In recent years, locating and finding the scuttled slave ship Clotilda has garnered worldwide attention.
The Netflix documentary film Descendant released in October 22 tells the story of the descendants of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter U.S. soils and was sunk in the Mobile Harbor near present-day Africatown which is near Mobile.
That was the focus of Joe Womack, retired U.S. Marine Corps Major, president of the Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe & Sustainable Community Inc, and co-founder of the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation, as he spoke at the Mobile District’s Black History Month luncheon about the history of Africatown and the preservation of the Clotilda in February.
“I am a military man,” Womack said. “When I prepare to head into battle, I ask myself ‘What are my weapons?’ In this case, it’s the story. The story of Africatown and its descendants.”
The Clotilda is the last known slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the mainland United States, more than 50 years after the importation of captives was outlawed by Congress.
The modification of the schooner and subsequent illegal voyage was contracted by local businessman Timothy Meaher and the vessel was captained by Capt. William Foster in 1860, carrying 110 African men, women and children from Benin, Africa to Mobile.
Soon after arrival, the ship was secreted to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta where the captives were unloaded and hidden in the unforgiving marsh while Foster attempted to burn the vessel in order to eliminate any evidence of unlawful activities.
Meaher and his co-conspirators then divided the captives, who remained enslaved on various plantations throughout Mobile and southern Alabama until the end of the Civil War.
Following the end of the Civil War, a group of Clotilda captives purchased land from Meaher in the Plateau area of Mobile and established what is now known as Africatown.
Many of the descendants of the original Clotilda captives still reside in Africatown today and the discovery and investigation of this ship represents and important connection between this unique descendant community and their history.
After a 2018 story by a local reporter about the potential location of the slave ship, the Alabama Historical Commission in partnership with other stakeholders, began undertaking archaeological surveys in the vicinity of Twelvemile Island to identify and confirm the location and the identity of wreck.
With the positive identification of the wreck in 2019, the AHC returned to the site in 2021 and 2022 to undertake more detailed archaeological investigations, including additional sonar surveys, installation of environmental sampling and monitoring equipment, limited artifact collection and structural assessment of the wreck itself.
The Mobile District has been involved with the investigation of the Clotilda as the lead federal agency with jurisdiction over certain work occurring in the navigable waters of the United States, under the statutory authority of Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
Sonya Rodgers, Chief of Small Business Programs and Black Employment Program Manager and host of the luncheon, said she is proud that her employer is playing a part in helping to preserve the Clotilda.
“As an employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, I feel honored that we are involved in the preservation of the Clotilda,” said Rodgers. “According to Mr. Womack they are considering raising the ship, when this happens it will be the responsibility of the Corps to issue permits for dredging at this historic site.”
In his talk to the District, Womack said Africatown, the Clotilda and their story are historically important not only to the descendants, but to the rest of the world.
“We’ve been told by the state of Alabama that what we have in Africatown is even bigger than what they have in Montgomery, because our story is still here,” Womack said. “The community is still here. This is something that people can touch and feel.”
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