News and Updates about Clotilda: The Exhibiton at Africatown Heritage House


Alabama finds ways to narrate complex and painful Civil Rights history with new cultural sites

The state will soon unveil its latest memorial, remembering ‘Clotilda’, the last known slave ship to arrive in the US that was discovered in the Mobile River three years ago

Read the article iNews article here

The 15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2022

Celebrating America’s small towns has become one of Smithsonian magazine’s favorite traditions: an opportunity to get lost in the slower pace of walkable streets, minor league baseball games and waters brimming with wildlife. These communities are gateways to vast national parks, Native American heritage and Underground Railroad history, where qualities such as preservation, pride and perseverance often go hand in hand.

Check out the article in Smithsonian Magazine

America’s last slave ship is more intact than anyone thought

Archaeologists studying the Clotilda, which was identified in 2019, say the shipwreck may contain a wealth of well-preserved artifacts, from barrels of food to human DNA.

Read the National Geographic article


The Clotilda: Inside the wreck of the last ship known to have brought enslaved Africans to America

The Clotilda was burned and sunk in an Alabama River after bringing 110 imprisoned people across the Atlantic in 1860. Three years ago, its remains were found. Anderson Cooper reports on the discovery of the wreck and the nearby community with descendants of the enslaved who were aboard the ship.

Watch the episode with Anderson Cooper

Researchers say the wreckage of last known slave ship to the U.S. is mostly intact

Researchers studying the wreckage of the last U.S. slave ship, buried in mud on the Alabama coast since it was scuttled in 1860, have made the surprising discovery that most of the wooden schooner remains intact, including the pen that was used to imprison African captives during the brutal journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

Read the article from NPR here

‘This is Africatown’s house’: Museum to tell story of slave ship Clotilda set to open in April or May 2022

Darron Patterson tried to hold back the tears as he watched the coming together of two large modular units that will be part of the first museum structure in Africatown.

Read the article on AL.com


Black history trips are booming: we take a look at Alabama’s Civil Rights Trail

With Alabama’s black history sites expected to attract a million visitors this year, Zoey Goto follows the state’s Civil Rights Trail

Watch the episode here

Discovery of the last US slave ship forces reckoning with a dark history

The recent discovery of the last U.S. slave ship, “Clotilda,” has forced new conversations for the descendants of both the formerly enslaved and their captors. For the first time, the family that hired the ship speaks out to NBC News about their ancestor’s role in this dark chapter of American history.

Watch the NBC News episode with Yamiche Alcindor here

Africatown Heritage House ranked #1 out of National Geographic’s six best new museums in the US for 2023

Whether musical theatre, feminist art or mid-century design, the stories of the US are being celebrated in a string of new museums this year.

Read the National Geographic article here


New Museum Honors Those On America’s Final Slave Ship

A terrible, cruel part of U.S. history will become better known this summer when the Africatown Heritage House opens to the public in Mobile, Alabama

Read the Forbes article here

New Staff Members Ready Africatown Heritage House for Public Debut

The History Museum of Mobile hired the facility’s first-ever manager, Jessica Fairley, who began working earlier this month and is eager to share the incredible and inspirational accounts of the 110 survivors of the ship with visitors from near and far … whether they come from around the block or around the globe.

Read the news release here



Clotilda: The Exhibition at Africatown Heritage House is operated by the History Museum of Mobile, which is a non-profit entity. Gifts to the History Museum of Mobile are tax-exempt.

Phone: (251) 206-5268 © 2023 History Museum of Mobile. All rights reserved.