C: The Last Known Slave Ship in America

Question 1

What is the name of the last known slave ship to enter the United States?

Answer 1

Clotilda

Question 2

What is the name of the first museum designed to share the story of the nation’s last known slave ship, the Clotilda, and the community that was created by the vessel’s survivors and their descendants?

Answer 2

Africatown Heritage House

Question 3

Who paid for the Clotilda to sail across the Atlantic Ocean and conduct an illegal slave trade?

Answer 3

Timothy Meaher

Question 4

How much money did Timothy Meaher bet that he could smuggle Africans as slaves into the United States without being caught?

Answer 4

Timothy Meaher bet $1,000 that he could smuggle Africans as slaves into the United States without being caught.

Question 5

Who was the captain who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to purchase the slaves?

Answer 5

Captain William Foster

Question 6

What West African kingdom sold the slaves to Captain William Foster?

Answer 6

Kingdom of Dahomey

Question 7

Where was the Kingdom of Dahomey located on a present-day map?

Answer 7

Southern Benin

Question 8

What is the name of the slave port where they were sold?

Answer 8

Ouidah Slave Port or Port of Ouidah

Question 9

How much did Captain William Foster pay for the African men, women, and children he led forced aboard the Clotilda?

Answer 9

Foster paid $9,000 in gold and merchandise.

Question 10

Approximately how many days did it take for the Clotilda to sail from Dahomey to Mobile Bay?

Answer 10

45 days

Question 11

How many West Africans were captured and forced aboard the Clotilda slave ship?

Answer 11

110 West Africans were captured and forced aboard the Clotilda slave ship.

Question 12

What is the name of the act that outlawed the importation of slaves in America in 1807?

Answer 12

An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves of 1807

Question 13

What year did the Clotilda land in Mobile Bay?

Answer 13

1860

Question 14

How many years after the international slave trade was outlawed did the Clotilda arrive in Mobile Bay?

Answer 14

The Clotilda arrived in Mobile Bay 52 years after slavery was outlawed.

Question 15

How did Foster and Meaher avoid customs when entering Mobile Bay?

Answer 15

Foster and Meaher avoided customs agents by towing the Clotilda up the Mobile River and putting the enslaved Africans on the Steamboat Czar, owned by Timothy Meaher’s brother, Byrnes Meaher.

Question 16

Where were the enslaved Africans offloaded after they got off the Steamboat Czar?

Answer 16

The enslaved Africans were transported to John Dabney’s Mount Vernon plantation and hidden in the swamp.

Question 17

Where did Timothy Meaher send the enslaved people aboard the Clotilda?

Answer 17

Timothy Meaher, his brothers Byrnes and James Meaher, John Dabney, and William Foster were all given enslaved Africans who were aboard the Clotilda. Others were sold to plantations in Selma, AL.

Question 18

Timothy Meaher, William Foster, John Dabney, and Byrens Meaher were all charged for crimes committed, but why were all cases dismissed and charges dropped?

Answer 18

All cases were dismissed and charges were dropped because the Africans could not be found

Question 19

What war broke out just months following the dismissal of the cases against Meaher and Dabney?

Answer 19

The Civil War

Question 20

What federal executive order made slavery illegal in the United States and what year was it passed?

Answer 20

The Emancipation Proclamation was passed in 1863

Question 21

How many years did the captives aboard the Clotilda endure slavery after landing in Mobile?

Answer 21

The captives endured about 5 years of slavery.

Question 22

What year did the Clotilda captives learn about their freedom from Union soldiers post-emancipation?

Answer 22

1865

Question 23

How did these African people who were freed in Mobile purchase their first plot of land post-emancipation?

Answer 23

They collectively gathered enough money from selling vegetables and working in fields and mills to purchase land from the Meaher family.

Question 24

What is the name of the tight-knit, independent community Clotilda survivors established when they became free Americans?

Answer 24

Africatown

Question 25

What was the hope of the founders of Africatown?

Answer 25

They hoped to recreate Africa in Monile. In the 10 years after learning their freedom, they would become U.S. citizens, purchase their land, build homes, grow their crops, form their own governing body, organize their first church, educate themselves, and vote in the presidential election

Question 26

27 What are the neighborhoods included in Africatown? Plateau, Magazine Point, Happy Hills, Kelly Hills, Lewis Quarters
28 What is the name of the book written by Zora Neale Hurston that shares the testimony of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last known survivors of the Clotilda? Barracoon

Answer 26

27 What are the neighborhoods included in Africatown? Plateau, Magazine Point, Happy Hills, Kelly Hills, Lewis Quarters
28 What is the name of the book written by Zora Neale Hurston that shares the testimony of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last known survivors of the Clotilda? Barracoon

Question 27

27 What are the neighborhoods included in Africatown?

Answer 27

Plateau, Magazine Point, Happy Hills, Kelly Hills, Lewis Quarters

Question 28

What is the name of the book written by Zora Neale Hurston that shares the testimony of Cudjo Lewis, one of the last known survivors of the Clotilda?

Answer 28

Barracoon