Posted on 05/23/2019 6:28:39 AM PDT by Red Badger
The last ship known to have smuggled slaves from Africa to the US is said to have been discovered after a year-long investigation.
The remains of the Clotilda were found at the bottom of the Mobile river in Alabama.
The ship was used to smuggle men, women and children into America from Africa.
It operated in secret, decades after Congress banned the importation of slaves, and was intentionally sunk in 1860 to hide evidence of its use.
"The discovery of the Clotilda is an extraordinary archaeological find," Lisa Demetropoulos Jones, executive director of the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC), told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The ship's journey "represented one of the darkest eras of modern history" and the wreck provides "tangible evidence of slavery", she said.
The Clotilda was discovered by archaeology firm company Search Inc, which was called in to help by the Alabama Historical Commission to investigate the hulk, says the National Geographic Society, which reported the find.
Researchers discovered a ship with its identifying features under water in a section of the Mobile river, says National Geographic.
The dimensions and construction of the wreck matched those of the Clotilda, as did building materials, the commission said.
"We are cautious about placing names on shipwrecks that no longer bear a name or something like a bell with the ship's name on it," maritime archaeologist James Delgado said in a statement.
"But the physical and forensic evidence powerfully suggests that this is Clotilda."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Slaves were never “smuggled” into America from Africa. They were sold by Africans and brought to America.
This was after the importation of new slaves was banned...................
Not trying to get into a “slave” thing, but weren’t there enough in the US to keep the “production” going? I cannot imagine that importing them would be cheaper—on an economics basis.
Oh, no! I thought we weren’t supposed to ever mention anything about slavery or even words related to slavery! Unless of course you wanna start talking reparations...
The total number of slaves brought to the United States was about 400,000. The total number brought to Brazil was nearly ten million. Other South American countries took less, but still far more than America.
Did they discover that the slaves had heartbeats ???
Or were those slaves not considered “persons” .... ??
Almost ALL the major ships were owned by a shrewd type of person always alleging they never had anything to do with slavery. And who wants you to constantly commemorate stuff you didn’t do, and which you in fact stopped.
That is not true, near the end of the slave trade, the British outlawed slavery (making it smuggling), also slavers did just go ashore and kidnap African natives once the demand for slaves outpaced supply.
Do you not remember the stories about having all the slaves on a slave ship attached, by the neck, to the same chain so as to more easily throw them all overboard in case of the British Navy? The British said they could smell slave ships from a mile away, so wretched and inhumane was the treatment of the cargo (humans).
Being a monument of the slave trade of the South, it must be destroyed! We can have no evidence of any of that. Oh, wait ... that only goes for confederate stuff. Sorry.
When you consider that a newborn has to be raised until at least adolescence, and a newly imported adult slave can be put to work almost immediately, the economics is more evident.................
From the article:
It operated in secret, decades after Congress banned the importation of slaves
This is really fascinating to me. I can’t wait to see the photos.
400K?
During WWII, about that many German POWs were brought to the US for the duration.
About 25 years ago or so, a pirate ship (iirc) was recovered, and the owners wanted to put it on display in Boston.
Part of the history of the ship was that it once carried slaves, so the ship was tainted, and too unPC for liberals in academia and the LSM.
It appears to have been the result of a bet:
“Captain Foster was working for Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile shipyard owner and steamboat captain, who had built Clotilda in 1856 for the lumber trade. Meaher was said to have wagered some “Northern gentlemen” from New England, who likely provided the financing for the illegal venture, that he could successfully smuggle slaves into the US despite the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves. “
I see a multimillion dollar monument in alabama’s future. Taxpayer funded, of course. Maybe a resort and a casino.....
I've been learning a bit about the issue for the last few years, and one of the things i've learned is that the value of a slave in the 1850s was around $100,000.00 in today's currency.
For that kind of profit per slave, people weren't interested in waiting. A poor man could become a rich man rather quickly by engaging in the slave trade.
The last slave ship? Good. Now everyone can STFU about it.
Vast majority of the ships were owned by New York/New Englanders.
The smuggling of heroin, cocaine, and other lethal drugs into America, though they have been outlawed, is a similar evil.
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