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-[♪]
-[birds chirping]
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[woman vocalizing]
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[Jeremy Ellis]
I am the voice of Pollee and Rose Allen.
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[Garry Lumbers]
I am the voice of Cudjo Lewis.
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[Ted Keeby Jr.]
I am the voice of Ossa Keeby.
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[♪]
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Clotilda is the only slave ship
that's been discovered
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that is essentially intact
as an archaeological site.
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[Delisha Marshall] To actually be able
to see it with your own eyes
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over 160 years later,
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six, seven generations,
here we are.
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We're still talking about the story.
We're still preserving it.
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I mean, seeing the actual ship
that our ancestors came in on.
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Man, it's quite amazing.
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[♪]
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[Dr. James Delgado] Today, we're heading
to the site of the Clotilda shipwreck.
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We're starting a series
of archaeological dives
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to assess the condition of the ship
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and the best way to preserve it.
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We've invited some of the descendants
to join us
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so that they can connect
with their ancestors,
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but also because
they're such an important part
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of the Clotilda's story.
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Just being able to be at the very site
of the location of Clotilda,
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knowing that this is where, essentially,
evidence wasn't destroyed,
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evidence that humans
were illegally transported here
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back in 1860.
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It's a very surreal moment.
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[Stacye Hathorn] We have very few
identified slave ships worldwide
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to begin with.
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And certainly, Clotilda is very unique
in my experience as an archaeologist
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to have a site
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to which you can
directly tie descendants.
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[Keeby Jr.]
I hope they find as much as they can
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{\an8}of our history down there,
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{\an8}and some kind of way
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to get it back up here
so we can see it.
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[Joseph Grinnan]
Primary is 28.
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[Mary Elliott] The Clotilda was the last
documented illegal slave ship
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to come to the United States.
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[♪]
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[Dr. Sylviane Diouf] The story
of the people who were on the Clotilda
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is the best documented story
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of the entire
Transatlantic slave trade.
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We are talking about
over 12 million people,
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and so far, there's just one ship
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where we can have the entire story.
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[Dr. Natalie S. Robertson]
The Clotilda cargo
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numbered 110 West African captives
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00:04:03,333 --> 00:04:06,917
being smuggled into the country
against their will.
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[Dr. Delgado]
Clotilda is the last ship
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known to have illegally brought slaves
to the United States
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following the abolition of the slave trade
in the United States in 1808.
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[Dr. Diouf]
The story goes that Timothy Meaher
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bet that he could bring
a ship full of Africans,
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and that's not the word he used,
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under the nose of the authorities.
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[Dr. Robertson] Timothy Meaher
was a wealthy plantation
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and shipyard owner.
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[Kamua Sadiki] And so they did it
using deception, very clever deception.
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This was a ship-building family.
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They built a ship that was not modeled
like the classical slave ship.
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[Altevese Rosario]
It was a lumber ship.
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It happened to be
a very fast lumber ship.
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And then, when the bet was made,
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it was re-outfitted for slaves.
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And the fact that it was fast,
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they thought that that was
obviously on their side.
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That was a benefit.
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[♪]
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Now, the fact is
Captain Foster kept a log.
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{\an8}[Foster]
Fitted out for the coast of Africa
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{\an8}to purchase a cargo of slaves.
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{\an8}Cleared and sailed from Mobile March 4thwith the following cargo
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{\an8}and $9,000 in gold.
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{\an8}Nine men for the mast,
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{\an8}first and second matesand myself.
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{\an8}[Elliott]
Captain Foster kept a log,
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but that's his story.
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The fact is
we also have the oral history,
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and those are the stories
that we have to get at.
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It helps us reveal the truth.
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00:06:02,667 --> 00:06:08,792
I am a fifth-generation descendant
of Pollee and Rose Allen
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who were both enslaved Africans
on the Clotilda.
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{\an8}There's not a lot written
about Pollee Allen,
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00:06:17,333 --> 00:06:22,000
and a lot of my information
that I've been able to capture
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has been through my research,
and my reading,
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and my grandmother,
and some of my cousins.
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{\an8}He was possibly
from the western part of Nigeria.
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His African name was Kupollee.
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00:06:41,959 --> 00:06:45,208
He was late teens, early 20s age
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and he was probably
a warrior of his tribe.
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00:06:50,792 --> 00:06:53,667
{\an8}I'm the great-grandchild
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{\an8}of James and Lottie Dennison.
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{\an8}I, um...
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know more about this
than I probably would have
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if it hadn't been for my mother.
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00:07:04,834 --> 00:07:08,417
She was the author of two memoirs
for James and Lottie.
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I am the great-great-granddaughter
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of James and Lottie Dennison.
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This is James' headstone.
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[Dennison]
Lottie was kidnapped.
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Her mother had sent her
on an errand one day.
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And Lottie was taken
and her parents never saw her again.
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We think she was around 18 or 19 years old
when she was captured.
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[Lorna Gail Woods]
My grandmama,
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she was the one that instilled in me
about history.
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Charlie had came over on the Clotilda.
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That was my great-great-grandfather.
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00:08:03,709 --> 00:08:05,834
He was the head of the Tarkar tribe.
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They were hunting for food.
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00:08:10,709 --> 00:08:13,417
But while they was
on their way back to the camp,
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{\an8}people were out huntin' for people
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{\an8}that they captured to take back
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or bring to America for slaves.
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00:08:24,417 --> 00:08:29,208
Cudjo is my grandmother's
great-grandfather.
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I'm his second generation,
she's the third.
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I'm the third great.
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There's a really wonderful book
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based on the oral history
of one of the survivors of the Clotilda
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who we know as Cudjo Lewis,
also went by the name Kazoola.
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[Rosario]
This touches me in such a way.
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It's amazing.
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It is just truly amazing...
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for us to have...
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our history documented so well.
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-To be so fortunate.
-Yeah.
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You know?
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{\an8}[Cudjo] Thankee, Jesus.Somebody come ask about Cudjo.
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00:09:16,417 --> 00:09:19,041
{\an8}I want to tellee somebody who I is,
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{\an8}so maybe dey goin de Afficky soil some day
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{\an8}and callee my name,
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{\an8}and somebody dere say,
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{\an8}"Yeah, I know Kossula."
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[Lumbers] Cudjo came from Benin
and he came from the Yoruba tribe.
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[Rosario]
And they were farmers.
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00:09:35,709 --> 00:09:38,917
[Lumbers]
So he was 17 going on 18,
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so he was going to become a warrior.
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He actually never had a chance
to see that happen
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because of the village got raided.
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00:09:50,875 --> 00:09:54,875
{\an8}[Cudjo] It about daybreak when de folksdat sleep get wake wid de noise
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{\an8}when de people of Dahomeybreakee de Great Gate.
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{\an8}I see de people gittee kill so fast.
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{\an8}Dey grab me, and tie de wrist.
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{\an8}I beg dem, please let me go backto my mama.
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[Lumbers]
They got him.
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He never did see his mom,
never did see his siblings.
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He never did see anybody after that.
