Genealogist Lew Toulmin has been working with the group. While pushing for public investment, Clotilda descendants are also digging deeper into their heritage, and finding inspiration in the resilience of the Clotilda survivors. has embraced its slave history," Patterson says. "Charleston has embraced its slave history. He thinks with the right investment, Africatown could be as big a draw for Mobile as the tourism boom Montgomery has experienced with the opening of the Equal Justice Initiative's Peace and Justice Memorial, which remembers thousands of lynching victims. "And who better to be at the forefront of that discussion than the voice of the Clotilda descendants?" "There's a reckoning going on in the world," he says. Patterson says people want to come here to embrace the Clotilda story. "It would be very irresponsible to destroy it in the process of trying to preserve it," Hathorn says. It's all part of an effort by the Alabama Historical Commission to determine whether it's feasible to raise the vessel. Researchers used sonar to map the lay of the ship, gathered samples, and are monitoring river flows. Part of the stern has broken away and is buried in mud. "The most important thing we learned is it's in at least two pieces," says Hathorn. But the muddy water preserved the vessel for 150 years.Īrcheologists got their first complete look at it during a research excursion in May funded by a $1 million dollar grant from the state of Alabama. With federal prosecutors on his tail, the Clotilda was scuttled up river and set afire to hide evidence of the voyage. The story goes that on a bet, plantation owner and ship builder Timothy Meaher hired a captain to bring kidnapped Africans to Mobile even though the Atlantic slave trade was illegal. "And then we have the ship and it's in a fragile condition, but the vast majority of it is still there and it's pretty amazing," Hathorn says.
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