History exists beyond what is written. The Africatown residents in Mobile, Alabama have shared stories about their origins for generations. Their community was founded by enslaved ancestors who were transported in 1860 aboard the last known and illegal slave ship, the Clotilda. Though the ship was intentionally destroyed upon arrival, its memory and legacy weren’t. Now, the long-awaited discovery of the Clotilda’s remains offers this community a tangible link to their ancestors and validation of a history so many tried to bury.
Director Margaret Brown’s layered contemplation explores the interplay between memory and evidence and the question of how history passes and is preserved. Brown also reveals the enduring power imbalance that persists between the descendants of Timothy Meaher, the man who chartered the illegal expedition, and the descendants of those who were enslaved aboard it. The Meaher family owns much of the heavily industrialized area that surrounds Africatown. Elevated cases of cancer and illness are prevalent there, but the Africatown community persists. Residents celebrate their heritage and take command of their legacy by bringing their history to the surface.
Joycelyn Davis Descendant of Charlie & Maggie Lewis
I’m searching for my ancestry and if I could put my finger on any part of it, I would feel more complete.
Vernetta Henson
Descendant of Pollee & Rose Allen
My only fear is for my people’s story never to be told.
Emmett Lewis IV
Descendant of Kazoola (Cudjoe) & Abile Celia Lewis
In Descendant, award-winning filmmaker Margaret Brown returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to document the search for and historic discovery of the Clotilda, the last known ship to arrive in the United States, illegally carrying 110 kidnapped Africans.
Partnering with community-led organizations, the campaign worked to preserve and document the legacy of the ancestors of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States, while combating environmental issues threatening the community now residing in Africatown, Alabama.
The campaign advanced the community’s environmental justice advocacy efforts by strengthening relationships between community leaders and national campaign partners, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Office of the Vice President and the Council on Environmental Quality.
The Meaher family (descendants of Timothy Meaher, who led the voyage that enslaved those on the Clotilda) released their first ever public statement condemning their ancestor’s actions.
The Africatown Futures Fund and cohort, in partnership with the Big We and the Solutions Project, was established to build a long-term commitment to support economic development, environmental justice and historical preservation in the community.
The Clotilda story highlights the direct connection that the horrors of the past have to the injustices of today.
“20 and odd” captive Africans arrived at Point Comfort in Jamestown, Virginia and were sold in the British North American colonies.
Their arrival marked a new chapter in the long history of the Transatlantic slave trade which began in the 1500s and laid the foundation for what would become the institution of slavery in the United States.
A new system of enslavement – chattel slavery – based on race and class was introduced and would last for the next 250 years. It’s estimated that 12.5 million women, men and children of African descent were forced into the Transatlantic trade.
Congress implemented the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which ended the US’s legal involvement in the international slave trade.
The ban on importing captive humans spurred the forced migration of over 1 million enslaved people who were already living in the United States to Southern states (domestic slave trade).
During this process, enslaved people were often separated from their loved ones.
110 members of the Dendi, Fon, Isha, Nupe, and Yoruba cultures were living in communities across West Africa. They went by names such as Abile, Gumpa, Jaba, Kazoola, Kêhounco, and Kupollee. Some were married with families. Others were just children.
Across the Atlantic, a wealthy businessman, Timothy Meaher, made a bet that he could illegally kidnap and ship Africans from Africa to Mobile, Alabama without being detected by federal officials. Meaher then financed a $35,000 voyage of the Clotilda ($1.3 million in today’s money) to the Kingdom of Dahomey, present-day Benin.
Over the next five years, survivors of the Clotilda were sold and enslaved in Mobile, Selma, and elsewhere – before being emancipated at the end of the Civil War.
Alabama ratified the 13th Amendment; the Clotilda survivors were emancipated.
Unable to afford to return home to Africa, a group of the Clotilda survivors purchased land in Plateau, a few miles north of Mobile. They named their new freedom colony, Africatown.
They built houses, farms, a school, a church, and a cemetery, and formed a community with other newly freed people in the area.
Nearly 60 years after Emancipation, author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Clotilda survivor and one of Africatown’s founders, Cudjoe (Kazoola) Lewis. He shared about his life in Africa, surviving the Clotida voyage, and life in Alabama during and after enslavement.
Black and White Photo of Kazoola. Source: Historic Sketches of the South (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1914)
Source: Crear family & Dr. Hannah Durkin
Paper mills created a health crisis and, many Africatown residents were diagnosed with cancer. Urban renewal projects such as the Bay Bridge physically separated the historic community.
The 2018 publication of acclaimed author Zora Neale Hurston’s buried away book Barracoon, detailing the truth behind the Clotilda’s voyage, validated descendants’ generations-long communal storytelling and laid the groundwork for the discovery of the ship to further prove the truth about their history.
Source: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018
The burned Clotilda wreckage was finally located 200+ years later
The Clotilda, commanded by Captain William Foster, set sail carrying 110 kidnapped Africans from the port of Ouidah and arrived in Mobile 60 days later. The Africans disembarked and were hidden on a plantation while the captain set fire to the ship to destroy evidence of the crime.
Many descendants of the Clotilda survivors still reside in Africatown.
They stand in the truth of their history with resilience — despite facing social, economic and environmental injustices perpetuated by systemic racism.
Today, as Africatown gains recognition for its importance in American history, local organizations are working to ensure that the legacy of the ancestors is preserved and documented.
Only by understanding the truth about our past can we begin to work towards a more equitable future.
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