Clotilda: An Update on the Archaeological Investigations of the Last Known American Slave Ship

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Maritime Archeology of the Slave Trade: Past and Present Work, and Future Prospects", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In July 1860, the schooner Clotilda arrived off the coast of Mobile, Alabama with a human cargo of captives transported from the Kingdom of Dahomey. Transferred under cover of night to a steamboat on the Mobile River, they were sold into slavery in what is the last known American slave trading voyage to bring captives illegally from Africa to the United States. The captain then "burned and sank" his schooner to avoid criminal prosecution. The location of the wreck was an open secret known to some, but it was not until 2019 that comprehensive archaeological assessment identified the wreck of Clotilda. Since then, a series of projects undertaken by and for the Alabama Historical Commission, and working with the descendant community, has conducted limited excavations and assessments that document a substantially archaeologically "intact" site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Maritime Archeology of the Slave Trade: Past and Present Work, and Future Prospects   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow