Orgins of Africatown near Mobile, AL

International slave trading was outlawed in the United States in 1807 but illegal international and domestic legal slave trading continued up until the Civil War began. A ship called the Clotilde docked in Alabama in 1859 with slave cargo making it possibly the last ship to bring illegal slaves to America. The ship had 130 men women and children who had been kidnapped from Tarkar, a village in West Africa. William Fowler, the ship captain, had eluded Federal authorities and unloaded his ship in Mobile Alabama, then burned the ship to cover up evidence of slave trading. 

Due to pending Civil War, most slave markets were closed and he was unable to sell the slaves. He set them free when the Civil War started, and those men women and children stayed together and formed a community called Africatown in an area known as the Plateau near Mobile, AL. They were possibly the only Africans that were able to keep their African customs, names, and language. Descendants of these people can still be found in East Mobile. Cudjo Lewis (pictured) was the last of the original Tarkar slaves and dies in 1935.