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Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America
In the summer of 1860, more than fifty years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. Timothy Meaher, an established Mobile businessman, sent the slave ship, the Clotilda, to Africa, on a bet that he could "bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses." He won the bet.
This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women. After emancipation, the group reunited from various plantations, bought land, and founded their own settlement, known as African Town. They ruled it according to customary African laws, spoke their own regional language and, when giving interviews, insisted that writers use their African names so that their families would know that they were still alive.
The last survivor of the Clotilda died in 1935, but African Town is still home to a community of Clotilda descendants. The publication of Dreams of Africa in Alabama marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
Winner of the Wesley-Logan Prize of the American Historical Association (2007)
This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women. After emancipation, the group reunited from various plantations, bought land, and founded their own settlement, known as African Town. They ruled it according to customary African laws, spoke their own regional language and, when giving interviews, insisted that writers use their African names so that their families would know that they were still alive.
The last survivor of the Clotilda died in 1935, but African Town is still home to a community of Clotilda descendants. The publication of Dreams of Africa in Alabama marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
Winner of the Wesley-Logan Prize of the American Historical Association (2007)
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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May 7, 2018
It wasn’t until a few months ago that I had ever heard the name Clotilda. I had no idea that in 1860, the Clotilda sailed to the west coast of Africa and brought back with it to the United States over one hundred Africans, that were then enslaved in Alabama. I only learned about this because of the soon to be released Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by the late Zora Neale Hurston, that highlights the life of Cudjo Lewis, who in the 1930s was the last living survivor of the Clotilda. It’s also around the time the east coast got quite a bit of rough weather and someone thought they had located the Clotilda. They hadn’t but I took that as a sign, that this was a history I needed to learn more about. Not only to satisfy my own curiosity but because this was a significant piece of African, African-American and American history.
I started reading this book, immediately after finishing Hurston’s Barracoon. While that story was enjoyable it focused solely on the story of Cudjo Lewis. Barracoon adequately lit a spark and I wanted to know more. More than just the names of the other survivors but their stories. Where were their homes? Where did they go? What were their stories?
Dreams of Africa in Alabama is an incredibly well researched book that details the history of the passengers of the Clotilda, the people who enslaved them and what life was like while living in Africa, while being enslaved and the reality of freedom after the Civil War set them free. It’s a unique history because the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade was closed decades before their arrival, making their passage to the United States illegal. This also meant that the majority of the people enslaved at the time, were born and raised in slavery. They had no memories of their homeland or of ever being free. That’s not true for any of the passengers of the Clotilda who had to adjust to the concept of no longer being free and had to try to preserve their culture while enslaved.
I would definitely recommend this book. Diouf did an incredible job compiling all of this information and keeping it uncomplicated. This is a dense book because as much as it highlighted the story of the Africans, it also detailed what life was like in the U.S. before their arrival during their enslavement, after the Civil War. It’s a layered and complicated story. One that still isn’t finished yet, as the families still in Africatown or still fighting to have their history recognized. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
I started reading this book, immediately after finishing Hurston’s Barracoon. While that story was enjoyable it focused solely on the story of Cudjo Lewis. Barracoon adequately lit a spark and I wanted to know more. More than just the names of the other survivors but their stories. Where were their homes? Where did they go? What were their stories?
Dreams of Africa in Alabama is an incredibly well researched book that details the history of the passengers of the Clotilda, the people who enslaved them and what life was like while living in Africa, while being enslaved and the reality of freedom after the Civil War set them free. It’s a unique history because the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade was closed decades before their arrival, making their passage to the United States illegal. This also meant that the majority of the people enslaved at the time, were born and raised in slavery. They had no memories of their homeland or of ever being free. That’s not true for any of the passengers of the Clotilda who had to adjust to the concept of no longer being free and had to try to preserve their culture while enslaved.
