The Clotilda, a schooner sailing vessel, is a long-standing secret of the last known United States slave ship that illegally brought around 110-160 slaves to Mobile, Alabama, where about thirty of the former enslaved people established a community called Africatown. Director Margaret Brown set out to cover the story of the Clotilda and give the Africatown community a platform to share their story in her feature film documentary called ‘Descendant’ The film made its world premiere at the 44th Annual Sundance Film Festival, which runs between January 20 to 30, 2022.
Director Margaret Brown previously created a feature documentary called ‘The Order of Myths’ where she first learned about the Clotilda and the Africatown community in Mobile, Alabama. In that documentary, the main focus was on the history of two Mardi Gras queens, where one was a black queen named Stefanie Lucas and one white queen who was named Helen Meaher. The story of the black Mardi Gras queen was one of the descendants that was brought from the Clotilda ship.
The Clotilda was known as an illegal U.S. slave ship as the Atlantic slave trade was banned by Congress when they enacted the Act of Prohibiting Importation of Slaves on March 2, 1807, about 50 years prior to the ship’s arrival around 1859. During this illegal slave trade, it was a last time known to do slave trades before the sponsors destroyed the ship and disposed it into the Mobile Bay.
Over 150 years, the Clotilda ship was denied of its existence and was considered a crime scene myth covered up by the enslaver, Timothy Meaher and William Foster, the ship’s captain. About 30 of the Africans who were a part of the illegal shipment from the Clotilda were emancipated, and formed a community called Africatown to protect their emancipation and preserve their history and the stories that they hope to be shared.
It was around 2018 when Margaret’s friend shared an article with her that the remains of the Clotilda’s wreckage was discovered in the Mobile Bay, which linked to the stories shared by the community of Africatown. The myth was beginning to change into a fact and a known fact that she wanted the Africatown residents and known descendants to share their sides of the story and expand on the true history behind it.
What makes ‘Descendant’ a very important story to share is because it is not all about the focus on the ship. Rather it is the focus on the history of the men and women who were enslaved a part of the Clotilda. Many of the residents and the new generation who learned of their ancestor’s stories have made it very clear that they do not want the Clotilda ship as the main focal point of the documentary.
Black history in the United States is known to have had narratives altered, or even erased, hiding deep away from the true stories that could only be shared by the ancestors. It is not uncommon that new developments of many stories much like the Clotilda and its captives that have yet to be fully acknowledged and stories that a given the appropriate platform to mark its history and its heritage behind it.
This is truly important for those who have a lineage behind where they came from. Having to unravel the history of the Clotilda gives those affected some hope for closure of the devastating facts in order to collaborate and preserve the truth in an effort that these types of scenarios never repeat itself in the future going forward. Its story is indeed a sad one to learn about American history, and the descendants are finally getting the opportunities to tell it right.
‘Descendant’ is a nearly two-hour feature that covered as much ground as Margaret Brown was able to give for the African descendants. The timing could not have been better knowing that the Africatown Heritage House Museum is set to open this spring of 2022 to further cement the legacy of the Clotilda. This is truly a powerful story that no doubt will continue to build on as more of its history will be contributed to the museum, and knowing that the preservation of its history is finally told by the right people who knows the facts.