Text: Joel K. Bourne, Jr., Sylviane Diouf and Chelsea Brasted
Photos: Elias Williams
Drawings: Sedrick Huckaby
A team of underwater archaeologists last May
For the first time in March, chained Africans British colony Virginia
400 years after footing, the last slave ship to reach the US coast
known as Clotilde‘S
that the charred wreck was discovered near Mobile (Alabama)
It has announced. A rich landowner, in 1860, over a hundred African prisoners
A gulet with the captain to smuggle to Alabama
He rented. It was 52 years after the USA banned the slave trade, and this was
it was a task that could take you on the rope when you were caught. Still abominable task
fulfilled. Then, the ship was set on fire in order to destroy the evidence.
He was given. These prisoners also moved to North America from the early 1600s to 1860.
It was among the 307 thousand Africans who were brought as slaves. With a difference:
They were the last of these Africans, whose numbers were expressed in hundreds of thousands.
Which is Clotilde, “America’s
the first leg of the said application, called the “first sin”
he makes. In 1865, the President of the USA, Abraham Lincoln, of the Civil War
He declared that it was “a punishment given by the Supreme God” because of sin. the War
After the end of slavery and slavery, ClotildeAfricans who have taken away from the territory of
It took root in the country as Americans. However, they have never
He did not leave. They settled in mobile upland and marshy lands from Mobile.
They built simple houses. They planted their gardens. They raised animals.
They hunted, fished, engaged in agriculture. They built a church, their own
They built their schools. And after all, later on with the name Africatown
commemorative, self-contained, interlocking people
they created settlements. Many of his grandchildren still live there. These lines are those
obstacles and successes of unusual people; pain and
telling the resistance… Theirs is proud of today’s Africantown people and
It was a story he struggled to protect as a legacy…
This is 108 people who have been slaves on that ship and their
the history of their grandchildren.
Part I
Unfair Trading
Article: Joel K. Bourne, Jr
By 1860, the foundation of the American economy
it formed enslaved people. These people are into the manufacturing industry,
It was more valuable than the sum of investments made on railways and banks.
Historian specializing in slavery from the University of Alabama
In the words of Joshua Rothman, cotton was 35 to 40 percent of US exports at that time.
It was shaped. “Both the USA and banks around the world
Alabama pours money to Mississippi and Louisiana; to the plantations in the south
he was investing in banks and mortgages. ”
Slave entry into the United States in 1808
prohibited. By 1859, slave prices had increased in the country.
which significantly lowers the profits of the plantation owners,
causing some to raise their voices to restart trade
He had opened.
One of the ardent defenders of the subject was Timothy Meaher.
Meaher brave during a heated discussion with a group of northern businessmen
he made a claim: a cargo of African prisoners to Mobile
Would bring; moreover, it would not even hear the spirit of the Federal authorities.
Meaher did not have a hard time finding investors in this illegal plan. His friend William Foster, who was also a shipbuilder like himself, had built a gulet around the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago to carry loads, especially logs.
Gulet in Coltil
name was given. Meaher rented Coltilda for $ 35,000 and captured Foster
commissioned as.
With Foster in late February or early March of 1860
its crew, located in the territory of today’s Benin and at that time the slave harbor
sailed towards Ouidah, which became famous. Thus, the United
One of the best documented slave expeditions to the States started.
While Foster left behind a travel story he wrote with his own hands, Meaher and some Africans told journalists and writers that they lived in the following years.
Chapter II
Journey With No Return
Article: Sylviane Diouf
110 people in May 1860 Clotilde‘or
It was put. They consisted of young men, women and children. From the band,
Dahomey, Kebbi, Atakora, and other Benin and Nigeria
they were coming from their region. Yoruba, Isha, Dendi, Nupe and Fon ethnic among them
There were those from their group. Their families were given to them by Kossola, Kupollee, Abile, Abache,
Gumpa had given their name.
Some are probably far, carrying salt, copper and fabric.
were traffickers. Maybe they were making iron. Some weave fabric, yam
cultivation or producing palm oil. Some of the women are married
and he was with children and probably was a farmer or a vendor in markets.
A small ring in both ears of the man whose name is Kupollee
and these rings were in Yoruba with a ceremony held with him – in orisa – the house of god –
it showed that he was accepted into his religion. Ossa Keeby, Nigeria’s professional
It came from the Kebbi kingdom famous for its fishermen. 19-year-old Kossola (more
and then Cudjo Lewis).
He was the victim of a raid by his kingdom. Kossola is a humble
he said he came from the circle but his grandfather was a rank in the Bantè kingdom
he was a soldier. He was trained as a soldier when he was 14, and
when he was caught, the secret society of men attended the admission ceremony to Yoruba oro
He was preparing. The young girl named Kêhounco (Lottie Dennison) is also many other
was kidnapped like. And this mandatory journey of all the slaves in Ouidah
ended in prison…
Prisoners in the midst of pure sheer horror and misery
nevertheless it created an atmosphere of support and solidarity; that foreign slave traders
until they shatter their newly created communities. Right
the interviews and the oral history of the remaining years
Based on my book (Dreams of Africa in
Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to
America) as I explained in detail, captain Foster was held
when it came to the ground they were told to form circles in groups of ten
themselves. Their skin, teeth, hands, feet, legs and arms
Foster, who examined, chose 125 people among them. That evening, the next day there
they were told they would leave. Many spent the night crying. What are themselves
they had no idea what they were waiting for, and they left their loved ones
He did not want.
