Matilda McCrear

McCrear was captured as a young child in West Africa with her mother and sister by the army of the West African kingdom of Dahomey, which had attacked their home. The Dahomeyans transported their prisoners to Ouidah, a coastal port for slave trading. Captain William Foster of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to have carried captives from Africa to the United States, later arrived in Ouidah and transported 110 enslaved Africans including McCrear to the United States illegally (the U.S. prohibited the Atlantic slave trade in 1808 with the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves). The raid that led to her capture was part of a bigger system in which the Kingdom of Dahomey participated in the Atlantic slave trade by capturing and selling slaves. Writing in his journal in 1860, Foster described how the enslaved prisoners came aboard his ship: McCrear was a member of the Yoruba people. She received traditional facial scars which were visible for the rest of her life. When she was two years old, McCrear, her mother Gracie and sister Sallie (as they were named in the US), were captured and bought by a planter, Memorable Creagh. They were among more than 100 Africans transported in 1860 on the Clotilda. Sharecropping emerged after the Civil War and it often kept formerly enslaved individuals in cycles of debt and economic dependency. Although African Americans were technically free, many were unable to gain wealth or gain financial stability due to certain sharecropping rules. McCrear’s experience as a sharecropper reflects these challenges faced by African Americans in the South after emancipation. In her seventies, McCrear made a legal claim for compensation for her enslavement, which was dismissed. She reportedly traveled long distances in an effort to pursue the claim, demonstrating determination to fight the conditions of her enslavement even decades after emancipation. According to Durkin, she appears to have continued to have worn her hair in a traditional Yoruba style all her life. In January 1940, McCrear fell ill after a stroke. She died January 13 in Selma, Dallas County, Alabama, aged 83. == Legacy ==

McCrear’s life received public attention following research by historian Hannah Durkin, published in 2020, who identified her as the last known survivor of the transatlantic slave trade. Finding McCrear’s story shows how important it is to revisit historical records and learn new information. For years, people thought others were the last survivors of the slave trade, which shows a lack of documentation when it comes to the Clotilda and the survivors. Recent scholars have helped fix that lack of documentation and give people like McCrear the recognition they deserve. McCrear’s life has contributed to many discussions about the documentation of the slave trade. For many years, the identities of individuals brought to the United States on the Clotilda were not fully documented or known. Recent research has found these individuals and told their life stories. McCrear's experiences provide lots of insight into both the conditions of the slave trade and the lives of enslaved people after emancipation. So now, her life is studied to better understand slavery, history, and what people experienced after emancipation in the United States. == Historical context ==

McCrear’s life can show and tell several things about the slave trade and its effects on enslaved individuals and their families. The voyage of the Clotilda in 1860 happened more than fifty years after the United States officially banned the capturing of enslaved people, showing the high demand for slave labor and the act of slave trading. Her experience shows and highlights how the laws put in place did not immediately end slavery. The Kingdom of Dahomey, was one of many West African states that participated in the slave trade and the capture of enslaved people. These individuals were then sold to European and American traders at coastal ports such as Ouidah. McCrear’s early life shows how local and international economic systems were linked to the slave trade. After coming to the United States, McCrear lived a life that looked a lot like other formerly enslaved people in the South. After emancipation, Sharecropping was so common because they didn’t have many opportunities, and it just kept racial inequality going. A lot of African Americans ended up tied to land they didn’t own and working in conditions that made it hard to become financially independent. When McCrear tried to get compensation later on, it showed that formerly enslaved people would still go to the legal system for justice, even though it rarely worked out for them. Even if they didn’t win, it still proves how brave and persistent they were in standing up against the lasting impact of slavery. ==See also==