Diaspora · Clotilda · Africatown · Ouidah
The Clotilda, the last known slave ship to reach the United States, anchored off Ouidah on May 15, 1860. There the Kingdom of Dahomey sold the captives, young people taken from several regions of present-day Benin and Nigeria. 110 of them reached Alabama that July, and after the Civil War, Kossola, known as Cudjo Lewis, and his companions founded Africatown near Mobile. Kossola was born in present-day Benin. In 2026, one of his descendants became Beninese.
Facts checked on September 27, 2026
Every date and number on this page comes from the sources listed below. We say nothing about individual lineages that the historical record does not say.
By Bertian Hounon, founder of the NGO Wa Afriki
March 4, 1860
The schooner Clotilda leaves Mobile, Alabama, financed by Timothy Meaher and commanded by William Foster, in violation of the US ban on importing enslaved people in force since 1808.
May 15, 1860
The ship reaches Ouidah. The captives had been marched to Abomey, the capital of Dahomey, then down to Ouidah, where they were held for about three weeks in a barracoon.
July 9, 1860
Back in Mobile Bay with 110 men, women and children. To destroy the evidence, Foster burns the ship and sinks it.
After 1865
Freed by the end of the Civil War, Kossola and 31 companions buy land north of Mobile and found Africatown.
1927 to 1928
Zora Neale Hurston interviews Kossola. Her book, Barracoon, is published only in 2018.
1935
Death of Kossola, one of the last survivors of the transatlantic slave trade to the United States.
May 22, 2019
The Alabama Historical Commission confirms the discovery of the wreck in the Mobile River.
May 2026
Cassandra Lewis, a descendant of Kossola, becomes the first Clotilda descendant to receive Beninese nationality.
Oluale Kossola was a Yoruba of the Isha group, whose home is the Bante region, in present-day Benin. Captured in a raid, he was taken to Abomey, then to Ouidah, the last African ground he stood on.
The 110 captives of the Clotilda did not come from one people. The historian Sylviane Diouf traced them to several regions of present-day Benin and Nigeria. What they shared was the road: sold by the Kingdom of Dahomey, embarked at Ouidah.
That is why the story of Africatown is also a story of Benin. The beach where the Clotilda loaded its captives is the one you can walk today.
The places the Clotilda captives passed through still stand. You can walk them with a guide who answers for you.
In May 2026, Cassandra Lewis, a descendant of Kossola, received Beninese nationality under Law 2024-31, which opens nationality to descendants of Africans deported during the slave trade. The application is made online on the official portal. Applied from abroad, the nationality is provisional and becomes permanent after a stay in Benin within three years.
How Beninese citizenship works →Africatown families have kept their story for five generations. Coming to Ouidah does not replace that memory. It gives it a place.
We will never promise to find a village or a family: the records of 1860 do not allow it, and anyone who promises it is selling you something. What we offer is a reception, the beach, the route, and people who listen to your story.
From Ouidah, in present-day Benin. The Clotilda arrived there on May 15, 1860, and loaded captives sold by the Kingdom of Dahomey.
Oluale Kossola, known as Cudjo Lewis, was born in present-day Benin. He was a Yoruba of the Isha group, from the Bante region, taken to Abomey and then to Ouidah before the crossing.
Young men, women and children from several regions of present-day Benin and Nigeria, according to the historian Sylviane Diouf. 110 of them reached Alabama in July 1860.
Yes. The Alabama Historical Commission confirmed the discovery of the wreck in the Mobile River on May 22, 2019.
The book in which Zora Neale Hurston recorded Kossola's account, from interviews in 1927 and 1928. It was published in 2018. A barracoon is the enclosure where captives were held before embarkation, as Kossola was in Ouidah.
Yes, like any descendant of Africans deported during the slave trade, under Law 2024-31. In May 2026, Cassandra Lewis became the first Clotilda descendant to receive Beninese nationality. The application is made only on the official portal myafroorigins.bj.
Yes. The beach of Ouidah, the Slave Route and the Door of No Return can be visited, in the south of Benin, with the increased caution that governments ask for across the country.
ONG Wa Afriki receives descendants in Ouidah, with families and guardians of tradition who have been doing it for years. Tell us your story first. We reply within 24 hours.