Finding Clotilda: Now What Happens?

More information on our speakers from "Finding Clotilda": https://www.explorers.org/calendar-of-events/finding-clotilda-now-what-happens/ Learn more about The Explorers Club: https://explorers.org/ Follow Us: https://twitter.com/ExplorersClub https://www.facebook.com/TheExplorersClubNYC https://www.instagram.com/the_explorers_club/ -- In July 1860, the schooner Clotilda quietly entered Mobile Bay and headed up the Mobile River at night, evading U.S. officials and placing over a hundred captives from Africa on a waiting river steamer in what was the last known voyage of a slave-trading vessel to arrive in America. The voyage was a crime; while slavery was legal, the slave trade had been banned by Congress in 1807. The captain of Clotilda, William Foster, burned and sank his schooner to avoid being convicted of his crime. The voyage and the arrival of the Clotilda captives was soon national news, but the burned, sunken remains of the schooner, hidden in plain sight on the river, while never truly lost, were also never officially “found.” Clotilda‘s identity emerged from the river after a detailed survey and archaeological assessment that proved its identity. Substantially intact, partially buried in cold mud and fresh water, it is the subject of ongoing study and preservation as a grim artifact of both the crime committed by Captain Foster and his co-conspirator, Captain Timothy Meaher, as well as the crime of slavery. Our panel, all of them closely involved in Clotilda‘s story, will share the story of the ship, its meaning, and what the next steps are in dealing with Clotilda‘s “discovery.” The panel will be introduced by and moderated by Dr. James Delgado, who has led the archaeological project to survey the river and identify Clotilda from its beginning in 2019. He will be the lead archaeologist in upcoming work on the wreck. The panel will feature Dr. Natalie Robertson, author of “The Slave Ship Clotilda”; Stayce Hathorn, state Archaeologist for Alabama; Joycelyn M. Davis, Co-founder and Vice-President of the Clotilda Descendants Association and direct descendant of Charlie (Oluale) and Maggie Lewis, both survivors of the Clotilda; and Dr. Justin Dunnavant & Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen from the Society of Black Archaeologists.