last U.S. slave ship

California voters will decide in November whether to remove an exemption for involuntary servitude from the state constitution under a proposal the state Legislature just approved. Alabama voters abolished slavery this way back in 2022. The polls opened shortly after Alabama Public Radio premiered its award-winning documentary “No Stone Unturned: Preserving Slave cemeteries in Alabama."

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) announced the construction of the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, a new 17-acre site in Montgomery. Opening early 2024, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will feature large-scale sculptures, art works, historical artifacts, and a new National Monument honoring enslaved people who were emancipated after the Civil War.

A museum that tells the history of the Clotilda — the last ship known to transport Africans to the American South for enslavement — opened Saturday, exactly 163 years after the vessel arrived in Alabama's Mobile Bay.

The City of Mobile is working to bring history to life. The History Museum of Mobile has collaborated with the County Commission to build an exhibit about the Clotilda. The Clotilda is the last known slave ship to bring Africans to the United States.

Alabama voters head to the polls for the midterm elections next week. One ballot item would abolish slavery in the state. The vote takes place one hundred and fifty seven years after the thirteenth amendment ended the practice nationally. Historians say many of the estimated four hundred thousand enslaved people, who were freed, chose to live out their lives in Alabama. APR spoke to some of their descendants who say they’re still dealing with the impact of the slave trade. The Alabama Public Radio newsroom spent nine months investigating one aspect of that. Namely, the effort to preserve slave cemeteries in the state.

The Alabama Public Radio newsroom spent nine months investigating efforts to preserve slave cemeteries in the state. An estimated four hundred thousand captives were held in Alabama before the Civil War. Historians say many of these newly freed people stayed in the state following emancipation in 1863. APR spoke with some of their descendants and heard about problems in locating the burial sites of their ancestors. Today, we present the conclusion of our series titled “No Stone Unturned.” One issue with preserving these cemeteries may be getting people, both black and white, to talk about it.

The family of the man responsible for the voyage of the last slave ship to carry captives to Alabama speaks out.

Alabama voters head to the polls for the November midterm election next month. One issue on the ballot would do away with slavery. It’s still allowed in the state constitution. Alabama Public Radio news spent nine months looking into one lingering aspect of the slave trade. APR’s focus is on finding and preserving slave cemeteries in the state. By the time of the Civil War, an estimated four hundred thousand people were held as slaves in Alabama. Some accounts put the number throughout the South at closer to four million. That would appear to make the issue of slave cemetery preservation a southern issue. But, that doesn't appear to be the case.

The thirteenth amendment did away with slavery in the United States one hundred and fifty seven years ago. Alabama voters may take similar action next month. The state’s Constitution still allows involuntary servitude. An estimated four hundred thousand slaves were held in Alabama before they were finally freed in 1865. APR spoke with the descendants of some of these people. They talked about trying to find the burial sites of their ancestors, and facing roadblocks not shared by their white neighbors.

Before the Civil War, the state of Alabama was home to an estimated thirty three thousand slave holders. Local historians say one of them was John Welch Prewitt. He set aside two acres that became known as the Old Prewitt Slave Cemetery. The site may hold up to two hundred unmarked graves. Former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Deontay Wilder lives next door.