I would definitely recommend this book. Diouf did an incredible job compiling all of this information and keeping it uncomplicated. This is a dense book because as much as it highlighted the story of the Africans, it also detailed what life was like in the U.S. before their arrival during their enslavement, after the Civil War. It’s a layered and complicated story. One that still isn’t finished yet, as the families still in Africatown or still fighting to have their history recognized. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
March 3, 2021
Dreams of Africa in Alabama is Sylviane A. Diouf's exquisitely written narrative history on the last arriving captives of the transatlantic slave trade from Africa to the United States. In 1860, on a dare, Timothy Meaher and his brothers from Mobile, Alabama, sent William Foster, captain of their ship the Clotilda, on a journey to Africa to obtain and return with captive slaves. Fifty-three years after the end of the transatlantic slave trade, the Meaher brothers believed the slave trade should be re-instated and felt they could successfully smuggle in Africans through the port of Mobile. Foster succeeded in his quest and the Clotilda is now famously known as the last slave ship to the U. S. Foster returned with approximately 110 shipmates, all African men, and women from the Bight of Benin coast.
These shipmates formed a bond during the trip along the Middle Passage as they endured atrocities throughout the journey. Once they arrived in the states, groups of shipmates were sold and parceled out throughout the country. A group of these shipmates stayed local to the Mobile area, as slaves to the Meaher brothers and business acquaintances. Within a few years of their arrival, Emancipation would find the shipmates free but with little choice to leave the area. They certainly did not have the means to return to Africa, a dream they carried with them throughout their lives. Those shipmates that remained in the area, established their own hometown on the outskirts of Mobile named "Africantown." It is here that they lived, loved, expanded, and lost. Through triumphs and hardships, the residents of Africantown built a life and preserved Africa in Alabama. They told their story to their descendants through oral history, kept their native tongue alive, and celebrated Africa and their ancestry through their clothes, food, crafts, and entertainment.
Today, Africantown, now renamed Africatown continues to be the home of the descendants of the Clotilda shipmates. Although many have moved away, a core group of family members continues to preserve a little bit of Africa in Alabama.
This is a very well-written and detailed book that provides the complete story of the last slave voyage. Diouf utilizes a wealth of resources and provides carefully analyzed conjecture of the history where there are holes due to missing or contradictory sources. Diouf has pieced together an intricate puzzle of the events of this last slave voyage and the lives of the known shipmates. This is an important piece of historiography on the illegal slave trade across the transatlantic.
These shipmates formed a bond during the trip along the Middle Passage as they endured atrocities throughout the journey. Once they arrived in the states, groups of shipmates were sold and parceled out throughout the country. A group of these shipmates stayed local to the Mobile area, as slaves to the Meaher brothers and business acquaintances. Within a few years of their arrival, Emancipation would find the shipmates free but with little choice to leave the area. They certainly did not have the means to return to Africa, a dream they carried with them throughout their lives. Those shipmates that remained in the area, established their own hometown on the outskirts of Mobile named "Africantown." It is here that they lived, loved, expanded, and lost. Through triumphs and hardships, the residents of Africantown built a life and preserved Africa in Alabama. They told their story to their descendants through oral history, kept their native tongue alive, and celebrated Africa and their ancestry through their clothes, food, crafts, and entertainment.
Today, Africantown, now renamed Africatown continues to be the home of the descendants of the Clotilda shipmates. Although many have moved away, a core group of family members continues to preserve a little bit of Africa in Alabama.
This is a very well-written and detailed book that provides the complete story of the last slave voyage. Diouf utilizes a wealth of resources and provides carefully analyzed conjecture of the history where there are holes due to missing or contradictory sources. Diouf has pieced together an intricate puzzle of the events of this last slave voyage and the lives of the known shipmates. This is an important piece of historiography on the illegal slave trade across the transatlantic.
October 24, 2012
Fascinating and extraordinarily well researched. Diouf explores the experiences of the last Africans brought to America as they made sense of a new environment while being informed by their understanding of the world they left behind. Dreams of Africa adds to the rich tapestry of scholarship that examines the the complexity and the diversity of the black experience in slavery and in freedom.
