The Alabama Historical Commission, which has been involved in efforts to identify and preserve the Clotilda since 1997, said it cannot be raised from underwater “using existing technology.” (Courtesy of the Alabama Historical Commission)
The Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) plans to keep the last known vessel to transport enslaved Africans to the United States in its current location in the Mobile River, saying the ship is too deteriorated to be raised above water.
The Clotilda transported 110 Africans from what is now Benin to Mobile, Alabama in 1860, over 50 years after the United States outlawed the international slave trade.
The voyage was arranged by Mobile businessman Timothy Meaher, who made a bet that he could smuggle slaves into the country without being caught. After the ship’s arrival, the captors set it ablaze to destroy evidence of their crime.
The AHC, which has been involved in efforts to identify and preserve the Clotilda since 1997, said it cannot be raised from underwater “using existing technology.”