Africatown is located 3 miles north of downtown Mobile in Plateau, AL
Can you believe that the very last known ship to travel across the Atlantic carrying humans was discovered in 2019!?
Trafficking humans across the Atlantic Ocean was outlawed in 1808. However, throughout the early 1800’s there are reports of desperate farmers hiring ships to make illegal runs to Africa to return with human cargo. The story goes that Timothy Meaher had bet anther farmer a beer that he could transport African hostages back into the USA. So, in 1860 Meaher hired a ship, then called Kingdom of Dahomey under Captain William Foster, to travel to Africa where they bought 110 kidnapped Africans from a warring tribe. They then sailed up the Alabama River to Mobile under the cover of night. They unloaded the captives outside of Mobile where they divided up most of the enslaved between Meaher and Foster and sold the remaining kidnapped hostages. Meaher ordered the ship taken up river and set on fire to sink and destroy the evidence. In 1865, when the union soldiers delivered the message that those enslaved were now free the survivors of the Coltilda tried to return to Africa, only to find that they did not have enough money. So, they pulled their earnings from selling vegetables, working in the mills and the fields to buy property from the Meaher family. Those still alive from the kidnapping and journey on the Cotilda founded Africatown. A community that had its own laws, churches, schools and culture. A community that is still together today. Many of the descendants of those transported on the Cotilda have stayed in Africatown and some of the descendants of the survivors of the Cotilda have traced their roots back to Africatown.
However, many southerners in Alabama, particularly those in Mobile, denied the existence of the Cotilda, not wanting to accept their racist past and the fact that their own history would involve the illegal trafficking of humans… and over a bet. In 2018 a journalist from AL.com was convinced that the Cotilda did exist and after searching he found ruins of a ship that was believed to be the Cotilda. However, upon specialized research they discovered that it was too large a ship to be the Cotilda. His discovery, along with the stories emerging from Africatown, sparked a new level of interest in finding the Cotilda. A team of scientists and archeologists from the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture set out to find the ship. And they did, in 2019 just North of the Mobile Bay.
Driving through Africatown was incredibly painful. Upon entering there was an old and sacred cemetery on the left of us, we did not enter – it felt private. On the right was what seemed like ruins, overgrown by lush vegetation of once started construction where a visitor center was going to welcome guests who came to learn about Africatown. Like many of the places we visited, a major highway had been built right through the center of the community and a toxic chemical plant was operating within a half mile from their homes. Many of the houses were uninhabitable. Access the church and school across the main highway from most of the homes was extremely challenging due to the way the freeway was built.
In all honesty, Mobile was not a destination I recommend for fun family vacation time. However, the kids and I had fun exploring south of Mobile along the coast walking through wilderness sanctuaries looking for alligators. Sadly, no we did not find any 😦 But it made for a fun rainy day adventure while Jay did work for school.
Black History Tour 