July 28, 2011
I lost interest and did not finish; the tone is much too scholarly, focusing less on a great story and more on details and the different arguments/theses on each. Otherwise, it's the most complete and thorough telling of the Clotilda story.
March 10, 2018
A bet. 50 years after the international slave trade was banned, Timothy Meaher bet that he could, "bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses." And in 1860, that slave ship, The Clotilda, arrived in Alabama carrying the last known African imports into slavery.
This is their story. The journey and the legacy.
They slaved until the Emancipation Proclamation and once freed, they established African Town. A settlement they modeled after their homeland. Speaking their, native tongue, retelling their stories and rearing their children in the tradition of the motherland. Although the last surviving member of the original settlers passed away in 1935, their legacy has carried on as an example of making the best of a terrible situation.
People always want to equate slavery with a hidden history of yesteryear but my grandfather was born in 1919 and he spoke to slaves; I spoke to my grandfather - and that's how modern and close slavery is to the present day.
Living history.
This is their story. The journey and the legacy.
They slaved until the Emancipation Proclamation and once freed, they established African Town. A settlement they modeled after their homeland. Speaking their, native tongue, retelling their stories and rearing their children in the tradition of the motherland. Although the last surviving member of the original settlers passed away in 1935, their legacy has carried on as an example of making the best of a terrible situation.
People always want to equate slavery with a hidden history of yesteryear but my grandfather was born in 1919 and he spoke to slaves; I spoke to my grandfather - and that's how modern and close slavery is to the present day.
Living history.
October 27, 2015
Fascinating historical account and anthropological study
Impeccably researched, very well-written book exploring how it happened that the last slave ship came through the port of Mobile, Alabama in the summer of 1860.
As it happened, a scofflaw businessman from Alabama decided to hedge his bets in covertly bringing in slaves from Africa on the slave ship Clotilda in defiance of laws outlawing international slave trade. This is a splendid account of the slave ship Clotilda and its 110 women, men and children who were delivered into an already existing slave community.
The author covers how these slaves handled life after emancipation in 1860 and tried, but failed, to return to Africa and then started a settlement later called Africatown, which makes the book also one fit for anthropological study on how these last slaves held onto their customs and social systems and language into this century despite the fact that the final Clotilda survivor passed away in the 1930s.
Impeccably researched, very well-written book exploring how it happened that the last slave ship came through the port of Mobile, Alabama in the summer of 1860.
As it happened, a scofflaw businessman from Alabama decided to hedge his bets in covertly bringing in slaves from Africa on the slave ship Clotilda in defiance of laws outlawing international slave trade. This is a splendid account of the slave ship Clotilda and its 110 women, men and children who were delivered into an already existing slave community.
The author covers how these slaves handled life after emancipation in 1860 and tried, but failed, to return to Africa and then started a settlement later called Africatown, which makes the book also one fit for anthropological study on how these last slaves held onto their customs and social systems and language into this century despite the fact that the final Clotilda survivor passed away in the 1930s.
July 19, 2020
I did not know that the Atlantic Slave Trade was abolished in 1808, bringing slaves to the Americas from Africa was illegal after that. That fact alone left me with a lot of questions to figure out the answers to. I like a book that makes me want to know more, and this one did.
I admit I skimmed a lot of this book, it was number-y and not as much of a narrative story as I was expecting. Still, I'm glad I read it, and I learned a lot.
I admit I skimmed a lot of this book, it was number-y and not as much of a narrative story as I was expecting. Still, I'm glad I read it, and I learned a lot.
May 23, 2018
Written in 2007, 10 years before the remains of the Clothilda ship, which transported the last slaves from Africa to Mobile, Alabama in 1859, were found. I never knew that it had been illegal since 1808 to bring slaves to the U.S. from another country, but law enforcement often looked the other way.
This well-researched book follows the planning and transport of the slaves by Timothy Meaher, and continues with the remaining events in the lives of Meaher and many of the enslaved people who arrived on the Clothilda and became free 6 years later. Probably deserves four stars, but it was somewhat dry and at times didn’t hold my attention. I was more interested in reading Nora Zeale Hurston’s book on this topic, Barracoon, which was written in the early 1930s but not actually published until May 2018 after I was a good 100 pages into this book. And now I’m not sure I want to read it for reasons hidden in the spoiler below.
