Historic preservationists from state and federal institutions have arrived in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta to investigate the possible discovery of the infamous slave ship Clotilda.

Anderson Flen

"We are here this morning to introduce our guests to the community, and our community to our guests" Anderson Flen, president of the Mobile County Training School Alumni Association, said at a Friday morning press conference held to announce the preservation effort had begun. "We have a number of persons in town from far and wide," he said, referring to a delegation that includes representatives of the Alabama Historical Commission, the Smithsonian and the National Parks Service, among other agencies and institutions.

Among those guests introduced by Flen was Clara Nobles, assistant executive director of the Alabama Historical Commission. Nobles said AHC Executive Director Lisa Jones couldn't be present because "she is currently out at the shipwreck site."

Nobles assured those present that the AHC was fully engaged in the effort to verify the possible find of the Clotilda.

"We are all in," she said.

Like virtually everyone who spoke at a press conference on Friday morning, Flen stressed that experts have not yet confirmed that the ship identified in January is the Clotilda.

"We all hope that it is," Flen said. "However, whatever the findings, we know that it is out there somewhere."

The Clotilda is believed to have been the last ship to carry captive Africans into slavery in the United States. Earlier this year, AL.com reporter Ben Raines located the wreckage of a ship whose location, condition and construction appear to be consistent with the story of the Clotilda.

However, what's left of the partly burned vessel is sunk in mud, and in a location where it also is submerged except when the water levels are unusually low. Before its identify can be confirmed, an excavation must be conducted by specialists.

The recovery of an actual slave ship would be a find of international significance, but also would have special local importance. The captives aboard the Clotilda arrived shortly before the start of the Civil War, and so were freed within a few years. Many of them formed a community north of Mobile that came to be known as Africatown, where for decades they preserved their native language and culture.

The news that preservationists had begun work was made at an event organized by the Mobile County Training School Alumni Association and the Africatown advocacy organization CHESS, whose name represents the goal of making the community Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe and Sustainable.

Flen said that it Friday's introductions were a critical step, one showing that the "guests" respected the community, not just a buried treasure in its vicinity. And it also was a chance for the community to think about the opportunity their guests' findings might bring to celebrate and preserve the unique Africatown Community.

"We wanted to introduce what was going on in the community ... too often groups and individuals come into a community without telling anybody they're in the community and everybody's wondering what's going on. So we wanted on the front end to make sure that those in the community had an opportunity to be introduced and to have an opportunity to talk to individuals who are part of the process of what's going on. To me that's extremely important in terms of transparency."

"This is a new day," Flen said. "We are coming together as one ... the spotlight is on us. It is left up to us to make things happen, and that is what we are planning on doing."

"Those individuals that are from the community, that are a part of the community, and descendants of the community as well as the Clotilda itself, we want to make sure that you talk with the individuals from the Smithsonian. Tell your story. Tell that story. It's a rich story. It's a valuable story."

"We're going to make mistakes," he said of the overall effort. "But those mistakes are mistakes of the head, not of the heart. Our heart is unconditional love for all of our people and all of our community and all of the things that have been put here for us to cherish."

According to the MCTSAA and CHESS, agencies and institutions with representatives taking part in the initial survey of the wreck site include the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), the Slave Wrecks Project, the National Park Service and the Alabama Historical Commission.

According to information provided by the Alabama Historical Commission, the project will begin delicately: "Testing of the wreck will provide baseline information about the ship's architectural and construction features, using research methods that are minimally invasive but have the likelihood of generating conclusive information." The AHC said its duties include managing and protecting shipwrecks and archaeological sites in Alabama waters.

"The residents of Africatown, the City of Mobile, and the AHC's public and private partners have proven to be invaluable during the planning of this investigation," Lisa D. Jones, Executive Director of the AHC, said in a statement released by the commission. "We look forward to being on site and beginning this process."

"The Slave Wrecks Project partners - including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Park Service, the George Washington University and Diving with a Purpose - are pleased to support the state of Alabama and the Africatown Community in this important work of heritage protection and historical recovery," Paul Gardullo, curator, NMAAHC, and co-director of the Slave Wrecks Project, said in the same statement.

Preservation officials will announce early findings at a community meeting planned for Wednesday, March 7. It will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hope Community Center, 850 Edwards St. in Mobile's Plateau community.

Ala. Sen. Vivian Davis Figures

Some of those in the audience at Friday's event brought up a question that will become critical if the find is verified as the Clotilda: The ship's eventual resting place. Many advocates for Africatown hope that it will be displayed in Africatown itself, serving as a symbol of the community's unique history and a destination for historians and tourists. But the idea of displaying it in or near the GulfQuest Maritime Museum in Mobile also has been suggested, and it doubtless would be desirable to national institutions.

"I don't know the answer to that, but that's a discussion we need to have," Flen said in response to the question.

State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures said the answer to her was clear.

"Let me just say -- let me, as your state senator, say -- that ain't going to happen," Figures said, to applause. "It's not leaving Alabama. It will not. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen."