Three Clotilda Survivors
2025 Black History Month: Unsung Heroes
Africatown, AL
This Black History Month, the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project honors Oluale Kossola aka Cudjo Lewis, Redoshi aka Sally Smith, and Abake aka Matilda McCrear, unsung heroes who were the survivors of the last documented Middle Passage voyage to the U.S.
On a dare, wealthy Mobile plantation owner and trader, Timothy Meaher, retrofitted a ship – the Clotilda – and in July 1860 smuggled more than 100 kidnapped Africans from West Africa into Mobile Bay – 52 years after the U.S. outlawed the trans-Atlantic human trade.
Oluale Kossola aka Cudjo Lewis (c1841-1935) is one of the better-known survivors. Upon arrival on the Mobile River, he was enslaved at a Meaher plantation until the end of the Civil War. In 1927, anthropologist and writer Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Cudjo. The book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” is based on his first-person account, as told to Hurston.
In 2019, another Clotilda survivor, Redoshi aka Sally Smith (c1848-1936), was identified. Sold by Meaher to a plantation owner and founder of the Bank of Selma in Dallas County, AL, she was interviewed by voting rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson who credited Redoshi and her shipmates with serving as role models for the courage and perseverance that undergirded Selma’s Civil Rights movement.
Abake aka Matilda McCrear (c1857-1940) was enslaved at the same Alabama plantation as Redoshi and lived the longest. In the 1930s, Abake journeyed to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma to submit a claim for compensation for herself and Redoshi. Her effort for reparations was denied and sparked media coverage that documented details of her life.
The emancipated survivors of the Clotilda petitioned the federal government for passage back to Africa. That request was denied. As a result, in 1866 a number of the survivors pooled their savings to purchase land from the Meahers and established Africatown. There they built their lives – homes, churches, a school, and a thriving community of more than 10,000 residents. This community represented a rich diversity of ethnic groups, including Yoruba, Isha, Nupé, Dendi, Fon, Hausa, and Shamba. Within Africatown, members valued and practiced, preserved and transmitted their West African culture and traditions. The desire to connect with others who had shared the experience of the Middle Passage in the belly of the Clotilda motivated Abake and Redoshi to make the 300-mile roundtrip journey to reunite with Kossola in Africatown.
In 2021, the remains of the Clotilda were found. To avoid detection, the ship had been torched and sunk in Mobile Bay, right after its illicit human cargo was unloaded. But, this story is not about the ship; it’s about the survivors. The shadow of slavery is long. Today, fewer than 2,000 Africatown residents remain, now battling and challenging decades-long industrial pollution, non-inclusive municipal planning, and lack of development opportunities. The Mobile County Training School as well as Africatown C.H.E.S.S. (Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe & Sustainable) are examples of the descendants’ efforts to rebuild and attract more residents and investors to insure a viable community.
Although much of the surrounding land is still owned by the Meaher family, MPCPMP thinks it’s all the more reason to share Kossola, Redoshi, and Abake’s stories, honor this legacy, and support Africatown’s community-driven initiatives: www.africatown-chess.org/donate/.