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[Dr. Robertson] Generally,
Africans are captured
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200 or more miles in the interior,
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then forced to walk
that very long distance
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from the interior down to the coasts
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{\an8}where they are sold to Europeans,
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{\an8}and, later, American buyers.
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{\an8}[Cudjo]
All day dey make us walk.
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{\an8}De sun so hot.
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{\an8}We sleepee on de ground dat night.
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{\an8}I thinkee too about my folks and I cry.
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{\an8}All night I cry.
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{\an8}[Dr. Diouf]
For Cudjo and his group,
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{\an8}it was about five or six days.
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{\an8}And people were tied one to the other.
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There was very little food,
very little to drink.
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And once they arrived on the coast,
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they were held in prisons
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called barracoons, slave pens.
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And you have men, women, children
held in those barracoon settings
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for sometimes two months at a time.
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And you're sitting in that barracoon
disoriented,
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likely starved,
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likely in pain having been marched
all those miles.
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[Woods]
And once they got there,
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they said Charlie said,
"Oh, Lord."
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They knew then that they were at the place
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that they wasn't gonna never return
back to they camp
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where they had left.
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So, imagine living with that lack of hope,
but still trying to survive.
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[♪]
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{\an8}[Dr. Delgado]
We're here on the Mobile River...
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00:12:12,333 --> 00:12:14,709
at the site of the Clotilda shipwreck.
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Twenty-five.
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[Dr. Delgado] It's in pretty shallow water
between five and about 20 feet deep.
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00:12:21,250 --> 00:12:22,792
Fifteen, drop.
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00:12:23,667 --> 00:12:26,041
[Dr. Delgado]
I think we'll get a pretty good sense,
185
00:12:26,125 --> 00:12:28,208
not only of the condition of the wreck,
186
00:12:28,291 --> 00:12:30,834
but if the visibility has improved at all,
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we may be, on this dive,
able to-- the very first time--
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00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:36,834
to see Clotilda underwater.
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00:12:38,375 --> 00:12:40,792
[Grinnan] We're gonna jump in
and we're gonna find the bow,
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00:12:40,875 --> 00:12:43,041
start there, which is where
our buoy is located,
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00:12:43,125 --> 00:12:45,625
and then, likely,
we'll investigate the bow,
192
00:12:45,709 --> 00:12:49,417
then just take measurements and points
along that starboard side of the hull,
193
00:12:49,959 --> 00:12:52,041
and see what we find when we get there.
194
00:13:01,500 --> 00:13:04,583
The Mobile River is not
your ideal diving conditions.
195
00:13:04,667 --> 00:13:07,000
Yeah, there tends to be a lot of debris.
196
00:13:08,166 --> 00:13:10,542
We have seen snakes
and alligators on site.
197
00:13:11,208 --> 00:13:15,667
We typically don't have
any visibility at the site.
198
00:13:19,500 --> 00:13:21,417
Let me know when you get
on-- on bottom.
199
00:13:21,500 --> 00:13:24,583
[Grinnan] I'm on the wreck,but I'm not on the bottom.
200
00:13:24,667 --> 00:13:25,500
[man] Okay.
201
00:13:25,583 --> 00:13:28,709
[Grinnan] Trying to figure outwhere on the wreck I am.
202
00:13:29,375 --> 00:13:32,291
He's on the wreck,
he landed on some of the debris
203
00:13:32,375 --> 00:13:34,625
that's on top of the wreck right now.
204
00:13:36,625 --> 00:13:40,041
[Dr. Delgado]
Any dive into this wreck is risky.
205
00:13:41,291 --> 00:13:44,834
Any place where the ship
has been splintered or broken,
206
00:13:44,917 --> 00:13:47,583
you now have very sharp projectiles
207
00:13:47,667 --> 00:13:50,834
that can go through a wet suit
like a knife would.
208
00:13:50,917 --> 00:13:53,417
[Grinnan]
Got some pretty heavy structure here.
209
00:13:53,500 --> 00:13:55,500
It can be disconcerting
210
00:13:55,583 --> 00:13:58,542
when we come up along a tree
or piece of debris,
211
00:13:58,625 --> 00:14:00,625
or even a loose timber on the vessel,
you know.
212
00:14:00,709 --> 00:14:03,875
You go over it, not under it,
so you don't get anything entangled.
213
00:14:03,959 --> 00:14:05,500
[water sloshing]
214
00:14:09,250 --> 00:14:12,166
-How's visibility?
-[Grinnan] Uh...
215
00:14:12,250 --> 00:14:15,875
Right now, it kinda looks likechocolate milk.
216
00:14:15,959 --> 00:14:18,500
It's, uh... pretty dark.
217
00:14:19,458 --> 00:14:23,375
A lot of particulates in the waterobscuring your vision.
218
00:14:26,083 --> 00:14:28,959
Certainly well articulated here.
219
00:14:29,041 --> 00:14:32,375
There's a lot of hull plankingin pretty good shape.
220
00:14:33,250 --> 00:14:36,083
The integrity of this portion of the wreck
is pretty-- pretty sound?
221
00:14:36,166 --> 00:14:38,709
[Grinnan]
Yeah. I think I'm coming up.
222
00:14:38,792 --> 00:14:40,458
[man] All right.
Diver coming up.
223
00:14:43,250 --> 00:14:46,000
All right. Diver up.
Diver okay.
224
00:14:48,333 --> 00:14:52,417
[Grinnan] So today, we actually had
what we would consider
225
00:14:52,500 --> 00:14:54,959
great visibility,
about four to six inches.
226
00:14:55,041 --> 00:14:57,458
I have never seen the vessel until today.
227
00:14:58,625 --> 00:15:02,417
We focused most of today orienting around
the outside of the vessel,
228
00:15:02,500 --> 00:15:04,125
focusing on that outer hull planking
229
00:15:04,208 --> 00:15:07,125
and focusing on the condition
of the timbers themselves.
230
00:15:10,041 --> 00:15:12,500
The vessel itself
is incredibly interesting,
231
00:15:12,583 --> 00:15:16,959
but, really, when you pair that
with the story of the Clotilda
232
00:15:17,041 --> 00:15:21,041
and-- and, you know,
the individuals brought over,
233
00:15:21,125 --> 00:15:25,041
and then you talk to the descendants,
it really kinda--
234
00:15:25,125 --> 00:15:27,667
it's awe inspiring,
it's quite humbling.
235
00:15:27,750 --> 00:15:29,542
You can't separate the two.
236
00:15:30,083 --> 00:15:33,083
[♪]
237
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,083
[Marshall] Gumpa is my great-
great-great-grandfather,
238
00:15:43,166 --> 00:15:45,500
on my father's side.
239
00:15:45,583 --> 00:15:48,375
So I'm his great-great-
great-grandaughter.
240
00:15:50,208 --> 00:15:54,250
And he was from
what is now known as Benin.
241
00:15:55,500 --> 00:15:59,792
{\an8}Back when he was alive,
it was the Kingdom of Dahomey.
242
00:15:59,875 --> 00:16:04,083
{\an8}So around 1859, 1860,
in Dahomey,
243
00:16:04,166 --> 00:16:07,917
they were a very turbulent nation.
