Survivor of Transatlantic Slave Trade Identified

News March 25, 2020

(Newcastle University/Courtesy of the Crear family)
SHARE:
Matilda McCrear
(Newcastle University/Courtesy of the Crear family)

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND—According to a BBC News report, research conducted by Hannah Durkin of Newcastle University has identified Matilda McCrear as one of the last survivors of the transatlantic slave trade. Captured by slave traders in West Africa at the age of two, McCrear arrived in Alabama on the slave ship Clotilda in 1860. The ship is thought to have been scuttled shortly after its arrival in Mobile Bay in an effort to destroy evidence of the journey, because the importation of slaves to the United States had been outlawed in 1808. McCrear, her mother, and one of her three sisters who made the journey were purchased by the same plantation owner, Memorable Walker Creagh. After the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, the family worked as sharecroppers. Durkin said McCrear changed her surname, and had a common-law marriage with a white German-born man. They had 14 children. At the age of 70, McCrear was interviewed by the Selma Times-Journal after she and Sally “Redoshi” Smith, another Clotilda survivor, made a claim for compensation for their enslavement at the county courthouse, which was dismissed. McCrear died in Selma, Alabama, in January of 1940. Sally “Redoshi” Smith died in 1937, and Oluale Kossala, also known as Cudjo Lewis, another known Clotilda survivor, died in 1935. For more, go to “The Case for Clotilda.”

  • Letter from Ireland January/February 2020

    The Sorrows of Spike Island

    Millions were forced to flee during the Great Famine­—some of those left behind were condemned to Ireland’s most notorious prison

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Barra O’Donnabhain)
  • Artifacts January/February 2020

    Bronze and Iron Age Drinking Vessels

    Read Article
    (Alexander Frisch, Museen der Stadt Regensburg)
  • Digs & Discoveries January/February 2020

    The Man in Prague Castle

    Read Article
    (Prague Castle excavations, Institute of Archaeology, Prague)
  • Digs & Discoveries January/February 2020

    As Told by Herodotus

    Read Article
    (Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, franckgoddio.org)