Africatown
Encyclopedia
Mobile County, Alabama
Mobile County[p] is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of a tribe of Indians, the Maubila tribe . As of 2011, its population was 415,704. Its county seat is Mobile, Alabama...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, located three miles (5 km) north of the city of Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
. It was formed by West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
ns who were among the last known illegal shipment of slaves to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. These Tarkbar people created their own tribal community and retained their customs and language following the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
History
Africatown had its beginnings in a plan by some wealthy Mobile brothers and their friends to see if they could evade the law and import slaves. They bet each other they could elude federal authorities. Timothy Meaher, a shipbuilder and landowner; his brother Byrnes Meaher, John Dabey and others invested money to hire a crew and captain for one of Meaher's ships to go to Africa and bring back laborers for slaves.They used Timothy Meaher's ship Clotilde
Clotilde (slave ship)
The schooner Clotilde was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 , with 110-160 slaves. The ship was a two-masted schooner, 86 ft long by 23 ft , and it was burned and scuttled at Mobile Bay, soon after...
under Captain William Foster. It sailed in 1860 from Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
for its final destination of Mobile, more than half a century after the slave trade had been outlawed. Over 100 Africans were aboard, having been sold into bondage by the King of Dahomey
Dahomey
Dahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...
. Dahomey warriors raided a Tarkbar village near the city of Tamale
Tamale, Ghana
Tamale with a population of 360,579 , is the capital of the Northern Region of Ghana and the Tamale Metropolitan District with which it is coterminous Area. The city is located 600 km north of Accra...
in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, and took the survivors to Whydah
Kingdom of Whydah
The Kingdom of Whydah , sometimes written Hueda, was a kingdom on the coast of West Africa in the boundaries of the modern nation of Benin. Between 1677 and 1681 it was conquered by the Akwamu a member of the Akan people. It was a major slave trading post...
, now Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, where they were put up for sale. The captured tribesmen were sold for $100 each to William Foster, captain of the Clotilde.
In July 1860, the Clotilde entered Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the...
and approached the port of Mobile
Port of Mobile
The Port of Mobile, located in Mobile, Alabama, United States, is the only deep-water port in the state, and was the 9th largest by tonnage in the nation in 2008. It is located along the Mobile River where it empties into Mobile Bay...
. Captain Foster loaded the slaves onto a riverboat and sent them ashore; he then set fire to the Clotilde to hide the evidence of the crime. The Africans were distributed among the parties who had invested in the venture. Federal authorities learned of this illegal activity and prosecuted Meaher and his partners. The 1861 federal court case of US v. Byrnes Meaher, Timothy Meaher and John Dabey did not find enough evidence to convict Meaher. The case was dismissed. The start of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
was believed to have been important in the government's dropping the case.
Thirty-two Africans had been taken to Magazine Point, the property owned by Timothy Meaher north of Mobile. As the government was investigating the illegal importation, the Africans were left on their own to survive. This was the site that would become Africatown. Among the Africans was a man named Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis
Cudjoe Lewis
Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis is considered the last person born on African soil to have been enslaved in the United States when slavery was still lawful.-Life:...
, who was the last survivor of the original group, living until 1935. The group built shelters of whatever they found growing in the Alabama forests, and adapted their hunting to the rich game they found in the area. After the Civil War and Emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
, they were joined by a number of their fellow tribesmen. A man who became known as Charlie Poteet was their chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
; their medicine man
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
was named Jabez. In time they formed a self-governing society. They spoke their native language and carried on their tribal traditions into the 1950s.
Gradually the original group of settlers and their descendants dwindled, as people moved to other areas. Their children went to public schools and learned English. Remaining members would gather on Sundays after church to discuss the group's welfare. Of the remaining people, Cudjoe Lewis was the best known. He gave interviews to the many writers who studied Africatown during the early 1900s. Up until World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Africatown remained a distinct community.
Much of the community now lies within Mobile's northern city limits, with portions in southeastern Prichard
Prichard, Alabama
Prichard is a city in Mobile County, Alabama, in the United States.Prichard borders the north side of Mobile, as well as the Mobile suburbs of Chickasaw, Alabama, Saraland, Alabama, and the unincorporated sections of Eight Mile, Alabama. As of 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the...
, a suburb of Mobile. In 1997 descendants and friends formed the Africatown Community Mobilization Project to seek recognition of an Africatown Historical District and encourage the restoration and development of the town site. The site was placed on the Mobile's African American Heritage Trail in 2009.
See also
- History of Mobile, AlabamaHistory of Mobile, AlabamaMobile was founded as the capital of colonial French Louisiana in 1702 and remained a part of New France for over 60 years. During 1720, when France warred with Spain, Mobile was on the battlefront, so the capital moved west to Biloxi. In 1763, Britain took control of the colony following their...
- National African American Archives and MuseumNational African American Archives and MuseumThe National African American Archives and Museum, formerly the Davis Avenue Branch of the Mobile Public Library, is an archive and history museum located in Mobile, Alabama...
- Atlantic slave tradeAtlantic slave tradeThe Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
Additional reading
- Diouf, Sylviane Anna. Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Hurston, Zora Neale. Barracoon. Unpublished typescripts and hand-written draft, 1931. Alan Locke Collection, Manuscript Department, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.
- Roche, Emma Langdon. Historic Sketches of the South. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1914.
External links
- "Africatown", Encyclopedia of Alabama
- The Order of Myths (2008), documentary by Margaret Brown about Mobile Mardi Gras, includes material about Africatown and its families