The task force headed by the Alabama Historical Commission decided that the Clotilda, the last known shipment to bring African slaves to the United States, was too deteriorated to be extracted from the Mobile River. According to the 500-page report, the researchers proposed that the best way to commemorate the shipment is to stay underwater.
“There is no other one in the world that has physical evidence like Clotilda,” marine archaeologist James Delgado told The Associated Press.
He continued, “Clotilda is the crime scene, so everything we did was part of a crime scene investigation. ”
After the Civil War, 32 liberated survivors of Clotilda bought land on the outskirts of Mobile and founded Plateau Village, now known as Africatown.
William Foster took the shipment to West Africa, where he illegally brought 110 Africans back to Alabama. On his return, he tried to burn and sink the concealment of his crime.
The Clotilda lay unnoticed at the backside of the Mobile River till its discovery in 2019. The state then investigated whether the send may just be excavated and turned into a museum.
Delgado said there was no question of evacuating parts of the ship, but that it would be “difficult and expensive. “
Despite the risks, some locals say the museum would bring a much-needed source of income for Africatown and the descendants of African slaves who came to Clotilda. But others disagree with this sentiment.
Patrica Frazier, a descendant of a Clotilda survivor, says she prefers to stay underwater.
“I’m more susceptible to having a monument. We don’t want to spend $30 million to dig up a ship. And it will take too long to transfer that money directly to the community,” he told The Associated Press.
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