Alabama's Africatown Hopes For Revival After Slave Ship Discovery
The Clotilde was discovered last month in the Mobile River, bringing new attention to a small community founded by African captives who were brought to the U.S. on the ship.
The recent discovery of the remains of the last slave ship to the United States is bringing hope of revival to Africatown. It's a small community in Mobile, Ala., founded by African captives brought on the schooner Clotilde, thought to have arrived sometime in 1859 or 1860.
Lorna Woods' great-great-grandfather, Charlie Lewis, was brought to Mobile on the Clotilde. Now she tells his story as a volunteer with the local history museum.
"I tell people ... they didn't come here as free men; they came in chains," she says, standing on the downtown corner that was once the city's slave market.
Woods holds up the rusty shackles she found under an old box spring in her grandmother's house.
"This wasn't anything nice,"
