The Clotilda was burned and sunk in an Alabama River after bringing 110 imprisoned people across the Atlantic in 1860. Three years ago, its remains were found. Anderson Cooper reports on the discovery of the wreck and the nearby community with descendants of the enslaved aboard the ship.
CYNTHIA ARATA
Hidden in archives for nearly a century, the story of the last known survivor of Middle Passage â the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World â has finally been published for the world to read in Zora Neale Hurstonâs posthumous work âBarracoon: The Story of the Last âBlack Cargo .â
In 1927, during the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston, a respected anthropologist and author, journeyed from New York to Alabama to document the spoken words of Oluale Kossola, later given the name Cudjo Lewis. Kossola arrived in the United States on The Clotilda, the final slave ship to traverse the Atlantic Ocean from West Africa to the American South.
Growing up, Delisha Marshal spent a lot of time with her grandfather and grandmother in Alabama. Although she didn’t articulate it then, she was always a bit suspicious of their popularity in town. "I remember people coming over to my grandmother's house and wanting to interview her when I was younger,” explained Marshall. “When you're a child, you think, 'Oh, my grandparents have a great, big backyard.' You don't really understand the magnitude.