Clotilda (slave ship)  The schooner Clotilda (often misspelled "Clotilde") was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 or July 9, 1860, with 110–160 slaves. The ship was a two-masted schooner, long with a beam of . The importation of slaves into the United States had been banned by Congress through the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves enacted on March 2, 1807 (effective January 1, 1808), but the practice continued illegally until this vessel was burned and scuttled soon after arrival at Mobile Bay in an attempt to destroy the evidence. The sponsors had arranged to buy slaves in Whydah, Dahomey, on May 15, 1859. Cudjo Kazoola Lewis was said to be a chief and the oldest slave on the ship. After the Civil War, he and thirty-one other former slaves founded Africatown on the north side of Mobile, Alabama. They were joined by other continental Africans and formed a community that continued to practice many of their West African traditions and Yoruba language for decades. A spokesman for the community, Kazoola Lewis lived until 1935 and was one of the last survivors from the "Clotilda." Redoshi, another captive on the "Clotilda", was sold to a planter in Dallas County, Alabama, where she became known also as Sally Smith. She married, had a daughter, and lived to 1937 in Bogue Chitto. She was thought to have been the last survivor of the "Clotilda", until further research published in 2020 indicated that another survivor, Matilda McCrear, lived until 1940. Some 100 descendants of the "Clotilda" slaves still live in Africatown, and others are around the country. After World War II, the neighborhood was absorbed by the city of Mobile. A memorial bust of Lewis was placed in front of the historic Union Missionary Baptist Church. The Africatown historic district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Built in 1855 or 1856, the schooner "Clotilda", under the command of Captain William Foster and carrying a cargo of 110 African slaves, arrived in Mobile Bay in July 1860. Captain Foster was working for Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile shipyard owner and steamboat captain, who had built "Clotilda" for the lumber trade. Meaher was said to have wagered another wealthy gentleman from New Orleans, that he could successfully smuggle slaves into the US despite the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves.