Juneteenth
History
Juneteenth is the "longest-running African-American holiday," and it recognizes June 19, 1865, as the date that news of slavery's end reached the enslaved in Texas and other States of the Confederacy.
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
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The ‘Clotilda,’ the Last Known Slave Ship to Arrive in the U.S., Is Found
The discovery carries intense personal meaning for an Alabama community of descendants of the ship’s survivors
Museum Correspondent
May 22, 2019
One hundred and fifty-nine years ago, slave traders stole Lorna Gail Woods’ great-great grandfather from what is now Benin in West Africa. Her ancestor, Charlie Lewis, was brutally ripped from his homeland, along with 109 other Africans, and brought to Alabama on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States. Today, researchers confirmed that the remains of that vessel, long rumored to exist but elusive for decades, have been found along the Mobile River, near 12 Mile Island and just north of the Mobile Bay delta.
“The excitement and joy is overwhelming,” says Woods, in a voice trembling with emotion. She is 70 years old now. But she’s been hearing stories about her family history and the ship that tore them from their homeland since she was a child in Africatown, a small community just north of Mobile founded by the Clotilda’s survivors after the Civil War.
The descendants of Cudjo Lewis and Abache (above) heard stories of the ship that tore their ancestors from their homeland and now the wreck of the Clotilda has been confirmed to be found in Alabama's Mobile River. Wikimedia Commons
