In recent years they’ve done an archeology mission to find the Clotilda.
was formed by a group of 32 West Africans, who in 1860 were bought and transported against their will in the last known illegal shipment of slaves to the United States.
So as I remember the story–and perhaps the references in the article will be more accurate, bur a slaver made a bet with somebody that he could still traffick slaves after it became illegal. He arrived in Mobile, AL with slaves on his boat and went to collect on his bet. He left the crew with instructions to burn the ship and everyone on board (i.e. get rid of the evidence) if he did not return. And that’s what they did. The people who founded Africatown escaped the fire.
The Wiki article says similar, but that the slaves were removed before scuttling the ship. Good if true, I guess. My memory isn’t great.
Africatown Mobile, Alabama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africatown
In recent years they’ve done an archeology mission to find the Clotilda.
So as I remember the story–and perhaps the references in the article will be more accurate, bur a slaver made a bet with somebody that he could still traffick slaves after it became illegal. He arrived in Mobile, AL with slaves on his boat and went to collect on his bet. He left the crew with instructions to burn the ship and everyone on board (i.e. get rid of the evidence) if he did not return. And that’s what they did. The people who founded Africatown escaped the fire.
The Wiki article says similar, but that the slaves were removed before scuttling the ship. Good if true, I guess. My memory isn’t great.
Edit: typos