to life the nation’s slave-era history. It can also help highlight the story of Africatown, the only community in the nation founded and ruled by African-born slaves, where many of the Clotilda captives lived out their days and where their descendants reside.
The existence of the Clotilda is proof that a story told around dinner tables in Africatown for 150 years is true. Here in Mobile, people routinely dismissed Africatown’s Clotilda-based origin story as myth, something the community made up. When I decided to look for the Clotilda two years ago, it was because no one else was doing so and it seemed a mystery in need of solving.
A statue of Cudjoe Lewis, the last surviving person brought over on the slave ship Clotilda, stands outside the Union Missionary Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama on May 23.“We want it dug up and placed on display in the community,” said Pastor Christopher Williams Sr. of Yorktown Missionary Baptist Church, one of Africatown’s largest congregations. “This history is important not only in the black man’s heart, but in hearts all over the world. Everyone wants to hear Africatown’s story.
The 12 Mile Island shoreline where Ben Raines discovered the wreck of the Clotilda, America's last slave ship.
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