244
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:12,125
So they would actually go to war
with surrounding countries
245
00:16:12,208 --> 00:16:13,875
and other tribes,
246
00:16:14,291 --> 00:16:16,917
and they would take the people captive
247
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:21,709
and later sell them to whoever came
to the-- the Slave Coast.
248
00:16:24,208 --> 00:16:26,709
[Dr. Robertson]
The buyers like Captain Foster
249
00:16:26,792 --> 00:16:30,542
{\an8}would arrive there in Whydah,
250
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:35,834
{\an8}and negotiate sales for Africans
251
00:16:35,917 --> 00:16:38,709
through a series of appointed officials.
252
00:16:39,792 --> 00:16:42,250
{\an8}[Foster]
Arrived at Whydah May 15th.
253
00:16:42,333 --> 00:16:44,458
{\an8}Having gotten ashore safely,
254
00:16:44,542 --> 00:16:48,291
{\an8}I met with interpreters who gave mecharge of three natives
255
00:16:48,375 --> 00:16:50,834
{\an8}who put me in a hammock with canopy
256
00:16:50,917 --> 00:16:54,834
{\an8}and carried me into the city of Whydahsix miles distant.
257
00:16:54,917 --> 00:16:58,583
{\an8}Upon arrival, I foundsplendid accommodations.
258
00:16:59,500 --> 00:17:02,792
Slavers were treated very well,
you know.
259
00:17:02,875 --> 00:17:06,166
And Foster was actually
very surprised
260
00:17:06,250 --> 00:17:10,000
at the level of comfort of Whydah.
261
00:17:10,875 --> 00:17:13,083
{\an8}[Foster] I went to seethe King of Dahomey.
262
00:17:13,458 --> 00:17:16,834
{\an8}We went to the warehousewhere they had in confinement
263
00:17:16,917 --> 00:17:19,750
{\an8}4,000 captives in a state of nudity
264
00:17:20,125 --> 00:17:24,959
{\an8}from which they gave me libertyto select 125 as mine,
265
00:17:25,250 --> 00:17:28,917
{\an8}for which I agreed to pay $100 per head.
266
00:17:29,417 --> 00:17:31,750
And through a translator,
267
00:17:31,834 --> 00:17:35,667
he told the people to stand in circles.
268
00:17:38,125 --> 00:17:40,333
{\an8}[Cudjo] Dey makeeverybody stand in a ring,
269
00:17:40,875 --> 00:17:42,625
{\an8}'bout ten folks in each ring.
270
00:17:43,166 --> 00:17:45,875
{\an8}De man by dey self,de woman by dey self.
271
00:17:46,291 --> 00:17:48,375
{\an8}Den de white man lookee and lookee.
272
00:17:48,917 --> 00:17:51,083
{\an8}He look hard at de skin
273
00:17:51,166 --> 00:17:53,333
{\an8}and de feet and de legs
274
00:17:53,417 --> 00:17:54,917
{\an8}and in de mouth.
275
00:17:54,959 --> 00:17:56,333
{\an8}Den he choose.
276
00:17:56,417 --> 00:17:59,458
{\an8}Every time he choose a man,he choose a woman.
277
00:18:00,709 --> 00:18:02,834
{\an8}We all lonesome for our home.
278
00:18:03,291 --> 00:18:05,667
{\an8}We don't know what goin' become of us.
279
00:18:07,500 --> 00:18:09,417
[Joycelyn Davis]
When you hear about the story,
280
00:18:09,500 --> 00:18:11,208
you hear about the Door of No Return.
281
00:18:14,333 --> 00:18:16,417
You had to forget where you came from,
282
00:18:16,500 --> 00:18:18,083
forget your family,
283
00:18:18,834 --> 00:18:20,500
forget your religion.
284
00:18:20,959 --> 00:18:23,291
You just had to forget
everything that you knew.
285
00:18:27,458 --> 00:18:28,792
Going through that door is--
286
00:18:28,875 --> 00:18:31,917
is just saying that
you would never return back,
287
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:35,375
and that just gives me so many chills.
288
00:18:40,250 --> 00:18:42,834
[Elliott]
It was their last step that they did
289
00:18:42,917 --> 00:18:45,625
to prepare them to embark on that ship.
290
00:18:46,291 --> 00:18:51,000
And then they're taken by small boats
into the ships waiting off the coastline.
291
00:18:51,417 --> 00:18:54,667
You get to that coast and you see that
beast of the ocean for the first time
292
00:18:54,750 --> 00:18:57,875
and picture that you see ships
waiting off that coastline.
293
00:18:59,875 --> 00:19:02,750
And they're waiting to fill their hull
with these people.
294
00:19:03,792 --> 00:19:05,041
One of them is you.
295
00:19:16,333 --> 00:19:18,208
[Hathorn]
This is an incredible story.
296
00:19:18,834 --> 00:19:22,500
The Clotilda story
has international significance.
297
00:19:23,792 --> 00:19:26,500
This is the first phase
that we're working on,
298
00:19:26,583 --> 00:19:28,417
the investigation that we're doing.
299
00:19:28,500 --> 00:19:30,959
We're collecting
all the scientific information we can
300
00:19:31,041 --> 00:19:34,333
to find out the best way to stabilize
and preserve the vessel.
301
00:19:35,417 --> 00:19:37,583
Today, we're doing a sonar image
302
00:19:37,667 --> 00:19:40,542
so we can get an idea
of how the dynamic environment,
303
00:19:40,625 --> 00:19:43,667
the storm events, things like that,
are affecting the shipwreck.
304
00:19:43,750 --> 00:19:45,625
[man] That's it.
Clear the deck, please.
305
00:19:48,208 --> 00:19:50,500
[Hathorn] One thing
we're trying to get a handle on
306
00:19:50,583 --> 00:19:52,375
if we're going to preserve in situ,
307
00:19:52,458 --> 00:19:54,875
we need to know what we need to do
to keep that--
308
00:19:54,959 --> 00:19:56,834
keep it from deteriorating further.
309
00:19:58,375 --> 00:20:00,834
[Dr. Delgado]
We need to process the sonar results
310
00:20:00,917 --> 00:20:03,166
so that we can see our path forward.
311
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,667
[bird screeching]
312
00:20:16,542 --> 00:20:18,917
[Dr. Diouf]
So for the first 13 days,
313
00:20:19,375 --> 00:20:22,625
the people were held in darkness
314
00:20:22,709 --> 00:20:25,000
in chains in the hold.
315
00:20:27,333 --> 00:20:29,083
{\an8}[Cudjo]
Soon we get in de ship.
316
00:20:29,166 --> 00:20:31,417
{\an8}Dey make us lay down in de dark.
317
00:20:31,500 --> 00:20:33,709
{\an8}We stay dere 13 days.
318
00:20:34,125 --> 00:20:35,875
{\an8}Dey don't give us much to eat.
319
00:20:36,500 --> 00:20:37,917
{\an8}Me so thirst.
320
00:20:38,208 --> 00:20:40,625
{\an8}Dey give us a little bit of watertwice a day.
