Africatown Historic District
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Africatown Historic District
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Abandoned house in Africatown
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| Location | Roughly bounded by Jakes Ln., Paper Mill, & Warren Rds., Chin, & Railroad Sts., Mobile, Alabama |
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| Coordinates | 30°44′7″N 88°3′31″W / 30.73528°N 88.05861°WCoordinates: 30°44′7″N 88°3′31″W / 30.73528°N 88.05861°W |
| NRHP Reference # | 12000990 |
| Added to NRHP | December 4, 2012 |
Africatown, also known as AfricaTown USA and Plateau, is a historic community located three miles (5 km) north of downtown Mobile, Alabama. It was formed by West Africans who in 1860 were among the last known illegal shipment of slaves to the United States from Africa, after the Atlantic slave trade had been banned. These people created their own community in this area. They retained their West African customs and language for many years following the American Civil War. The last survivor of the group lived until 1935. The Africatown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
In 1860 some wealthy slaveholders of Mobile and their friends decided to see if they could evade the law and succeed in importing slaves from Africa. This Atlantic slave trade had been prohibited by the United States since 1808, although the domestic slave trade had continued. The men bet each other they could elude federal authorities. Timothy Meaher, a shipbuilder and landowner; his brother Byrnes Meaher, John Dabey, and others invested money to hire a crew and captain for one of Meaher's ships to go to Africa and bring back laborers for slaves.
They used Timothy Meaher's ship Clotilde commanded by Captain William Foster. It sailed in 1860 from Ghana, West Africa for its final destination of Mobile. Over 100 Ghanaians were aboard, having been sold into bondage by the King of Dahomey. Dahomey warriors raided a village near the city of Tamale in Ghana, and took the survivors to Whydah, now Benin, where they were put up for sale. The captured tribesmen were sold for $100 each to William Foster, captain of the Clotilde.
In early July 1860, the Clotilde entered Mobile Bay and approached the port of Mobile. Captain Foster loaded the slaves onto a riverboat and sent them ashore; he set fire to the Clotilde to hide the evidence of its captives. The Africans were distributed among the parties who had invested in the venture. Federal authorities learned of this illegal activity and prosecuted Meaher and his partners. The 1861 federal court case of US v. Byrnes Meaher, Timothy Meaher and John Dabey did not find enough evidence to convict Meaher. The case was dismissed. Historians believe the start of the American Civil War was the reason the federal government dropped the case.
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