MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is spending $1 million to preserve the remnants of the last slave ship known to have landed in the United States more than 150 years ago.
The Alabama Historical Commission said Thursday that the money will be used to begin Phase 3 of preservation efforts for the Clotilda. The agency says that will include targeted artifact excavation and an engineering study.
The schooner named the Clotilda was sailed to West Africa in 1860 after a wealthy businessman wagered he could bring a shipload of people from Africa to the United States in defiance of laws against slave importation. The ship was burned in a bayou in 1860 to hide evidence of the crime.
