Cargo Manifest for the Clotilda

On February 27, 1860, the schooner Clotilda, commanded by Captain William Foster, departed Mobile, AL, for what this document describes as “St. Thomas or a market.” Actually, the vessel sailed to the coast of West Africa where it loaded a cargo of 103 captives for transport back to the Mobile area. The ship entered Mobile Bay in early July 1860, carrying its human cargo, fifty-two years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade. Criminal charges were leveled against the illegal voyage’s organizers and the Clotilda became the last known slave ship to arrive in the United States.