Timothy Meaher’s Illegal Wager and the Clotilda’s Final Voyage
In 1858, Mobile plantation owner Timothy Meaher bet $1,000 he could sneak slaves into America, 50 years after the trade was banned.
He soon hired Captain William Foster, who sailed to West Africa and bought 110 young people for $9,000 in gold. After a brutal six-week trip back, Foster burned the ship Clotilda to hide all proof.
When freed after the Civil War, 32 survivors pooled their cash to buy land from Meaher himself. They built Africatown, where they kept their customs and language alive for decades.
The recently found Clotilda wreck now sits in Mobile Bay, where you can see fragments of America’s last slave ship and honor those who built new lives from nothing.
Rich Shipyard Owner Bet $1,000 He Could Smuggle Slaves
Timothy Meaher, a rich Mobile shipyard owner, made a $1,000 bet with Northern businessmen in 1858. He claimed he could sneak Africans into America despite the 1807 ban on the slave trade.
Meaher paid $35,000 for the schooner Clotilda and hired William Foster as captain. The law against bringing in slaves carried the death penalty.
Southern plantation owners wanted to restart the slave trade because prices for slaves in America had gone way up.
The Captain Left Mobile With a Secret Mission
Captain Foster sailed from Mobile on March 4, 1860, with 12 crew members on the Clotilda. He carried $9,000 in gold coins to buy captives and stuff to turn the ship into a slave vessel.
Foster lied on his papers, saying he was taking lumber to St. Thomas.
The crew found out the truth when a hurricane hit near Bermuda. While fixing the ship, they saw the hidden deck built for human cargo.
They were too far into the trip to back out.
Foster Bought People at a West African Port
Foster reached Ouidah (now in Benin) on May 15, 1860, after sailing for 10 weeks. This busy port belonged to the Kingdom of Dahomey, which often attacked nearby villages to capture people for selling.
Foster met with King Glele’s men who showed him a warehouse full of about 4,000 captives. Foster picked 125 Africans and paid $100 for each person.
The king’s men counted the gold coins before handing over the captives.
Young People Torn From Their Homes Filled the Ship
The 110 people Foster bought were between 5 and 23 years old. They came from different groups like Yoruba, Isha, Nupe, Dendi, Fon, Hausa, and Shamba.
Most were taken during raids by Dahomey’s army, including an attack on the Banté region in April 1860.
Among them was 19-year-old Oluale Kossola (later called Cudjo Lewis), who was training to be a warrior when soldiers caught him. The captives spoke different languages and came from different cultures.
The Ship Raced Back to America With Human Cargo
Foster loaded only 110 captives after spotting patrol ships offshore. He hurried to leave before getting caught.
The Clotilda was fast, so the trip back to Alabama took just six weeks instead of three months. The captives spent their first 13 days locked in complete darkness below deck.
They got sick from the tight space and bad air. When a warship tried to catch them, a storm helped the Clotilda escape.
Foster kept sailing at top speed all the way to America.
Smugglers Hid Their Human Cargo Near Mobile
On July 9, 1860, Foster anchored the Clotilda at Point of Pines in Grand Bay at night. He rode a horse to tell Meaher they had arrived.
A tugboat pulled the schooner up the Spanish River to Twelve Mile Island where the captives moved to a steamboat called the Czar. The 110 Africans stayed hidden in thick canebrakes and swamps along the river for 11 days.
Federal officers looked for them, but Meaher knew the backwaters too well.
The Ship Went Up in Flames to Hide the Crime
Foster burned the Clotilda and sank it near Twelve Mile Island to get rid of any proof of his crime. He paid his crew double what he promised so they would keep quiet and told them to go back North.
People could see the burned hull at low tide for many years before it sank in the mud. News about the illegal slave ship spread fast.
Newspapers across the country wrote about it, but without the ship as evidence, officials couldn’t prove the crime happened.
Meaher Split Up the Africans Among His Friends
In late July 1860, Meaher and his partners divided the 110 captives. Timothy Meaher kept 30 Africans on his property at Magazine Point.
His brother James took eight, including Cudjo Lewis. Burns Meaher sent 20 to his land in Clarke County.
They sold about 25 captives to other buyers who put them on trains to farms farther inland. The Africans worked as boat hands, field workers, and house servants for five years until the Civil War ended.
The Law Failed to Punish the Smugglers
Federal prosecutors charged Meaher, Foster, and their helper John Dabney in 1861 for bringing in slaves illegally. Foster got a $1,000 fine for planning the slave trade trip, but judges threw out the whole case.
They had no physical evidence since the ship was burned, and the Civil War started, taking everyone’s attention. Meaher and Foster got away with their crime.
Years later, in 1890, they even bragged about what they did in newspaper interviews.
Survivors Built Their Own Town After Freedom
When freedom came in 1865, the Clotilda survivors wanted to go back to Africa but couldn’t afford the trip.
Cudjo Lewis asked Timothy Meaher for land as payment for what happened to them, but Meaher refused and wouldn’t even lower his price.
Thirty-two survivors saved money from selling vegetables and working in sawmills for $1 a day. In 1872, they bought land from the Meaher family and started African Town on a hill north of Mobile.
African Ways Lived On in Alabama Soil
The community picked Gumpa, a nobleman from Dahomey, as their chief. They set up two judges who used African laws to settle problems.
People in African Town spoke Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe, and Fon languages until the 1950s. Parents gave their children both African and American names.
Cudjo Lewis became the spokesman for the community.
Writers Emma Langdon Roche and Zora Neale Hurston talked with him about life in Africa and the terrible journey on the Clotilda. Lewis lived until 1935, one of the last survivors.
Today, their descendants still keep the community’s special history alive.
Visiting Clotilda (slave ship), Alabama
The Clotilda Museum at 2465 Winbush Street tells the story of Timothy Meaher’s illegal bet that brought the last slave ship to America in 1860. You need timed tickets bought online at clotilda.
com up to 60 days ahead. Admission costs $15 for adults, with discounts for seniors, students, military, and kids.
The museum opens Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
Monthly boat tours visit the actual wreck site for $35, plus free Heritage Lectures with advance reservations.
This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.
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