The state of Alabama in the United States announced in 2019 that the wreckage of a ship used to transport black slaves had been found. The much-talked-about ship was later identified as the Clotilda, which arrived in the United States in the 1860s with more than a hundred Africans on board.
The Clotilda, built between 1855 and 1856, was 26 metres long. The ship belonged to Timothy, a wealthy person who owned several mooring movers and steamboats.
Timothy, who was in the business of transporting timber from various countries to the United States at the time, is said to have built the ship for timber transportation.
In the early 1860s, Timothy learned that a war had broken out between Benin and several other kingdoms in West Africa. He also learned that the King of Benin was willing to sell captives from the war.
Taking advantage of this situation, he had also placed a bet with another wealthy businessman, claiming that he could bring West Africans into slavery in the United States. However, a law had been passed in 1807 that forbid the import of slaves.
William Foster served as captain of the Clotilda.
West Africa
On the advice of the ship’s owner, Foster and 11 other sailors set sail for West Africa on March 4, 1860.
They are said to have had gold equivalent to US $ 10,000 to buy Africans. After sailing for about two months, they arrived in West Africa, on May 15, 1860. There, he purchased 125 Africans at $100 each.
Describing the incident, Foster notes that after reaching a certain state in West Africa, they met an African prince.
He said that the prince had taken him to a royal court where people were seen performing some religious rites.
The note stated: “After reaching an agreement on the deal, we went with the prince to a warehouse that housed thousands of naked Africans. They allowed me to choose 125 of them.
They had planned to put a mark on the bodies of all those people to indicate that I had bought them, but I did not allow it. They then took all my slaves to the ship.”
Meanwhile, two more steamboats were spotted off the coast, and the African prince ordered the ship to leave immediately. At that time, only 110 of the 125 people purchased had been loaded onto the ship.
On the way back to the United States, many ships encountered the Clotilda, but none of them had any doubts about the ship. By June 30, 1860, the ship was approaching the United States.
Many who saw it thought it was a ship carrying slaves from one area to another in the United States. The ship arrived in Alabama in July 1860.
Horse-drawn carriage
According to Foster, captain of the Clotilda, the ship was anchored on July 9, 1860. He, then, travelled in a horse-drawn carriage to meet the owner of the ship.
Foster feared that if it was discovered that a group of Africans had been brought to the United States at a time when it was forbidden to bring people from one country to another for slavery, he would be punished.
So, he sailed the ship about 12 miles along a river in Alabama and set it ablaze that night. Prior to that, he had paid the ship’s crew and released them.
Many of the Africans brought aboard the Clotilda were shared between Timothy and his business associates. Over 30 of them are said to have worked on Timothy’s estates and elsewhere.
They were considered movable property because they could not be registered as African as slave because they were not brought into the country legally. Several of those people were sold to outside parties. Among them was Redoshi, one of the longest-serving slave labourers to live for 72 years after the abolition of slavery.
Hundreds of years of searching for the wreckage had taken place since Foster sank the ship.
No signs of fire
Although its ruins were reported to have been discovered in 2018, the Alabama History Commission rejected the findings, saying there were no signs of fire in the ruins. In addition, the commission noted that the wreckage was larger than the Clotilda.
A few weeks later, researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi searched the area around the wreckage of the Clotilda and found 11 pieces of wreckage.
They referred the case to the Alabama History Commission. It was later confirmed that the wreckage was the same as the Clotilda. Following the relevant tests, on May 22, 2019, the wreckage was declared as that of the Clotilda.