Timothy Meaher (1812 3 March 1892) was a wealthy

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human trafficker Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extracti ...

, businessman and landowner. He built and owned the slave-ship '' Clotilda'' and was responsible for illegally

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

the last enslaved Africans into the United States in 1860.

Slave trade

The illegal purchasing and transporting of slaves was made as a bet to see if Meaher could avoid the 1807

Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (, enacted March 2, 1807) is a United States federal law that provided that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest dat ...

. Meaher reportedly described the bet as "a thousand dollars that inside two years I myself can bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses." Meaher sold some of the slaves but took the rest to work for his brother

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

and himself. Meaher had its captain, William Foster (1825 - 1901), burn and scuttle ''Clotilda'' in Mobile Bay, attempting to destroy evidence of their joint lawbreaking. The wreck was located in 2019. The slaves were freed in 1865, but Timothy Meaher refused to help them return home or provide reparations. He sold them some land where they created the slave colony of

Africatown Africatown, also known as AfricaTown USA and Plateau, is a historic community located three miles (5 km) north of downtown Mobile, Alabama. It was formed by a group of 32 West Africans, who in 1860 were included in the last known illegal sh ...

. The United States government attempted to charge Meaher, but due to factors such as difficulty proving the crime and the Civil War, he was never prosecuted. However in 1890, two years before his death, Meaher bragged in a newspaper interview about his slave trading.

Death and legacy

Timothy Meaher died on 3 March 1892 in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

. He is buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Toulminville, Alabama. The Meaher family is still prominent in Alabama, with Meaher State Park bearing the name, as well as a Meaher Avenue running through Africatown. The family has refused to make any statement "about their sinister ancestor’s crime" or release his personal papers. Some of the family members composed a letter with a public statement in October 2022 expressing disapproval of their ancestor's action.ABC News:October 28, 2022: Family members of the financier of the last American slave ship break silence
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Slave trade

Death and legacy

References

Further reading