Ben Raines - The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning

The Last Slave Ship

The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning

Ben Raines

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2022 by Ben Raines

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2022

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Ryan Raphael

Jacket art: Ship on Fire by Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Stalybridge, Greater

Manchester, Astley Cheetham Art Gallery/Bridgeman Images

Bayou Landscape and Teche by Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia, USA, Morris Museum of Art/Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia/Bridgeman Images

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Raines, Ben, author.

Title: The last slave ship : the true story of how Clotilda was found, her descendants, and an extraordinary reckoning / Ben Raines.

Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day-by the journalist who discovered the ships remainsProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021042307 | ISBN 9781982136048 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982136161 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Clotilda (Ship) | SlaveryAlabamaMobileHistory19th century. | Slave tradeAlabamaMobileHistory19th century. | West AfricansAlabamaHistory19th century. | | African AmericansAlabamaMobileHistory. | Africatown (Ala.)History.

Classification: LCC E445.A3 R35 2022 | DDC 306.36/20976122dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042307

ISBN 978-1-9821-3604-8

ISBN 978-1-9821-3616-1 (ebook)

For the millions whose lives were stolen, and whose stories will never be known.

A secret beneath the murky waters of an Alabama swamp has been revealed. One hundred and sixty years after she was burned and sunk to hide evidence of a ghastly crime, the wreck of the Clotildathe last ship to bring enslaved Africans to Americawas finally discovered. The ship has haunted those associated with her final voyage for generations. This is the story of that ship, the people shaped by her complex legacy, and the healing that began on both sides of the Atlantic when her wooden carcass finally came to the surface.

Joycelyn Daviss ancestors were among those chained in the Clotildas hold on July 9, 1860, smuggled into America under the cover of night by a man named Timothy Meaher, whod made a bet on the eve of the Civil War that he could import a load of enslaved people from Africa despite a federal law outlawing the international slave trade. After successfully returning to Alabama from Ouidah, one of Africas most notorious slave ports, in modern-day Benin, with 110 captives, Meaher and his confederates immediately tried to destroy the Clotilda to escape prosecution. Though the fire failed to fully consume the ship before it sank, their efforts were enough to hide it from view and allow them to escape punishment. Joycelyn already knew the story of the Clotilda when she encountered it as a nine-year-old in her textbook in fourth grade. The tale had been passed down through her family for generations. Seeing a picture of Cudjo Lewis in her schoolbook, her reaction was fearfear that her classmates would figure out that I was related to those Africans. Even in the 1990s, being related to the Africans who founded Africatown, her hometown, was cause for derision from some in the community. Since the earliest days after the Clotilda Africans arrived, they were mocked by American-born Black people for their accents, facial scarifications, tattoos, and other savage traditions. That ostracism was still prominent toward descendants of the Clotilda passengers through the 1950s and 60s within the Africatown community, when, in the words of one resident, anything African was painted as bad, you didnt want to be associated with Africa. Joycelyn felt keenly that way in the 1990s. She continued trying to hide her family legacy through high school. The shame she felt came to a head in history class in her junior year when her teacher, Ms. Crocker, told the class that her ancestors were from France and asked if anyone knew where their family came from. Joycelyn started to raise her hand.

But I did not do it. I was ready to tell then I thought about my friends, and thats crazy, but I didnt say anything. I knew people knew. I mean, my great-grandmother lived over here in the Quarters and we went to her house every week, Joycelyn remembered. This is a small town. People knew, OK, they came from those Africans. I wasnt teased or anything. My family wasnt ashamed. It was really just me. I dont know why I was ashamed. The story I guess. You know, there was a dispute between tribes in Africa. Then there was a bet here in Alabama. So you were sold by your own. Then there are these guys making a bet that they can come over and get you. Why would you tell anybody that? Why would you tell anybody? As you become older and wiser, you learn more. But growing up, I didnt have that.

While some hid from their history, others, like Darron Patterson, the president of the Clotilda Descendants Association, had it hidden from them. Patterson was unaware that he was a direct descendant of the Africans until he was sixty because his mother, ashamed of her connection to the former slaves, lied to him about it until the day she died. After she passed away, Darron finally learned of his birthright through a chance encounter on the street with two of his mothers old friends. He was stunned to discover that his great-grandmother and his great-aunta prominent figure in his lifehad been born to the Clotilda slaves.

My momma would say, Im not an African. So we didnt know. We knew people who lived around us were related to the Africans, but my mother always insisted we werent. She didnt want us to think about slavery and where we came from. She was ashamed to a degree about how we got here, Patterson said. The crazy thing is her aunt, Eva Allen, who I knew all my life, was actually one of the last children born to one of the slaves. Aunt Eva lived until 1992 and would always say we were related to the Africans. But my mother just always said, Dont believe anything she says. Shes crazy. Shes not African and neither are you.

To the nation at large, the story of the arrival of the last enslaved Africans on the