The Alabama reporter found the last known slave ship in the United States.

This aerial view shows the current situation of this 124-foot (38-meter) long slave ship. Ben Lei Ensi/Bu Lei Ensi @ Al)1More than 50 years ago, a rich man made an outrageous bet and boasted that he could smuggle a shipment of African slaves to the United States, even though it was illegal to import slaves to the United States at that time. After some secret operations, the man won the bet and later burned the boat to hide the evidence.

The ship named "Clothilda" was the last ship to carry slaves into the United States, and its location has long been puzzled by historians. But not long ago, Ben Lei Ensi, a reporter from AL, an Alabama news website, found a shipwreck that sank in the19th century near Mobile, Alabama. Archaeologists doubt whether Clohilda's body was finally found.

The design of the charred wreckage is consistent with that of a ship built between 1850 and 1880. Maritime experts told Life Science that the location of the ship was on the spot. [See photos of burned slave ship wreckage]

However, the identity of the newly discovered sunken ship is still unknown, at least for now. Archaeologists still need permits so that they can dig and study some parts of ships and their internal cultural relics; This may help researchers to determine whether this ship is really the Klohilda.

"We didn't expect to find a clock engraved with the name of a ship in the mud," John bratton, professor and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida in Pensacola, told Life Science. Instead, archaeologists will study the hull of this ship, which survived the fire because it was below the waterline. Blatten said that experts will also study "how ships are fixed together".

The discovery of the sunken ship in Lei Ensi was due to the special investigation and extreme low tide of the weather system, which led to the "bomb cyclone" at the beginning of 5438+ 10. After discovering the charred sunken ship, Lei Ensi immediately called local archaeologists, including bratton, to evaluate it.

It is concluded that the age of the sunken ship can be traced back to the middle of19th century (Clothilda was built in 1855), and its construction technology has the typical characteristics of sailing ships carrying timber and other heavy goods along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Lei Ensi reported in Al: "That's how Closide designed it." It is reported that this blood vessel also shows signs of being burned. ..... The evidence of the shipwreck fire includes the unique courtyard on the forged iron chain plate used to fix the mast and the bowsprit, as well as the charred beams and wood in the ship.

Bratton and Gregory Cooke, assistant professor of marine archaeology at the University of West Florida, visited the site together. They told Life Science that they not only looked at the ship's equipment, but also found its shortcomings.

"It is fixed together with very large iron bolts, which is not surprising at this time," Bratton said. There is also a large iron belt called "chain plate" on the sunken ship, which is used to fix the ship's shield, ropes and cables. It is obvious in the bow area, which increases the idea that the ship type is a schooner, "Blatten said.

Experts also checked whether the ship has the post-civil war characteristics, including nuts-tightened screws, and the construction details that will be placed on the ship after the mechanical system or engine Crotilda is built. But this sunken ship doesn't have these features, bratton said. [help! 1808, Thomas Jefferson signed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States and any of its territories. However, due to the high demand for slaves-mainly because of the invention of cotton gin, which helps workers to quickly separate cotton fibers from plant seeds-people still illegally bring slaves to this country.

One of them was Teemo West Hermio, a steamboat captain and planter in Alabama. Blatten said that he made a bet of $654.38 million, hoping to escape the federal army and smuggle slaves to China. He also invited william forster to be the captain of the ship. Foster agreed, and in 1860, he sailed to the kingdom of Hom, which is now Benin, to buy 1 10 slaves.

But the American authorities soon learned about this plan, which prompted Meiere and Foster to come up with another plan: after they brought slaves to this country, they would burn Clothilda, as the historian Cirbian Diouf of Lei Ensi's book A Dream of Africa in Alabama (Oxford University Press, 2007) once wrote.

Foster knew-and michal knew-that they might be found, so they decided to destroy the evidence and obvious signs of a difficult voyage: partitions, platforms, empty food and buckets, cauldrons, vats, blood, vomit, saliva, mucus, urine and feces that stained the board. There is always an unpleasant smell around slave ship.

Lei Ensi wrote that Foster and Meiere were never convicted for their wrong actions, mainly because the outbreak of civil war meant that prosecuting their crimes was not a top priority. However, Meiere was temporarily arrested, and Foster had to pay a fine of $65,438+$0,000 because he didn't register for international travel at the port, Lei Ensi said.

Lei Ensi wrote that slaves were scattered on three plantations, but five years later, at the end of the civil war, prisoners were released. Former slaves asked Middleton to pay for their return to Africa, but he refused. Therefore, the organization established "Africa City", a community in the north of Mobile, where they can speak their mother tongue, implement traditional African agricultural techniques and open their own schools, Raines wrote.

Some descendants of slaves still live there, and Blatten said that archaeologists hope to involve these descendants in the excavation of the ship. Blatten said that future excavations may find some equipment used by prisoners to imprison slaves, such as fetters and chains.

"Once these devices are moved, it will be a large-scale team project." It is really attractive and has the potential to become a very important website.