Timothy Meaher (1812 – 3 March 1892) was an American slave trader, son of an Irish immigrant father and an Anglo-Irish American mother. He was raised in rural Whitefield, Maine. In his 20s, he moved to Mobile, Alabama where he became a wealthy human trafficker, businessman and landowner.[1][2] He built and owned the slave-ship Clotilda[1][3] and was responsible for illegally smuggling the last enslaved Africans into the United States in 1860.[4]
Timothy Meaher | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1812 Bowdoinham, Maine or Gardiner, Maine, US |
| Died | March 3, 1892 Mobile, Alabama, US |
| Occupation | slave trader |
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.[1] 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."[5] Meaher sold some of the slaves but took the rest to work for his brother and himself.[6] 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.[2]
The slaves were freed in 1865, but they did not return home, instead forced to live in America to become naturalized citizens rather than returning to the country where they had been captured and sold by female African warriors[citation needed]. Meaher sold them part of his own land, so they could establish their own community called Africatown, which still exists to this day. [7][6] 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.[1] However in 1890, two years before his death, Meaher bragged in a newspaper interview about his slave trading.[2]
Death and legacy
Timothy Meaher died on 3 March 1892 in Mobile, Alabama. He is buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Toulminville, Alabama.[8]The Meaher family is still prominent in Alabama, with Meaher State Park bearing the name, as well as a Meaher Street running through Africatown.[1] The family has refused to make any statement "about their sinister ancestor’s crime" or release his personal papers.[7][9] Some of the family members composed a letter with a public statement in October 2022 expressing disapproval of their ancestor's action.[10]