The last slave ship to America was the Clotilda, a schooner, and when I heard it was found, I remembered my friend Sylviane Diouf. Years ago, walking home from the subway, a historical scholar, she told me she’d just published a book about the last slave ship. No one expected to see it again, but then a bomb cyclone hit Alabama.
Reporting by David Stone
Assorted Ideas, Large & Small
The residue of slavery in America resonates. If this story, most recently spotlighted in National Geographic, helps make current generations more aware, encourage discussions.
Update: Sylviane Diouf contributes raw reminders in a new National Geographic article. Kidnapped into slavery…
And where does race really fit in the story: No races here
From the National Geographic Article…
“The schooner Clotilda—the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America’s shores—has been discovered in a remote arm of Alabama’s Mobile River following an intensive yearlong search by marine archaeologists.”
Nat Geo
See also: The Gettysburg Battlefield, A Nation of Brothers in a Bloodbath
“‘Descendants of the Clotilda survivors have dreamed of this discovery for generations,’ says Lisa Demetropoulos Jones, executive director of the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) and the State Historic Preservation Officer. ‘We’re thrilled to announce that their dream has finally come true.'”
Continue reading Clotida, last American slave ship found in Alabama
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The Line That Didn’t Land
I stood in the back of Good Shepherd Chapel on the evening of April 15, 2026, at the Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall, watching people adjust scarves and jackets before the meeting began. Benjamin Jones, President and CEO of RIOC, thanked us for attending and, without a pause, said he was “pleased to host tonight’s town hall on the city’s demolition of its steam plant.” The demolition, in other words, was not up for discussion.
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