The water lapped against the shore of Mobile Bay where James Fralin hauled in blue crab for a day’s work. Like so many others, Fralin had heard the story of the Clotilda which was rumored to be the last known ship to bring enslaved people to the United States. It took months of excavation and archaeological verification, but earlier this week the Alabama Historical Commission confirmed what generations of the Clotilda’s descendants had been told .
“It’s amazing, it’s amazing, it’s amazing,” said Fralin. “One while we couldn’t even cross those railroad tracks because they thought everybody, all black folks were stealing, and if you cross that rail road track you were going to jail.”
Fralin lived near Africatown (also known as Plateau), the Gulf Coast community settled by his ancestors. The entire community held its collective breath for months while the experts examined the ship wreckage, raising questions and prayers they hoped would finally be answered.
The Clotilda arrived in Alabama 52 years after the United States outlawed the transatlantic slave trade. Timothy Meaher organized an illegal voyage to bring the 100 or so Africans from modern-day Benin to Alabama. When slavery ended in 1865, the newly freed wanted to return home to Africa but lacked the resources. They decided to form a community which they called ‘Africatown.’
More than 160 years later, Africatown still exists but has seen difficult times. Industry moved in, and some blame the large, now-silent factories for the area’s environment pollultion.
“I came to Africatown in 1978,” says Mae Jones. “When I came to Africatown, it was a very thriving community. They had whatever you needed. They had stores, grocery stores, barbershops and beauty shops. They had gas stations, and everything was right here in Africatown. And that was in 1978. But as the years passed, we started having a lot of health problems, and people began to move out and all the businesses moved out.”
Jones believes the discovery, which the Alabama Historical Commission calls ‘extraordinary’ solidifies ‘Africatown’ and the Clotilda’s place in American history.