This well-researched book follows the planning and transport of the slaves by Timothy Meaher, and continues with the remaining events in the lives of Meaher and many of the enslaved people who arrived on the Clothilda and became free 6 years later. Probably deserves four stars, but it was somewhat dry and at times didn’t hold my attention. I was more interested in reading Nora Zeale Hurston’s book on this topic, Barracoon, which was written in the early 1930s but not actually published until May 2018 after I was a good 100 pages into this book. And now I’m not sure I want to read it for reasons hidden in the spoiler below.
August 6, 2019
A Tough Read
I have to be honest, I struggled with this book in many ways. At times it was just too emotionally draining and at other times I felt it got bogged down in minutia. But even when I gave up on it, I'd eventually return and I'm glad I did. It's a story worth learning
I have to be honest, I struggled with this book in many ways. At times it was just too emotionally draining and at other times I felt it got bogged down in minutia. But even when I gave up on it, I'd eventually return and I'm glad I did. It's a story worth learning
August 29, 2014
Such an important book!
September 11, 2023
I really wanted to like this book. I think the story is there. The last slave ship that was brought over to the United States, 50 years after it had been made illegal, and it happened right where I live. I mean it really happened and it's terrible and true but they and their descendants are survivors. They built a community which is still recognizable and telling the story today. Even since the book was published the Clotilda ship that brought them was discovered. I wanted to like it so much that I stopped reading everything else so I'd want to read it more but I just really struggled getting into it. There were tons of pockets of interesting stories in the mix but they felt like paragraphs hidden amongst pages of details to which I found no connection. I'm glad I read it but I enjoyed the Netflix and Disney plus documentaries more. I am interested in reading "Barracoon" by Zora Neale Hurston written in Cudjo's (the last surviving of the African slaves carried over on the Clotilda) language.
July 4, 2022
As a white man whose relatives all came to the new world through New England, whose ancestors did not own slaves - even those few who came west via the south - and whose ancestors fought for the Union, I gave little thought to the perverse machinations of the slave trade.
My mental state was: Slavery was abhorrent, I share some “white man’s shame” because of it and now let’s all be brothers and sisters. Pretty naive, I know.
I’m trying to adjust that understanding and reading this book has helped. I’ve read numerous books about the era, including others about The Clotilda Africans,” but this one adds considerably to the story. For one thing, this work was approached journalistically and academically, not surprising since the author is a professor.
This research continues and new discoveries have been made since its publication in 2007. Nonetheless, this is a valuable and good read.
My mental state was: Slavery was abhorrent, I share some “white man’s shame” because of it and now let’s all be brothers and sisters. Pretty naive, I know.
I’m trying to adjust that understanding and reading this book has helped. I’ve read numerous books about the era, including others about The Clotilda Africans,” but this one adds considerably to the story. For one thing, this work was approached journalistically and academically, not surprising since the author is a professor.
This research continues and new discoveries have been made since its publication in 2007. Nonetheless, this is a valuable and good read.
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June 11, 2020I finished this heartbreaking book this morning. I have read Hurston's Barracoon, so i was glad to have more illumination on that as well. But this is a difficult read. You can't be snacking or checking your phone--you have to pay attention completely. Once your heart is not only on your sleeve, but is actually held out in front of you, then you begin reading. Anger and bile swell up in your throat.
Greater understanding and therefore pride are your rewards when you are done, although everything is coated with grief. And you know that all of this is multiplied exponentially, so much that it's really incomprehensible.
It's the perfect book to read now that perhaps the heavens have opened up and things might change.
Greater understanding and therefore pride are your rewards when you are done, although everything is coated with grief. And you know that all of this is multiplied exponentially, so much that it's really incomprehensible.
It's the perfect book to read now that perhaps the heavens have opened up and things might change.