321
00:20:41,375 --> 00:20:44,417
{\an8}Oh, Lord, Lord, we so thirst.
322
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:49,834
It's pitch black.
323
00:20:51,458 --> 00:20:53,625
You are chained to another person.
324
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,917
Most often, the men
were chained to one another.
325
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:58,667
On ships, there were--
326
00:20:58,750 --> 00:21:02,041
women and children
had more ability to move about,
327
00:21:02,125 --> 00:21:04,291
but they were still contained.
328
00:21:04,792 --> 00:21:06,291
{\an8}Cramped conditions,
329
00:21:06,375 --> 00:21:08,625
{\an8}using the bathroom where you ate,
330
00:21:08,709 --> 00:21:10,125
{\an8}where you laid.
331
00:21:10,917 --> 00:21:14,417
[Dr. Diouf] So you can imagine,
you know, the horror of the situation,
332
00:21:14,500 --> 00:21:19,291
and the filthiness of the--
of the place as well.
333
00:21:19,375 --> 00:21:22,750
{\an8}I can imagine they were
prayin' and singin'.
334
00:21:23,875 --> 00:21:27,625
They was afraid of being killed
or throwed overboard.
335
00:21:28,333 --> 00:21:30,500
[Marshall]
They didn't speak the same languages,
336
00:21:30,583 --> 00:21:32,750
they didn't practice the same religions.
337
00:21:33,792 --> 00:21:36,375
But even without words,
338
00:21:36,458 --> 00:21:40,667
they knew, each one knew
what the others were feeling.
339
00:21:42,417 --> 00:21:45,917
They were all going through
the same horror,
340
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,125
the same agony,
341
00:21:48,208 --> 00:21:51,542
the same separation, you know,
from everything that they knew,
342
00:21:51,625 --> 00:21:52,959
from their loved ones,
343
00:21:53,041 --> 00:21:56,875
and that created the birth of a family.
344
00:21:59,208 --> 00:22:00,834
{\an8}[Cudjo]
On de 13th day,
345
00:22:00,917 --> 00:22:02,709
{\an8}dey fetchee us on de deck.
346
00:22:03,417 --> 00:22:06,250
{\an8}We so weak, we ain't ableto walk ourselves,
347
00:22:06,709 --> 00:22:08,583
{\an8}so de crew take each one
348
00:22:08,667 --> 00:22:10,500
{\an8}and walk around de deck
349
00:22:10,583 --> 00:22:13,375
{\an8}till we get so we can walk ourselves.
350
00:22:14,542 --> 00:22:17,709
[Dr. Roberson] Typically,
they would allow Africans to come up
351
00:22:17,792 --> 00:22:22,208
{\an8}to exercise their limbs
or take on some fresh air.
352
00:22:23,709 --> 00:22:29,000
But they wouldn't allow them
to stay on deck for long periods of time.
353
00:22:29,083 --> 00:22:31,875
They would keep them shackled below deck.
354
00:22:34,083 --> 00:22:36,333
How do you hold on to your humanity
355
00:22:36,417 --> 00:22:38,625
under the most inhumane circumstance?
356
00:22:39,125 --> 00:22:41,625
How do you will yourself
to live through that?
357
00:22:44,125 --> 00:22:47,750
It's this idea that you can break
my bones, you can strip me down,
358
00:22:47,834 --> 00:22:50,417
but what you're not gonna do
is you're not gonna take away
359
00:22:50,500 --> 00:22:53,166
my understanding
of what it is to be a human.
360
00:22:57,500 --> 00:22:59,583
[man]
Buoy, drop!
361
00:23:00,750 --> 00:23:02,709
[Dr. Delgado]
So what we're out here doing today
362
00:23:02,792 --> 00:23:06,250
is that we're actually going to attempt
to enter the hold of the Clotilda
363
00:23:06,333 --> 00:23:08,000
where the captives were kept.
364
00:23:08,083 --> 00:23:11,083
[♪]
365
00:23:11,875 --> 00:23:14,125
[Dr. Delgado]
What makes this very powerful,
366
00:23:14,208 --> 00:23:17,291
and it's chilling in this aspect,
367
00:23:17,375 --> 00:23:23,000
is that that hold where those 110 people
were placed survives.
368
00:23:25,166 --> 00:23:28,542
So that as we go into it,
369
00:23:28,625 --> 00:23:32,208
we have the understanding
of being the first people in there
370
00:23:32,291 --> 00:23:34,875
since those captives.
371
00:23:34,959 --> 00:23:37,959
[♪]
372
00:23:38,375 --> 00:23:39,750
[Dr. Delgado]
He's gonna go into the water,
373
00:23:39,834 --> 00:23:41,834
and what he's going do
is he's taking a look
374
00:23:41,917 --> 00:23:46,750
over or in by feel into the hull,
seeing what he can with the visibility.
375
00:23:49,417 --> 00:23:50,458
Yep.
376
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:57,333
[Dr. Delgado] And so his standing
rules of engagement on this dive
377
00:23:57,417 --> 00:24:00,875
are not to go into the hold any further
378
00:24:00,959 --> 00:24:03,875
than he can reasonably
lean over or take a look at.
379
00:24:04,250 --> 00:24:06,000
We don't want him snagged.
380
00:24:12,959 --> 00:24:15,125
[Grinnan]
Can you give me a little slack?
381
00:24:15,208 --> 00:24:17,667
Yep. A little slack, Mike.
382
00:24:21,834 --> 00:24:22,959
Understood.
383
00:24:23,542 --> 00:24:25,458
Diver's going to the inside of the vessel.
384
00:24:26,375 --> 00:24:27,917
[Grinnan]
This is awful.
385
00:24:28,208 --> 00:24:29,667
[Dr. Delgado]
As we move along,
386
00:24:29,750 --> 00:24:33,125
we go into a more open space,
and at this point,
387
00:24:33,208 --> 00:24:37,375
the hull is widening from 18 feet
to the full 23 feet.
388
00:24:38,041 --> 00:24:40,667
And this is the main cargo hold.
389
00:24:41,166 --> 00:24:44,583
And that's when you realize
that what you're looking at
390
00:24:44,667 --> 00:24:48,500
is the place of confinement
for the Clotilda captives.
391
00:24:49,917 --> 00:24:51,000
Hold on one moment.
392
00:24:54,458 --> 00:24:57,125
[Grinnan] We did go
a little bit inside of the hull,
393
00:24:57,208 --> 00:24:59,792
and we see that there is probably
394
00:24:59,875 --> 00:25:02,417
anywhere from a foot or two
to the mud line
395
00:25:02,500 --> 00:25:04,208
in a number of spots inside the hull
396
00:25:04,291 --> 00:25:07,000
and then a couple of feet of mud
down into the bottom of the hull.
397
00:25:07,667 --> 00:25:11,583
And everything seems to be very similar
to what the sonar imagery is showing us.
398
00:25:17,333 --> 00:25:20,041
[Hathorn]
It seems to be pretty stable.
399
00:25:20,125 --> 00:25:23,542
That's good news that we don't have
a lot of sediment that's moved off of it.
