NAMED A TOP BOOK OF 2024 BY AMAZON AND WASHINGTON POST

“Hannah Durkin lets the enslaved speak for themselves, and they tell a story not only of unimaginable suffering but also of courage and survival.”—Wall Street Journal

“The Survivors of the Clotilda, a comprehensive account of one of the most important parts of American history, is a triumph.”—Booklist (starred review)

\"A welcome history of defiance and survival.\"—Kirkus Reviews

Joining the ranks of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Zora Neale Hurston’s rediscovered classic Barracoon, an immersive and revelatory history of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on US soil, told through the stories of its survivors—the last documented survivors of any slave ship—whose lives diverged and intersected in profound ways.

The Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on American soil, docked in Mobile Bay, Alabama, in July 1860—more than half a century after the passage of a federal law banning the importation of captive Africans, and nine months before the beginning of the Civil War. The last of its survivors lived well into the twentieth century. They were the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history.

In this epic work, Dr. Hannah Durkin tells the stories of the Clotilda’s 110 captives, drawing on her intensive archival, historical, and sociological research. The Survivors of the Clotilda follows their lives from their kidnappings in what is modern-day Nigeria through a terrifying 45-day journey across the Middle Passage; from the subsequent sale of the ship’s 103 surviving children and young people into slavery across Alabama to the dawn of the Civil Rights movement in Selma; from the foundation of an all-Black African Town (later Africatown) in Northern Mobile—an inspiration for writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Zora Neale Hurston—to the foundation of the quilting community of Gee’s Bend—a Black artistic circle whose cultural influence remains enormous.

An astonishing, deeply compelling tapestry of history, biography, and social commentary, The Survivors of the Clotilda is a tour de force that deepens our knowledge and understanding of the Black experience and of America and its tragic past. 

The Survivors of the Clotilda includes 30 artworks and photographs.

This landmark work of history chronicles their journey from freedom to survival, and finally to community:

• The Last Slave Ship: The full story of the Clotilda, which landed in Mobile, Alabama, in 1860—more than 50 years after the international slave trade was outlawed.
• The Middle Passage: A harrowing account of the 45-day journey, tracing the lives of the 110 children and young adults stolen from their homes in West Africa.
• From Slavery to Freedom: The lives of the survivors in Alabama, from their enslavement through the Civil War and emancipation, and their struggle to build new lives.
• The Founding of Africatown: How the survivors pooled their resources to buy land and create their own community, preserving their language and traditions for generations.
• Narrative Nonfiction: Based on years of intensive archival research, this book brings to life the last-known survivors of the slave trade, whose stories connect to the Harlem Renaissance and the quilters of Gee’s Bend.