Alabama Historical Commission Moves Forward with Plan to Study Artifacts from Last Known Slave Ship to Land in America

Alabama is moving ahead with work to study and remove artifacts from the submerged wreckage of the Clotilda, the last slave ship known to land in the United States.

The Alabama Historical Commission released a request Tuesday seeking a contractor to provide divers who can assess and document the remains of the Clotilda, located near Mobile. Teams should be able to remove artifacts and test remains of the two-masted wooden schooner.

The ship delivered about 110 kidnapped Africans to the Gulf Coast in 1860 before the vessel was burned in a bayou to hide evidence of the crime. Teams identified the ships’ remains last year.

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