400
00:25:23,625 --> 00:25:26,208
That bodes well
for the preservation of the wreck.
401
00:25:28,208 --> 00:25:32,041
I can almost imagine Ossa saying,
402
00:25:32,125 --> 00:25:34,417
"I'm glad to see you, grandson."
403
00:25:34,500 --> 00:25:35,709
[chuckles]
404
00:25:35,792 --> 00:25:37,208
"Glad to see you.
405
00:25:37,291 --> 00:25:39,500
This is where they--
This is where they put us.
406
00:25:39,583 --> 00:25:41,166
This is what they did to us.
407
00:25:41,750 --> 00:25:43,917
And tried to destroy the evidence."
408
00:25:44,667 --> 00:25:46,542
-[Ellis] We're gonna do--
-[Keeby Jr.] We gonna-- Yeah.
409
00:25:46,625 --> 00:25:48,834
We gonna do fine
and I know they're proud of us.
410
00:25:48,917 --> 00:25:51,542
-[Ellis] We're gonna do all right.
-[Keeby Jr.] They're very proud of us.
411
00:25:51,625 --> 00:25:53,625
-Drink to you, Grandpa.
-[Ellis] We're here for them.
412
00:25:53,709 --> 00:25:55,125
[laughing]
413
00:25:57,583 --> 00:26:01,709
From the start, what we've been doing,
because this water is so murky,
414
00:26:01,792 --> 00:26:05,000
is we've been using sound
to map it all with the sonar.
415
00:26:05,083 --> 00:26:08,291
Of all of the ships engaged in this trade,
416
00:26:08,375 --> 00:26:11,875
the-- the thousands over the 400 years,
417
00:26:11,959 --> 00:26:17,000
to date, this is the only one found now
and identified
418
00:26:17,083 --> 00:26:18,875
that is so intact
419
00:26:18,959 --> 00:26:22,917
that we're the first people in that space
since your ancestors left.
420
00:26:23,959 --> 00:26:26,959
[♪]
421
00:26:28,542 --> 00:26:31,458
And this 500-square-foot area,
422
00:26:31,542 --> 00:26:35,041
that's the area
in which people were confined.
423
00:26:35,792 --> 00:26:37,083
Has to be.
424
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,000
[♪]
425
00:26:41,834 --> 00:26:43,834
So between these two spaces,
426
00:26:44,417 --> 00:26:49,000
23, 18, 26.
427
00:26:50,583 --> 00:26:52,458
-[Marshall] Right. Yeah.
-[Keeby Jr.] Mm-hmm.
428
00:26:52,542 --> 00:26:54,750
[Keeby Jr.]
Wow. Wow.
429
00:26:55,875 --> 00:26:59,000
[♪]
430
00:27:07,625 --> 00:27:10,875
[Keeby Jr.]
I mean, you had to lay down flat.
431
00:27:11,333 --> 00:27:14,083
-You couldn't hardly turn and you--
-That's what I don't--
432
00:27:14,166 --> 00:27:17,000
And you had to stay
in that position for...
433
00:27:18,041 --> 00:27:21,875
-Until they let you up on board.
-Until they let you up on board, uh-huh.
434
00:27:21,959 --> 00:27:25,375
[Dr. Roberson] And this represents
the hold of the Clotilda,
435
00:27:25,875 --> 00:27:29,166
which, as you can see,
is not a very large space.
436
00:27:29,250 --> 00:27:31,083
even for the few of us.
437
00:27:31,166 --> 00:27:34,875
Imagine 110 captives
438
00:27:34,959 --> 00:27:36,750
aboard that vessel.
439
00:27:37,166 --> 00:27:39,417
It's smaller than my basement.
[laughs]
440
00:27:39,500 --> 00:27:43,834
So, that really puts, um...
a lot of things in perspective.
441
00:27:43,917 --> 00:27:48,208
And then there's only six of us in here,
so to have 110 people--
442
00:27:48,291 --> 00:27:50,417
[Dr. Roberson]
You also have to keep in mind, too,
443
00:27:50,500 --> 00:27:54,125
that, you know, I don't think
we really have any portal holes
444
00:27:54,208 --> 00:27:56,125
for fresh air to pass through.
445
00:27:56,208 --> 00:27:58,125
-You only have the hatch.
-Only the hatch.
446
00:27:58,208 --> 00:27:59,333
Right.
447
00:27:59,417 --> 00:28:04,000
Well, that makes me,
uh, fighting mad now that, uh,
448
00:28:04,083 --> 00:28:06,500
our ancestors went through that,
you know.
449
00:28:07,291 --> 00:28:10,500
It-- you know, it makes you get
kind of emotional.
450
00:28:12,709 --> 00:28:17,834
The slave ship Clotilda arrives in Mobile
451
00:28:17,917 --> 00:28:21,709
July 9, 1860.
452
00:28:22,291 --> 00:28:23,792
{\an8}[Foster] July 9th.
453
00:28:23,875 --> 00:28:26,959
{\an8}I transferred my slavesto a river steamboat
454
00:28:27,041 --> 00:28:31,458
{\an8}and sent them up into the canebraketo hide them until further disposal.
455
00:28:32,959 --> 00:28:36,625
I then burned my schoonerto the water's edge and sank her.
456
00:28:37,625 --> 00:28:41,083
Foster took the Clotilda to a remote place
457
00:28:41,500 --> 00:28:44,166
and he torched it.
458
00:28:44,250 --> 00:28:48,083
He actually, in theory, could be hanged.
459
00:28:48,166 --> 00:28:52,166
So he had to destroy the evidence.
460
00:28:54,500 --> 00:28:57,417
[Dr. Roberson]
The Piracy Act of 1820
461
00:28:57,500 --> 00:29:00,750
made smuggling Africans into the country
462
00:29:00,834 --> 00:29:03,875
punishable by death by hanging.
463
00:29:05,709 --> 00:29:09,959
So they hid Cudjo and his co-captives,
the Clotilda Africans,
464
00:29:10,041 --> 00:29:11,834
in the canebreaks.
465
00:29:11,917 --> 00:29:14,834
[♪]
466
00:29:14,917 --> 00:29:17,166
[Dr. Diouf]
They stayed in the swamps.
467
00:29:17,250 --> 00:29:19,166
There were mosquitoes.
468
00:29:19,250 --> 00:29:20,959
They had little to eat.
469
00:29:21,041 --> 00:29:24,041
[♪]
470
00:29:26,834 --> 00:29:28,041
[Rosario]
How about this?
471
00:29:29,583 --> 00:29:31,875
-You're shepherded off of a boat--
-[Marshall] Uh-huh.
472
00:29:31,959 --> 00:29:32,875
You're in this.
473
00:29:33,375 --> 00:29:35,208
-That's crazy.
-It is.
474
00:29:35,291 --> 00:29:37,166
A hundred sixty years ago.
475
00:29:38,458 --> 00:29:41,125
They had no idea what--
476
00:29:41,208 --> 00:29:42,792
-What was ahead.
-Yeah.
