DWP AND THE SEARCH FOR THE CLOTILDA

For the past five years, Diving With a Purpose has been involved in the search, survey and documentation of the Clotilda shipwreck. The Clotilda was the last ship involved in the Transatlantic Era of African Enslavement (TEAE) that brought captured Africans into the USA illegally in July 1860. In July 2018, DWP collaborated with SEARCH, Inc., the Alabama Historical Commission and the National Museum of African American History and Culture Slave Wrecks Project to confirm the location of the Clotilda shipwreck by performing side-scan sonar, magnetometer and sub-bottom profiler archaeological surveys (See Photo 1).

The location of the wreck was confirmed in May 2019 in a section of the Mobile River on the east side of Twelve Mile Island. A more comprehensive survey of the wreck site was performed in May 2022. A total of 94 artifacts were collected from the site during this field mission. Each artifact removed was documented and cataloged. Ninety of the artifacts were returned to the wreck and four were held for further conservation, including a pulley mechanism shown in Photo2.

A comprehensive report is expected to be release by the Alabama Historical Commission in early 2024 that will detail the May 2022 field mission and make recommendations for the future care, conservation and protection of the Clotilda.

More than 12,000 mainly European ships were involved in the TEAE. The Clotilda is the only known remaining shipwreck where more than seventy percent of the ship is still intact after 163 years.

Additionally, it is the only shipwreck that was involved in the TAEA where the actual cargo hold is still largely intact as well. (See Photo 1). That makes the Clotilda shipwreck an extremely rare and valuable artifact of the materiality of the TEAE. Therefore, very diligent and deeply considerate care should be taken in the future management of this important cultural heritage resource. Particularly, since direct descendancy from the 110 captured Africans on the Clotilda can be traced to present descendants in Africatown, AL.

The most historically unique aspect of the Clotilda story is the existence of the multi- generational lineage of direct descents of the 110 men, women, and children who were forcibly brought from Africa to the US aboard the Clotilda. Members of the descendant community currently reside in Africatown, established by their Ancestors in 1867, and through memory and oral history knew of the tragic voyage and legacy. The voice of the descendant community and the Clotilda Ancestral voice are one. Our diligence must extend to centering the priorities of the descendant community as we acknowledge and protect the invaluable resources that extend beyond the high-profile artifact, the Clotilda.

DWP Lead Instructors Kamau Sadiki and Jay Haigler in addition to Dr. Justin Dunnevant and Dr. Ayana Flewelen, DWP Instructors, were intimately involved in the archaeology surveys and documentation of the Clotilda shipwreck. For further information, visit the Alabama Historical
Commission web site at www.ahc.alabama.gov/Clotilda.