A group of 32 West Africans, part of an illegal shipment of enslaved Black people brought to the United States, formed Africatown three miles north of downtown Mobile, Alabama in 1860. Retaining their West African traditions well into the 1950s, the area is now known as the Africatown Historic District and part of Mobile’s African American Heritage Trail. It was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
References:
- Robertson, S. Natalie. 2008. “The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors.” Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2008. Wiley Online Library.
- Willett, Henry. 1993. “Mobile Community Holds On To Unique African Heritage.” Alabama Center for Traditional Culture.
Photo:
- Graveyardwalker (Amy Walker). Welcome to Africatown sign located at the intersection of Bay Bridge Road and Bay Bridge Cutoff Road in Mobile, Alabama. CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.