The Clotilda was the last recorded slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States, arriving illegally in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860. Financed by plantation owner Timothy Meaher, the voyage smuggled 110 West Africans into the country over 50 years after the slave trade was outlawed.
Following its arrival, the ship was burned and sunk to hide the evidence. The survivors went on to found Africatown, a self-governed Black community near Mobile. The wreck of the Clotilda was officially discovered in 2019, confirming the long oral histories passed down by descendants.
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