477
00:29:42,875 --> 00:29:45,542
Away from family,
away from home.
478
00:29:46,625 --> 00:29:48,250
That's amazing.
479
00:29:50,542 --> 00:29:51,750
It is.
480
00:29:55,166 --> 00:29:58,166
[♪]
481
00:30:01,500 --> 00:30:04,125
[Dr. Delgado] Here,
where Captain Foster burned Clotilda,
482
00:30:04,208 --> 00:30:06,166
and where it still rests today,
483
00:30:06,667 --> 00:30:09,083
we're on a mission to recover
scientific samples
484
00:30:09,166 --> 00:30:10,542
from the wreck itself.
485
00:30:13,917 --> 00:30:16,542
What we're doing is documenting
positions of the things,
486
00:30:16,625 --> 00:30:18,000
and then recovering them.
487
00:30:18,542 --> 00:30:21,083
Even if the entire ship
remains in the river,
488
00:30:21,166 --> 00:30:23,875
pieces of it,
artifacts that speak to the vessel
489
00:30:23,959 --> 00:30:27,625
and to what happened on it
being available for people to look at.
490
00:30:34,709 --> 00:30:38,625
[Dr. Diouf]
If those items are found,
491
00:30:38,709 --> 00:30:44,333
it will-- it will be the first time
that we have not only these items,
492
00:30:44,417 --> 00:30:48,959
but the story of the people
who actually used them,
493
00:30:49,041 --> 00:30:50,667
and then the descendants.
494
00:30:52,583 --> 00:30:54,041
Don't stop, Daniel.
495
00:30:54,125 --> 00:30:56,583
Yeah, that'd be great.
Joe, try not to move around, Joe.
496
00:30:56,667 --> 00:30:59,667
[Dr. Delgado] When we were working
and picking samples
497
00:30:59,750 --> 00:31:03,709
out of piles of broken wood,
it was a selective process
498
00:31:03,792 --> 00:31:06,542
because we're looking for things
that are diagnostic.
499
00:31:06,667 --> 00:31:08,291
They're gonna tell us a story.
500
00:31:11,291 --> 00:31:13,875
It's not ironic
that the four of us are here
501
00:31:13,959 --> 00:31:16,000
witnessing this at this point in time,
502
00:31:16,625 --> 00:31:20,709
and there's a responsibility
that we carry.
503
00:31:20,792 --> 00:31:24,875
Um, and I think there's also a privilege
to be able to even see this.
504
00:31:24,959 --> 00:31:26,333
-Oh, yes.
-To witness this.
505
00:31:26,417 --> 00:31:29,583
-Oh, yes. An honor and a privilege.
-It is.
506
00:31:29,667 --> 00:31:32,500
I think we might be the only four people
507
00:31:32,583 --> 00:31:35,709
who've ever seen,
like, the actual ship...
508
00:31:35,792 --> 00:31:38,250
-Yes.
-...our ancestors came over on,
509
00:31:38,333 --> 00:31:42,041
so that's really a unique situation.
510
00:31:44,458 --> 00:31:47,458
[♪]
511
00:31:49,792 --> 00:31:52,625
[Dr. Roberson]
The Mobile custom officials
512
00:31:52,709 --> 00:31:57,959
have discovered that the Clotilda
has come in to the port
513
00:31:58,041 --> 00:32:03,250
under the cloak of night in a--
in a very stealthy way.
514
00:32:03,750 --> 00:32:06,750
Timothy Meaher was subsequently arrested.
515
00:32:07,792 --> 00:32:10,959
[Dr. Diouf] In the end,
his case was dismissed
516
00:32:11,041 --> 00:32:13,959
because there was no proof,
there was no ship,
517
00:32:14,041 --> 00:32:15,917
and there were no people.
518
00:32:16,709 --> 00:32:21,417
Ultimately,
Timothy Meaher won his bet.
519
00:32:23,959 --> 00:32:27,750
And Foster was fined $1,000
520
00:32:27,834 --> 00:32:32,500
because he had not paid duties
on the "imports."
521
00:32:34,625 --> 00:32:38,834
[Dr. Roberson] A thousand dollars
for not paying his customs duties,
522
00:32:38,917 --> 00:32:44,166
not for victimizing
110 West African captives
523
00:32:44,250 --> 00:32:48,542
who were brought to Mobile
against their will.
524
00:32:50,375 --> 00:32:53,375
[♪]
525
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:55,917
{\an8}[Cudjo]
Our grief so heavy.
526
00:32:56,417 --> 00:32:58,417
{\an8}Look like we can't stand it.
527
00:32:59,208 --> 00:33:03,291
{\an8}I think maybe I die in my sleepwhen I dream about my mama.
528
00:33:04,250 --> 00:33:05,250
{\an8}Oh, Lord.
529
00:33:10,291 --> 00:33:13,500
[Keeby Jr.]
It's a quote Ossa said,
530
00:33:14,125 --> 00:33:17,250
"I goes back to Africa every night
in my dreams."
531
00:33:19,959 --> 00:33:21,959
It was traumatic in so many ways
532
00:33:22,041 --> 00:33:24,625
because they were
kidnapped from their home
533
00:33:24,709 --> 00:33:29,667
and brought to a-- a strange place
where they didn't know nobody.
534
00:33:29,750 --> 00:33:32,166
They just spoke the language
among themselves.
535
00:33:32,250 --> 00:33:35,583
But they knew what they wanted to do,
they wanted to go back to Africa.
536
00:33:35,667 --> 00:33:38,125
And they had no way of getting back.
537
00:33:42,083 --> 00:33:45,041
[♪]
538
00:33:46,542 --> 00:33:49,250
[Dr. Diouf]
The Africans were auctioned off
539
00:33:49,333 --> 00:33:51,250
to a number of people.
540
00:33:51,333 --> 00:33:55,750
Seventy-six were divided
between Timothy Meaher,
541
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,917
his two brothers,
and-- and William Foster.
542
00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:04,375
[Frazier]
Lottie worked in the house.
543
00:34:04,458 --> 00:34:07,083
Housecleaning, cooking,
you know, whatever,
544
00:34:07,166 --> 00:34:09,417
but she was in the house.
545
00:34:09,500 --> 00:34:13,333
And, you know, for that time,
that was unusual
546
00:34:13,417 --> 00:34:16,291
because she was practically
right off the boat.
547
00:34:17,917 --> 00:34:21,500
The Meaher family were very prominent
in the steamboat industry here.
548
00:34:21,583 --> 00:34:26,583
And I do know that Pollee Allen
worked on those steamboats,
549
00:34:26,667 --> 00:34:29,834
and they would be deckhands
and that sort of thing.
550
00:34:32,500 --> 00:34:34,417
{\an8}[Cudjo]
Captain Jim gottee five boats
551
00:34:34,500 --> 00:34:36,667
{\an8}run from de Mobile to de Montgomery.
552
00:34:37,250 --> 00:34:38,500
{\an8}Oh, Lord!
553
00:34:38,875 --> 00:34:40,333
{\an8}I workee so hard!
