West Africa (c 1858- 1940) c 82 yrs

Matilda McCrear was kidnapped by traders in West Africa when she was just two years old. She was taken to the US on the Clotilda, the last ship to transport enslaved Africans to the country. The Clotilda docked in Mobile, Alabama in July 1860. Her story was uncovered recently by Dr. Hannah Durkin. Durkin’s research shows Matilda, the last known survivor of the Clotilda, is alive in living memory. She died in 1940. She was aged either 82 or 83. This was three years after Sally ‘Redoshi’ Smith, who was earlier understood to be the slave ship’s last survivor. Matilda showed a striking act of resistance when she made a 15-mile journey from home. She traveled to the Dallas County Courthouse in Selma. She went there to make a claim for compensation for herself and Redoshi as survivors of the Clotilda. The claim was dismissed and she left Selma empty handed.