Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Page S5542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE RESOLUTION 315--MEMORIALIZING THE DISCOVERY OF THE CLOTILDA
Mr. JONES submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources:
S. Res. 315
Whereas, from 1525 to 1866, the transatlantic slave trade
resulted in more than 12,000,000 individuals being taken from
their homes in Africa and made to endure the horrors of the
Middle Passage to the Americas, where those individuals were
forced into enslavement;
Whereas, on March 2, 1807, Congress enacted legislation
banning the importation of enslaved people, which went into
effect on January 1, 1808;
Whereas, in contravention of that ban, the last enslaved
Africans forced to endure the voyage to the United States
came aboard the Clotilda, which--
(1) left from Whydah, modern-day Benin, in May of 1860;
(2) arrived in Port of Pines in Grand Bay, Mississippi, on
July 9, 1860; and
(3) was ultimately brought to Mobile Bay, Alabama, on July
14, 1860, carrying 110 individuals, including men, women, and
children;
Whereas, shortly after arrival in Mobile Bay, Alabama, the
Captain of the Clotilda scuttled and burned the ship to the
waterline in order to conceal the evidence of his crime;
Whereas, following the end of the Civil War and the
emancipation of enslaved Africans, some of the captives
brought to the United States aboard the Clotilda settled in
the area now known as Africatown, Alabama;
Whereas, on May 22, 2019, the Alabama Historical Commission
and a team of scientists confirmed that a wreckage found in
the Twelve Mile Island section of the Mobile River was the
Clotilda;
Whereas, in the 160 years since the Clotilda was brought to
Mobile Bay, the residents of Africatown, Alabama, have played
a critical role in preserving the unique and important
heritage and traditions of their community;
Whereas the Africatown Historic District was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places on December 4, 2012, and
is home to a number of important historic sites, including--
(1) the Mobile County Training School;
(2) the Old Landmark Baptist Church, now known as the Union
Baptist Church; and
(3) the Africatown Cemetery, where many of the individuals
who survived the forced migration to the United States in
1860 are buried: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the recent confirmation of the wreckage of the
Clotilda, the last slave ship to arrive in the United States,
constitutes a monumental discovery of local, national, and
international importance and educational value;
(2) discovery of the Clotilda may serve as an inflection
point for meaningful conversation about both past and present
injustices;
(3) the residents of Africatown, Alabama, embody a spirit
of resilience and a determination to build a better community
for their descendants; and
(4) all efforts should be made--
(A) to preserve and protect the Clotilda and associated
historic sites in Africatown, Alabama; and
(B) to use the discovery of the Clotilda to provide
education to local, national, and international audiences
about--
(i) the violent history of the transatlantic slave trade;
(ii) the stories of the last enslaved Africans to arrive in
the United States; and
(iii) the rich and unique history of the community built by
the descendants of those individuals.
____________________