The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning

黑奴販賣的交易數字在歷史上難以估算，但被找到的奴隸船，史上卻僅有三艘。

Netflix紀錄片《後裔：最後的奴隸船》獲得2022年日舞影展的評審團獎，也讓這段歷史再次被人們檢視。

1850年代，在大西洋運奴禁令般布後50年，即便被發現走私黑奴便會遭判死刑，南方邦聯卻依然偷偷進行這這些非法交易。當時在阿拉巴馬州莫比爾市(Mobile)，奴隸主提摩西‧梅爾(Timothy Meaher)和人打賭他還是可以有辦法走私黑奴，於是奴隸船克勞蒂德號從非洲出發，靠岸後，不知道自己再也回不去的黑人們被趕上岸，這艘奴隸船立即被狡猾的交易商袋到其他地方搗毀、燒掉沉到大海，湮滅證據。

1927年，知名非裔女作家Zora Neale Hurston造訪此地，並訪問到一名搭乘克勞蒂德號抵達的住民，庫丘‧路易斯(Cudjo Lewis)，這段紀錄後來被出版成書《奴牢》，其中大量提到克勞蒂德號的事情，成為尋找這艘船的線索。鎮上居民口耳相傳、世代交替流傳的口述歷史，也透露著他們期盼終有一日，能找到他們祖先當初被奴役的證據。

直到2019年，記者(也是本書作者)Ben Raines鍥而不捨地追蹤這個事件，和莫比爾市非洲鎮上的公民團體聯手調查，終於在環繞莫比爾市河流分支裡的發現了克勞蒂德號的殘骸，同時公開發表這段無人知曉卻震撼全國的故事。

從阿拉巴馬到非洲古王國達荷美(Dahomey，現今非洲的貝南共和國)，他找到當初克勞蒂德號停靠的地方，克勞蒂德號上的黑奴後世子孫在抵岸的小鎮─非洲鎮(Africatown)上生根，但這段歷史與回憶始終在他們心中無法抹滅，作者尋找並訪問許多人，發現這艘船帶來的影響如同鬼魅，不斷影響糾纏著與奴隸船有關的人們：黑奴的後裔，出賣他們的黑人同胞後裔，以及奴隸主的後裔。他調查到當初出資走私黑奴的梅爾家，至今依然控制非洲鎮和整個莫比爾市的大型企業財團與土地資源。

《最後的奴隸船》證明了黑奴販賣交易的黑暗，以及其深遠且負面的影響，克勞蒂德號發現的記者會召開後，引發全國關注，未來在非洲鎮也規劃建立博物館保存文物。

Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts.

Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship’s perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their fellow American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda’s journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown.

From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continues to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community’s triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.