![]() ![]() The 2,500-square-foot exhibition is the result of a partnership between descendants of the Clotilda-many of whom still live nearby-and other community members, the City of Mobile, the History Museum of Mobile, the Mobile County Commission and the Alabama Historical Commission.Īfter landing in Alabama, many of the Clotilda’s captives went to Meaher, who had financed the operation, while a few went to Foster and several others the rest were sold. Using artifacts recovered from the sunken vessel, documents and text panels, the exhibition focuses primarily on the individuals on board the Clotilda, highlighting “their individuality, their perseverance and the extraordinary community they established,” per the City of Mobile.Īn artifact recovered from the Clotilda in the Mobile River On July 8-the anniversary of the ship’s arrival-“ Clotilda: The Exhibition” opened inside the new, $1.3 million Africatown Heritage House, located a few miles north of downtown Mobile. Now, a new exhibition will help share the story of the Clotilda and its aftermath. After years of speculation, archaeologists identified the ship in 2019 and have been painstakingly unraveling its many mysteries ever since. William Foster, whom Meaher had hired to captain the schooner, offloaded the victims, set fire to the ship and deliberately sank it to the bottom of the Mobile River. On board, 110 enslaved men, women and children taken from West Africa awaited their fate. One of those smugglers was Timothy Meaher, an Alabama businessman who supposedly made a bet that he could sneak an illegal slave ship into the country without getting caught. In July 1860, the Clotilda, sailed into Alabama’s Mobile Bay under the cover of darkness. In 1808, Congress banned the importation of enslaved individuals-but the new law didn’t stop white smugglers from continuing to transport captives from Africa to America. ![]()
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