The Last American Slave Ship

Remnants discovered off the coast of Alabama could be from this long-lost vessel.

- Sydney Pereira

IN 1860, THE SLAVE SHIP CLOTILDA made its final voyage from West Africa to Alabama, transporting 110 people to be sold into slavery. But sometime after the ship anchored, its captain, William Foster, and his business partner, Timothy Meaher, panicked. Human trafficking had been illegal since 1808, and they worried they’d get caught. So they burned the ship and let its remains sink, ac-cording to Foster’s journal, which rendered the vessel lost—until now.