Coming to the Surface

Archaeologists are recovering the remains of the Clotilda, the last ship to smuggle enslaved Africans into the United States. A new museum is dedicated to the stories of its passengers and the community they built.

- Natalie Preddie

IN 1860, more than half a century after the slave trade was federally abolished, the Clotilda sailed into Mobile, Alabama, carrying 110 enslaved West Africans. The human cargo was unloaded, and the schooner was set alight to hide the evidence. But its impact can still be felt in Africatown, a district established after Emancipation by those who had arrived on the ship. Many residents can still trace their lineage to those founders.