A shipwreck awash in Black history takes center stage in Alabama
A heritage center honoring the survivors of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to come to the U.S., opens.
On July 8, 1860, a schooner carrying 110 men, women and children stolen from Africa sailed into waters near Mobile Bay under the cover of night.
The Clotilda, the last documented slave ship to enter America, made its surreptitious voyage some five decades after the international slave trade was outlawed, amid one of the most pivotal periods in U.S. history. The following year, 1861, the Civil War would erupt over slavery.
Now, 163 years later, “Clotilda: The Exhibition” at the new Africatown Heritage House tells the stories of the people aboard that ship, conjuring their collective resilience and the ways they survived and thrived amid unfathomable challenges.
The July 8th opening coincided with the anniversary of the ship’s arrival after a tortured four-month passage.
Through interpretive text panels, documents and artifacts, this landmark exhibition focuses on the survivors: from their individual West African beginnings to their enslavement, and eventual freedom and settlement of a 19th century community dubbed Africatown in Mobile.
The shipwrecked Clotilda has remained at the bottom of Mobile Bay for more than a century. Select artifacts will be displayed in special viewing tanks.
James P. Delgado, Ph.D, a maritime archaeologist and senior vice president of Search Inc., helped lead the team of experts who conclusively verified the ship’s identity.
“We should remember this history happened not so long ago,” said Delgado, who co-authored “Clotilda: The Archaeology and History of the Last Slave Ship.” “It is a story about people … and the ongoing legacies of that voyage.”
Since 2019, bringing that legacy to life has been the mission of Meg McCrummen Fowler, Ph.D., director of the History Museum of Mobile, which partnered with the Alabama Historical Commission, Mobile County Commission, and the City of Mobile to facilitate the exhibition. The local community, descendants and experts nationwide were also involved in the process.
“As curator, I have spent years reading and writing stories of the survivors,” said McCrummen Fowler. “You can’t do that and not be changed.”
Ahead of the opening, she hopes visitors will not just “learn historical facts, but rather have an experience with history that brings the humanity of the story into sharp relief.”