554
00:34:41,083 --> 00:34:43,291
{\an8}Every landing.You understand me?
555
00:34:43,375 --> 00:34:45,375
{\an8}I tote wood on de boat.
556
00:34:45,750 --> 00:34:47,041
{\an8}Dey have freight,
557
00:34:47,583 --> 00:34:49,417
{\an8}and we have to tote dat too.
558
00:34:50,500 --> 00:34:52,709
{\an8}Oh, Lord, I so tired!
559
00:35:00,083 --> 00:35:04,125
[Lumbers] They were slaves for
about five years until the war was over.
560
00:35:04,208 --> 00:35:10,041
They found out that they were free
around April 12, 1865.
561
00:35:12,333 --> 00:35:14,583
{\an8}[Cudjo] After dey free us,you understand me?
562
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:16,333
{\an8}We so glad.
563
00:35:16,417 --> 00:35:20,875
{\an8}We make de drum and beat itlike in de Africa soil.
564
00:35:25,458 --> 00:35:27,625
The goal was always to go home.
565
00:35:27,709 --> 00:35:32,333
They always wanted to go back home.
566
00:35:32,417 --> 00:35:35,667
When they found out that they, um...
567
00:35:35,750 --> 00:35:38,417
that they were free,
they went to the Meaher family
568
00:35:38,500 --> 00:35:42,417
and said, "Hey, we want to purchase
our way back to Africa."
569
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,458
{\an8}[Cudjo] Dey say,"Cudjo, you always talkee good,
570
00:35:47,542 --> 00:35:51,834
{\an8}so you go tell de white man,and tellee dem what de African say."
571
00:35:55,625 --> 00:35:58,333
[Lumbers]
They chose Cudjo to be the leader
572
00:35:58,417 --> 00:36:01,041
because of, uh--
he had a way with words.
573
00:36:01,125 --> 00:36:03,542
-Right.
-He wasn't scared to go--
574
00:36:03,625 --> 00:36:05,625
-Right.
-Go ask for what he wanted.
575
00:36:05,709 --> 00:36:08,208
-Absolutely.
-Mr. Meaher told them that,
576
00:36:08,291 --> 00:36:10,250
"I'm not gonna give you nothin' for free."
577
00:36:10,834 --> 00:36:14,875
{\an8}Mr. Meaher told them,
"You not goin' back to Africa.
578
00:36:14,959 --> 00:36:18,583
{\an8}You might as well make the best
out of this situation
579
00:36:18,667 --> 00:36:20,500
{\an8}because you not goin' back."
580
00:36:20,583 --> 00:36:25,333
So what he did, he went back to the group
and told them what Mr. Meaher said.
581
00:36:26,125 --> 00:36:29,083
And so they all sat down
and came up with a plan.
582
00:36:30,792 --> 00:36:32,583
{\an8}[Cudjo]
We workee hard and save,
583
00:36:32,667 --> 00:36:34,667
{\an8}and eat molassee and bread,
584
00:36:34,750 --> 00:36:36,667
{\an8}and buy de land from de Meaher.
585
00:36:37,709 --> 00:36:41,000
{\an8}Dey don't take off one five centfrom de price for us.
586
00:36:41,542 --> 00:36:44,583
{\an8}But we pay it all and take de land.
587
00:36:46,500 --> 00:36:49,208
They couldn't go back home so they had
to make the best of the best.
588
00:36:49,291 --> 00:36:51,208
"Okay, we can't go back to Africa,
589
00:36:51,291 --> 00:36:53,250
so we'll make our own Africatown."
590
00:36:59,583 --> 00:37:03,625
[Keeby Jr.] I have a deed
where Ossa Keeby purchased
591
00:37:03,709 --> 00:37:06,291
the land from the Meahers.
592
00:37:06,375 --> 00:37:08,250
I have that deed.
Uh-huh.
593
00:37:08,709 --> 00:37:12,709
I think he purchased that land
for about $150.
594
00:37:13,375 --> 00:37:15,959
Something like that.
Which was a lot of money back then.
595
00:37:16,041 --> 00:37:17,333
[chuckles]
596
00:37:17,417 --> 00:37:21,208
And-- And, uh, Cudjo Lewis
had purchased land too.
597
00:37:21,291 --> 00:37:25,041
And, uh, all of it together,
we called it Africatown.
598
00:37:25,792 --> 00:37:28,917
And so the picture of him relaxing in...
599
00:37:30,375 --> 00:37:32,709
in his chair at the fireplace.
600
00:37:32,792 --> 00:37:34,750
[Lumbers]
It was a flat, open house...
601
00:37:35,625 --> 00:37:38,041
with a, uh-- with a fireplace.
602
00:37:39,166 --> 00:37:42,875
And, uh, he pretty much
had all his blacksmith tools
603
00:37:42,959 --> 00:37:45,709
and, uh... his gardening tools.
604
00:37:45,959 --> 00:37:48,959
[♪]
605
00:37:55,166 --> 00:37:57,291
[Marshall]
We are at Gumpa's Chimney.
606
00:37:57,375 --> 00:38:02,458
This is the last remaining part
of Gumpa's house that he built
607
00:38:02,542 --> 00:38:05,875
{\an8}along with the rest of the people
in Africatown.
608
00:38:06,417 --> 00:38:10,291
{\an8}So this is kind of
the last remaining, um...
609
00:38:10,375 --> 00:38:12,709
I guess remnant of that time.
610
00:38:18,291 --> 00:38:22,333
Africatown started to thrive
as its own little community.
611
00:38:22,417 --> 00:38:24,875
Like, they founded Union Baptist Church.
612
00:38:27,291 --> 00:38:30,667
They started a school,
Mobile County Training School,
613
00:38:30,750 --> 00:38:32,083
which is still there.
614
00:38:33,333 --> 00:38:35,667
People have also talked about
they had movie theaters,
615
00:38:35,750 --> 00:38:38,208
so they had, like, all kinds of things.
616
00:38:38,291 --> 00:38:40,250
[birds chirping]
617
00:38:45,250 --> 00:38:48,208
My uncle and them
just stayed in them houses
618
00:38:48,291 --> 00:38:50,792
just like they were from Africa.
619
00:38:50,875 --> 00:38:53,041
And they left the windows open,
620
00:38:53,125 --> 00:38:56,709
and we could just go in
and they ain't lock no doors.
621
00:38:59,834 --> 00:39:03,583
[Davis] They all collectively
worked and saved money
622
00:39:03,667 --> 00:39:05,417
to buy this piece of land.
623
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,000
[♪]
624
00:39:09,834 --> 00:39:11,667
-Water is vital.
-[drumming]
625
00:39:11,750 --> 00:39:13,375
And as we think about...
626
00:39:13,458 --> 00:39:16,625
[Davis] They kept some of their, um--
their customs and languages,
627
00:39:16,709 --> 00:39:19,792
and those Africans would play their drums.
628
00:39:19,875 --> 00:39:24,333
They can bring African dishes,
and just have a good time
629
00:39:24,417 --> 00:39:26,458
and speak the language.
