A Legacy & Lessons from the Ancestors

By Janiah Adams -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Jan 29, 2019 - 10:23:24 AM

Three miles north of downtown Mobile, Ala., sits an unassuming Black town with centuries of history. It’s characterized by wooden structures, an historic church, school and cemetery.

Beneath that cemetery lies many West Africans illegally brought into the United States in 1860 on the slave ship Clotilda, a ship sent across the Atlantic Ocean by a wealthy plantation owner to acquire 100 slaves.

After the Civil War, those slaves petitioned to return home. Unable to accomplish the feat, they founded Africatown in 1860. The settlement and descendants of its founders will be celebrated next month during the first annual Spirit of Our Ancestors Festival in Mobile.

The festival will celebrate “the remarkable strength of a people, who were brought here with a different language and culture, yet built their own communities and thrived,” said Joycelyn Davis, festival organizer and a descendant Charlie Lewis, a founding member of Africatown.

One of the most notable Clotilda Africans was Cudjo Lewis, who died in 1935 and was the last known survivor of the African TransAtlantic Slave Trade. He was one of the Clotilda Africans who founded the town. Ms. Davis wants to spotlight lesser known founders and their importance.

“When you look at the plaque outside the church founded by some of the Clotilda Africans, there are 12 names on it,” Ms. Davis said. “I wanted to make sure all of the families are recognized. They founded Africatown, too. Each family has its own story to tell.”

Those families include the descendants of Charlie Lewis, Peter Lee, Orsa Keeby, Pollee Allen, and Mr. Lewis. About 90 years ago, Mr. Lewis’ story was recorded in an interview with Zora Neale Hurston. The story can be found in a book that was released last year, “Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo.’ ” The rapper Common obtained the rights to it and plans to produce a limited TV series based on the story.

Families of the founding members of Africatown encourage the families of other descendants to come forward and share their stories and heirlooms. Many of them were separated and sold up the river north of Mobile to other plantations and were not part of the founding of Africatown.

‘Up to that point, there were no comprehensive books that dealt adequately with the origins of those slaves who were smuggled into Mobile on the ship Clotilda. ... So one of the goals of my research was to connect the descendants of those Africans, some of who still reside in Africatown, with their West African origins.’—Dr. Natalie Robertson

Getting to the root

Much of the Clotilda story and the roots of the families wouldn’t be known if it wasn’t for the 15 years of research done by Dr. Natalie Robertson, who will also deliver the keynote address at the festival.

When she first began the research, she was a scholar with a specialty in the slave trade. After being presented with the topic of Clotilda by a professor, she dug into it and saw that it was a viable topic for her dissertation, and beyond.

Her intellectual journey on the subject has taken her to places such as Senegal, the Republic of Benin and Nigeria. Her findings are in her book “The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors.”

“Up to that point, there were no comprehensive books that dealt adequately with the origins of those slaves who were smuggled into Mobile on the ship Clotilda,” Dr. Robertson explained. “So one of the goals of my research was to connect the descendants of those Africans, some of who still reside in Africatown, with their West African origins.”

She conducted over 50 interviews with Clotilda descendants and descendants of slave dealers. She believes her research has shed a different light on a story not many people know.

“My book is the lead story of that case because it connects those Africans to those origins and it places this in the context of a federal crime because at that time, smuggling Africans into the country violated the Piracy Act of 1820,” she said. The Clotilda is the last known slave ship to bring Africans to America.

The plantation owner who sent the ship to Africa, Timothy Meaher, hired sea captain William Foster to retrieve the slaves and hoped the ship would be undetected. However, upon its return, the feds discovered the ship and Mr. Foster was warned about this. He and Mr. Meaher agreed to burn and sink the ship to get rid of any evidence after removing the slaves.

In January 2018, reports of the discovery of the ships’ remains surfaced, however the Alabama Historical Commission determined the remains were too new and too large to be the Clotilda, as reported by National Public Radio.

Dr. Robertson said the Clotilda slaves had much to offer the plantations they were sold to.

“Many of those Africans who came over, I would say many of them brought their agricultural skills and talents when they were smuggled into this country. Generally, that’s the real value of Black people within the context of the slave trade,” she said. To this day, Africatown has communal gardens that they cultivate, she said.

The effort to revitalize Africatown

While plans for the festival go on, others are in the process of revitalizing the area. Africatown has previously been in the news for environmental issues that affect residents. Atlanta Black Star reported on a lawsuit that residents of Africatown filed against International Paper in 2017. The lawsuit alleged that the company released toxic chemicals into the air that exceeded EPA regulations and violated federal regulations by failing to clean up the site.

“[International Paper Company] had a big expansion in the community in about 1945 and they spilled pollution all over the area and they were finally asked by the EPA to move and they did so in about 2000. They were right across the street from the school for almost 60 years and [spilled] a lot of pollution,” said Joe Womack, president and executive director of Africatown C.H.E.S.S. (Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe and Sustainable community).

After attorneys tested the soil in Africatown, results showed much of the toxic waste from the paper company’s factory still lingered, Mr. Womack said.

“So we’ve had a lot of health issues, especially for people who were born after 1945,” Mr. Womack said. “They don’t make it to 65 due to cancer and other illnesses and so we actually believe that the International Paper had something to do with that.”

The main focus is to make Africatown attractive so that people will want to live there. In 2016, the city of Mobile produced an Africatown Neighborhood Plan that outlined issues and solutions to problems in the area.

“Industry moved into the area and at one time, there were about 15,000 people in the community. A lot of them came to live in Africatown because the industry said if you live in this community, we’ll hire you. But now, since they moved out in 2000 and other things have happened, the community is down to about 3,000 people,” he said.

When people visit Africatown, one thing they see is dilapidated housing. But the town’s boosters aren’t daunted, they’re seeking solutions.

“There are a lot of vacant housing and it’s in disrepair. So we’re trying to do what we can to make it better and bring people back because of the historical significance,” Mr. Womack said. “We still have descendants of the slaves living in the area and a historic school that’s still in operation. We’re trying to renovate old housing and repopulate the area and get more students into our school.”

The festival will be held on Feb. 9 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Mobile County Training School. The school is a historical site in Africatown.

“The school was founded by descendants of the Clotilda and the grounds that school sits on were donated by descendants of the Clotilda,” said Anderson Flen, president of the Mobile County Training School Alumni Association.

Mr. Flen graduated from the school in 1968. He said the association is proud to be part of the festival.

“Anything that happens at the school that is positive is always welcomed by the alumni and anytime you can tie in the history of the community in conjunction with the school, there’s always a positive energy that comes from the alumni,” he said.

The festival events will include two ceremonies. Other activities will include drumming by Wayne Curtis, a quilt display by Lorna Woods, who is Ms. Davis’ aunt, and an African-themed fashion show by Theola Bright.

Though the festival will highlight history and deep roots, Dr. Robertson believes it can also be a catalyst for Blacks going forward.

“People should remember this case and should study this case as an example of community building,” she said. “In chapter nine of the book, I address whether or not it would be more valid for Black people to pursue reparations or for Black people to engage in building their own communities. I happen to prefer both, but in case we never get reparations, we possess the talents and the skills and the knowledge to develop our own communities from within and we possess it because we inherited those things from our ancestors.”

For more information, contact: Joycelyn Davis, organizer via email: [email protected].

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