The Last Ship That Brought Slaves From Africa to America: The Landing of the Clotilde at Mobile in the Autumn of 1859.

by JAMES D. LOCKETT

Abstract

In 1858, during a trip to Montgomery on his steamboat, Robert B. Taney, Captain Timothy Meaher conceived of the voyage of the Clotilde. Captain Meaher bet some eastern gentlemen $100,000 that he could bring some Africans to Mobile without getting caught. He decided to get the slaves from the King of Dahomey because his kingdom was one of the chief slave trading states in Africa, and at the time, the trade was thriving in Dahomey where slaves were plentiful and cheap. There the captain secured 116 Tarkars, and within a few weeks successfully passed through a virtual blockade designed to prevent slave ships from landing at ports in the United States. The authorities moved in on Meaher quickly, he was arrested, charged and released...