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The chilling history of Clotilda, the last slave ship to America, is the premise of the award-winning documentary, Descendants. It was screened at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Award: Creative Vision.
The documentary tells the story of members of a small community in Alabama called Africatown whose ancestors were transported illegally as human cargo on the Clotilda during the Civil War.
The ship's history and fate continues to intrigue historians to this day. Now, the upcoming Netflix documentary Descendant, intends to elaborate on the same, shedding light on the centuries-old "open-secret" of the doomed ship.
What happened to the slave ship Clotilda?
To this day, Clotilda remains the last known ship to bring humans as cargo for slave trading from Africa to America. The ship came to the shores of America with Africans with the purpose of selling them illegally as slaves since slave trading was declared an unlawful act by then.
The secret project was spearheaded by Timothy Meaher, a wealthy landowner and shipbuilder. Meaher had reportedly wagered several Northern businessmen a thousand dollars, saying he would smuggle in slaves into Mobile Bay right under the watchful eyes of federal officials.
The Africans who were brought in on the vessel were the last of an estimated 389,000 Africans who were brought to America from early 1600s to 1860. The ship came in from Africa to Mobile, Alabama with 110 individuals during 1860s, 52 years after slave trading was made illegal.
Meaher and the ship's captain, Foster, destroyed all evidence of their criminal voyage by taking the ship apart and burning it, before sinking it. They did so in order to evade authorities.
Where was the wreckage found?
In 2019, the ship's wreckage was found near Twelve-Mile Island in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. After several attempts to locate the ship's remains, in January 2018 a local journalist named Ben Raines reported that he had discovered remains of a large wooden ship during low tide.
Acheologists were alerted and while it turned out to be a false alarm, it did renew the search for Clotilda's ruins. After going through hundreds of pages of documentation and archival records, trying to find Clotilda's build, the ship was eventually found in May 2019.
Where is the ship now?
The ship's remains are still buried at the bottom of the Mobile River in Alabama, where it was discovered. The Alabama Historical Commission was granted ownership of the wreckage, which entrusted them with the duty of preserving and protecting what remains of the last piece of history of the Clotilda's descendants.
The association is yet to take the step of ensuring proper preservation of the artifact, which holds memories for the descendants of those shipped in it.
Descendant will be streaming on Netflix from October 21, 2022.