630
00:39:26,542 --> 00:39:29,208
{\an8}[Marshall]
If you were to go there today,
631
00:39:29,291 --> 00:39:33,500
it's pretty much a shell
of what the community used to be.
632
00:39:34,792 --> 00:39:38,166
The houses that are still there
are very dilapidated.
633
00:39:38,250 --> 00:39:43,083
It's very rare that people have
a nice house living in Africatown.
634
00:39:47,208 --> 00:39:50,208
[♪]
635
00:39:54,959 --> 00:39:57,250
[Sadiki]
Well, what is Africatown like today?
636
00:39:57,333 --> 00:39:59,000
I say it's a--
637
00:39:59,083 --> 00:40:01,125
it's a community,
638
00:40:01,208 --> 00:40:05,625
it's, uh-- that was once vibrant
that's struggling to survive
639
00:40:05,709 --> 00:40:08,041
both economically, culturally,
640
00:40:08,417 --> 00:40:10,250
even environmentally.
641
00:40:10,917 --> 00:40:16,000
So that descendant community
is looking for some healing
642
00:40:16,083 --> 00:40:19,125
because they're trying
to reclaim memory,
643
00:40:19,208 --> 00:40:21,500
and reclaim identity
and reclaim culture
644
00:40:21,583 --> 00:40:23,458
that was stolen from them.
645
00:40:23,542 --> 00:40:26,500
[♪]
646
00:40:26,583 --> 00:40:29,208
[Darron Patterson] You need to know
the story of Africatown
647
00:40:29,291 --> 00:40:30,875
to appreciate Africatown.
648
00:40:33,458 --> 00:40:37,583
What we are seeing here
is going to be the future home
649
00:40:37,667 --> 00:40:41,041
of the Africatown
Museum Heritage House.
650
00:40:41,125 --> 00:40:43,041
This will house artifacts.
651
00:40:43,125 --> 00:40:45,333
{\an8}It will take you through
the story of the Clotilda,
652
00:40:45,417 --> 00:40:47,166
{\an8}through the story of Africatown,
653
00:40:47,250 --> 00:40:49,041
{\an8}and how the two mesh together.
654
00:40:49,917 --> 00:40:52,792
Well, hopefully,
next time you see this place,
655
00:40:52,875 --> 00:40:54,959
there will actually be
a welcome center here
656
00:40:55,041 --> 00:40:56,542
and not just a sign.
657
00:40:57,250 --> 00:40:59,083
If we get on the shore,
you can take your boat...
658
00:40:59,166 --> 00:41:01,125
[Dr. Delgado]
The next steps for Clotilda
659
00:41:01,208 --> 00:41:04,333
are to finish the scientific studies
that will help us determine
660
00:41:04,417 --> 00:41:07,250
the best ways to stabilize
the shipwreck for the future.
661
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,834
We've just started to explore
the science, the artifacts,
662
00:41:12,917 --> 00:41:14,875
and the additional secrets it may hold.
663
00:41:15,458 --> 00:41:18,792
There is certainly discussion
of some sort of memorial
664
00:41:18,875 --> 00:41:22,834
on the water or nearby for the shipwreck.
665
00:41:23,667 --> 00:41:26,834
Hopefully, our study will help inform that
666
00:41:26,917 --> 00:41:30,792
and show a path forward towards
memorializing the shipwreck.
667
00:41:32,375 --> 00:41:36,792
I see it as a physical anchor
for the story.
668
00:41:36,875 --> 00:41:39,875
[♪]
669
00:41:40,250 --> 00:41:42,458
For the ocean.
670
00:41:43,458 --> 00:41:46,000
[Marshall] I do have flowers
that I would like to place here
671
00:41:46,083 --> 00:41:49,041
in honor of the people who made it over.
672
00:41:49,333 --> 00:41:50,750
For the ancestors.
673
00:41:51,166 --> 00:41:52,500
[murmurs]
674
00:41:57,792 --> 00:42:00,375
To be able to be here
and honor them today
675
00:42:00,458 --> 00:42:03,959
is just like-- I can't even
put it into words.
676
00:42:05,875 --> 00:42:08,875
[♪]
677
00:42:10,500 --> 00:42:14,041
[Elliott] All of us look for a touchstone.
Where do we put our sorrow?
678
00:42:15,709 --> 00:42:18,291
Where do we reconcile our history?
679
00:42:18,375 --> 00:42:21,583
And where do we reconnect
with our heritage?
680
00:42:22,333 --> 00:42:25,417
And so I think that's important
for people to be able to have that.
681
00:42:26,834 --> 00:42:28,917
-[Lumbers] We feel proud.
-[Rosario] We're very proud.
682
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:30,458
[Lumbers] We feel proud
that we have that bloodline.
683
00:42:30,542 --> 00:42:34,166
I think that's one of the reasons
we are who we are.
684
00:42:34,959 --> 00:42:36,333
{\an8}These are our people.
685
00:42:37,041 --> 00:42:38,125
{\an8}That's our history.
686
00:42:38,208 --> 00:42:39,875
{\an8}This is us. This is us.
687
00:42:43,959 --> 00:42:46,083
[Ellis]
There's a sort of privilege, right?
688
00:42:46,166 --> 00:42:51,709
The fact that I have the ability
to at least trace my heritage
689
00:42:52,166 --> 00:42:55,166
and my ancestors
to the last known slave ship.
690
00:42:55,250 --> 00:42:58,250
[♪]
691
00:42:59,542 --> 00:43:02,959
[Rosario]
Most African-Americans don't have this.
692
00:43:03,041 --> 00:43:07,375
They can't point back to the person,
693
00:43:07,458 --> 00:43:09,542
to the spot, to the day and say,
694
00:43:09,625 --> 00:43:14,000
"This is where my story
in the United States began."
695
00:43:14,083 --> 00:43:17,667
And we're extremely fortunate
to be able to do so.
696
00:43:21,166 --> 00:43:23,417
[Keeby Jr.]
This is part of African-American history.
697
00:43:24,583 --> 00:43:27,291
And it needs to be in the history books.
698
00:43:29,041 --> 00:43:31,917
[Woods]
Let's tell about Mobile, Alabama,
699
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:34,250
where the last slave ship come.
700
00:43:34,333 --> 00:43:39,333
Just because it's in the South
and it's been a long time comin',
701
00:43:39,417 --> 00:43:43,166
{\an8}and they still there,
so they want their story told.
702
00:43:43,250 --> 00:43:46,250
{\an8}[♪]
703
00:43:49,792 --> 00:43:51,709
{\an8}[Davis]
We have to keep it alive too.
704
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:53,750
{\an8}It's for the younger generation
705
00:43:53,834 --> 00:43:56,625
{\an8}to be proud of who they are
and where they came from.
706
00:43:56,709 --> 00:43:59,667
{\an8}Absolutely, I am my ancestors'
wildest dream.
707
00:44:00,583 --> 00:44:02,792
{\an8}That spirit of my ancestors,
708
00:44:03,125 --> 00:44:04,792
{\an8}that spirit lives in me.
709
00:44:05,542 --> 00:44:08,458
{\an8}[♪]
55168
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