Painting of captive Africans being taken by boat to the slave ship Clotilda in 1860

America’s last slave ship stole them from home. It couldn’t steal their identities.

In 1860, an illegal bet brought the last known captive Africans to U.S. shores aboard Clotilda. Their story is one of tragedy and resilience.

Captive Africans are taken by boat to the slave ship Clotilda in 1860, at a slave port in what's now Benin.

Painting by Kadir Nelson
This story appears in the February 2020 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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