January 26, 2018
For such a potentially interesting subject- this book is all over the place. Not only is it all over the place, but it is repetitive. I wanted to know more about the Africans who came over on Clotilda and their stories instead of Zora Neal Hurston's plagiarism. I wanted to know more about the Africans and their interactions with each other after freedom and this part of the story was indeed lacking. I wanted to know if any of the original group that came over on the boat and died here- did anyone back home connect with their history. Maybe this was briefly discussed somewhere in the book and got lost?
July 25, 2020
Extremely well researched that's for sure. It was interesting to hear the history of the Meahers and of the Africans stolen from Benin, Togo, etc and about their local cultures. Learning about Mobile AL's extensive involvement in the slave trade was eye-opening. It hurt to read some of the first-hand stories of slaves' treatment, but it needs to be read. I would recommend this to anyone interested in this subject.
November 4, 2019
Wonderful story; well documented and told
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a wonderful story of longing to return home yet knowing that it would never happen. Having read Hurston’s Baracoon, I visited Africatown this summer. I only wish I had read this book before I made the journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a wonderful story of longing to return home yet knowing that it would never happen. Having read Hurston’s Baracoon, I visited Africatown this summer. I only wish I had read this book before I made the journey.
April 5, 2023
A very in depth acount of Kudjo Lewis, and the family he created, the life he endured & legacy that he left in Alabama, parallelled with the family behind the last documented ship, The Clotilda, responsible for illegally transporting Africans, including Kudjoe, to America to be enslaved.
November 29, 2025
Superb book written around the bicentennial of US abolition of the slave trade (1808). Forced historians like me to consider the scale and meaning of the illegal slave trade up to the 1860s. Helped inspire my research as a professional historian on that topic.
July 13, 2022
Can’t say enough about this book. I learned so much from its 244 pages.
June 15, 2023
It was well done. Sometimes the history got a little dense, but very interesting.
July 27, 2020
Dreams of Africa in Alabama was a disappointment to me. I was anxious to hear about the town settled in Alabama and its inhabitants but instead the book was all research that is not convincingly related. To hear how someone might have been named (fill in the blank) because he might have come from (fill in the blank), etc., left me longing for more story.
February 12, 2016
Engrossing Non-Fiction. The last slave ship to land in America on July 8, 1869. An ileagl landing due to the outlawing of importing Africans into the US. Dreams tells the story of the men who flaunted in order to "import" 115 souls into the US and sell them into slavery. More importantly it tells the story of those African slaves, and how they adjusted ( never actually full adjusted) to life in America. They managed to hold onto their language and cultures. They were from different ethnic groups, yet several of the African coalesced, and formed a unique, sustained community after the Civil war.
August 11, 2025
This book is a well-researched, emotional tale of the last enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. illegally in 1860. It traces their brutal capture and imprisonment, the Americans who planned the illegal journey and purchase, the Middle Passage, their conditions while enslaved, and the life they built for themselves in Africatown, Alabama after the Civil War ended. It is sad and emotional but also a story of perseverance and resilience.
August 6, 2009
This book was quite interesting to me, as it is an account about the last slave ship to enter the US, into Mobile, illegally, just prior to the Civil War. the event happened in Mobile, where I grew up. Thus there were Africans, speaking their tribal language, and living according To African culture well into the twentieth century. It's a very good look into the brutality of slavery as well.
September 29, 2007
I didn't actually finish this book but what I read was really interesting.
June 14, 2011
Very interested book about a tight knit group brought to the shores of the United States and their struggle to go back home and co-exist with their new neighbors.
January 24, 2013
An amazing story, wonderfully written and extremely well researched. A fine piece of scholarship.
June 25, 2013
Full of fascinating revelations and details about the last Africans brought to the United States as slaves (as far as we know) and their life in the South after emancipation.
March 26, 2016
Thats. Good. News. They. Finally. Made. Born. With. A. Real. Name. Know. Games. Doris
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April 26, 2018I JUST FINISHED THIS BOOK. IT'S RLY GOOD, BUT RLY SAD.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews