The Clotilda 100 (Mobile, Alabama)
But new experiences are not always roses and glitter. While in Mobile, Alabama, I met Darron Patterson, president of the Clotilda Descendants Association, one of many groups working to preserve the historical significance of Africatown and resurrect the Clotilda, a slave ship.

The Clotilda was the last ship to arrive in America from Africa carrying human cargo – 110 people who spent two months at sea, naked, chained, and crammed in a 20-foot by 20-foot space. It was a smuggling vessel that arrived in Mobile years after the import of slaves had been made illegal but five years before slavery was abolished.

Darren reminded me that, “Black history is American history, and you cannot separate the two. We have a great teachable moment in front of us if we take advantage of it. Our history is what it was, but it was not nice, and it was not right to enslave other people. People want to know these things… instead of now trying to sweep that history under the rug.”

 

First published by Vacationer. Read the full article here