The group in grief necks the next morning in a lagoon
canoes in the water that rises up and reach the beach,
by ClotildeThey moved to.
What happened to them after that was their nightmare forever. their clothes
they were forced to take it off. The fact that Africans are naked
rule, and this is to ensure apparent cleanliness, albeit ineffective.
It was for. Clotilde Prisoners,
by Americans who believe that nudity is “native to Africa”
anger even after many years of humiliation as barbarians
He continued to hear.
Before the transport was over, Foster saw that steamships were approaching; He was sailing because he was afraid of getting caught and left 15 people on the beach. During the first 13 days at sea, all the prisoners were kept in the barn. After all these years, in 1906, with an author from Harper’s magazine, in ColtilSpeaking about dirt, darkness, heat, chains and thirst in Abache’s (Clara Turner) “his eyes were burning, he felt such pain that he could not be told in words because they remembered the spirit.”
Parents who cannot soothe the fear and pain of their children
their helplessness, pain, and fears grew even more. In the future the name of Gracie
the woman who is going to take had four daughters in the gulet and the youngest, Matilda, just 2
or so years old. Water shortage was like torture. Foods – molasses and mash –
it made the situation worse. Sugary
food was increasing their thirst.
Twice a day only
“A sip” of water was given to them; it tasted like vinegar. your palms
the rain they filled could provide temporary comfort. There was illness. Two
person died.
Slave ships were incredibly miserable places. Solidarity is vital
it was important and these people who were suffering together – again
Unless they leave – long life that will sometimes last for generations
he was making friends.
ClotildeThis kind of community was formed within a month and a half in.
On July 8, the passengers said that
they saw it, and then they heard a sound that they likened to the humming bees. ClotildePulling to Mobile Bay
It was the voice of the tug. Timothy Meaher’s brother Burns an exploit
while they were transferred to the river’s upstairs John Dabney’s plantation,
Foster also pulled his ship to Twelve Mile Island. From the journey of enslavement
it was impossible to hide the traces left behind,
There was a danger of being distorted. Foster’s a piece of wood, maybe oil oil
He set it on fire and left the ship he had built five years ago in flames.
Slave owners in the most southern provinces, who could not find enough workers to work on their developing plantations, had been buying people from the southern provinces just above them for the prices they found too high. When the international slave trade became illegal, some began to resort to smuggling. In Alabama, these “secret” passengers were heard all over the city and even appeared in the press within days, despite all the precautions taken by Foster and Meaher. Meanwhile, the young Africans were lowered to a mosquito boiling reed reed area of Dabney’s plantation in Clarke Province. In order not to be noticed, they were constantly changing their places, feeding on the meat and corn flour that led to their illness. They welcomed the shoddy, corn sack pieces and animal skins given to them instead of clothing. When federal officials sent a team under a police leadership to find them, Africans were already taken to Burns’ plantation. Half a century later, they would pour out, saying, “They are eating themselves out of sorrow.”
Timothy Meaher, who wants to get things done quickly, is a sales
He was organized. Passengers whose families they just created were once again distributed,
crying, singing a farewell song, “journey without danger” to each other
He wills. “Around 80 of them were being taken to Mobile,” wrote on 23 July 1860. Mercury newspaper, “Speaking English
‘Blacks’ who could not learn started to advance along the railway a few days ago…
They were twenty-five, all of them were purebred… of the African race. ”This march of the group
During the circus, Africans who heard an elephant heard, “With, with,
ajaaku, ajaaku, shouting “(” hometown “,” elephant “in Yoruba and Fon languages)
It began. The rest of their lives are scattered across Alabama’s Black Belt
They spent as. Gracie was sold with her two daughters, and how sad the other
he never found out what happened to his two daughters.
Timothy Meaher was arrested, released on bail,
he was tried and found not guilty. Federal against Burns Meaher and Dabney
lawsuits have been dropped because “mentioned niggas” have never been found. Foster,
He was fined a thousand dollars for not paying his “imports” tax.
Timothy Meaher saw him 16 men and 16 women; Burns, Kêhounco’s
also took 20 prisoners, among them; James Meaher ate with Kossola
He chose his comrade. Foster is 16 people, including Abile (Celia Lewis).
These people, bought for $ 100 in Ouidah, were worth a thousand dollars now and
when they adapt, for 2 thousand dollars, that is 60 thousand dollars for today’s money
sold would be able to.
Continued You can read the January issue of National Geographic Turkey.
Source link
https://www.nationalgeographic.com.tr/son-kole-gemisi/
