Timothy Meaher
Timothy Meaher (1812 – 3 March 1892) was the son of an Irish immigrant father and an Anglo-Irish American mother. He was raised in rural Whitefield, Maine. In his 20s, he moved to Mobile, Alabama where he became a wealthy human trafficker, businessman and landowner.[1][2] He built and owned the slave-ship Clotilda[1][3] and was responsible for illegally smuggling the last enslaved Africans into the United States in 1860.[4]
Timothy Meaher | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1812 Bowdoinham or Gardiner, Maine, US |
| Died | March 3, 1892 Mobile, Alabama, US |
| Occupation | slave trader |
Slave trade
The illegal purchasing and transporting of slaves was made as a bet to see if Meaher could avoid the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves.[1] Meaher reportedly described the bet as "a thousand dollars that inside two years I myself can bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses."[5] Meaher sold some of the slaves but took the rest to work for his brother and himself.[6] Meaher had its captain, William Foster (1825–1901), burn and scuttle Clotilda in Mobile Bay, attempting to destroy evidence of their joint lawbreaking. The wreck was located in 2019.[2]
The slaves were freed in 1865, but Timothy Meaher refused to help them return home or provide reparations.[7][6] He sold them some land where they created the slave colony of Africatown.[7] The United States government attempted to charge Meaher, but due to factors such as difficulty proving the crime and the Civil War, he was never prosecuted.[1] However in 1890, two years before his death, Meaher bragged in a newspaper interview about his slave trading.[2]
Death and legacy
Timothy Meaher died on 3 March 1892 in Mobile, Alabama. He is buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Toulminville, Alabama.[8] The Meaher family is still prominent in Alabama, with Meaher State Park bearing the name, as well as a Meaher Street running through Africatown.[1] The family has refused to make any statement "about their sinister ancestor’s crime" or release his personal papers.[7][9] Some of the family members composed a letter with a public statement in October 2022 expressing disapproval of their ancestor's action.[10]
References
- Reeves, Jay (8 February 2019). "Descendants from last US slave ship gathering in Alabama". AP NEWS. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- Raines, Ben (23 January 2018). "Wreck found by reporter may be last American slave ship, archaeologists say". AL.com. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- "The Last American Slave Ship". The Coastal South. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- Zanolli, Lauren (26 January 2018). "'Still fighting': Africatown, site of last US slave shipment, sues over pollution". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- Diouf, Sylviane A. (2009). Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. Oxford University Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-19-972398-0.
- Little, Becky. "Descendants of Last Slave Ship Still Live in Alabama Community". HISTORY. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- Tabor, Nick (2 May 2018). "Africatown and the 21st-Century Stain of Slavery". Intelligencer. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- Diouf, Sylviane A. (2009). Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America. Oxford University Press. p. 183. ISBN 9780199723980.
- Smith, Kiona N. (2 August 2019). "What will happen to the last slave ship in the US?". Ars Technica. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ABC News:October 28, 2022: Family members of the financier of the last American slave ship break silence