Southfield family traces roots back to last known slave ship to arrive in U.S.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - When President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it took nearly two and half years before all enslaved people were made aware of the news.
On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, thus commemorating the day as the very first that all Black Americans were made aware of their freedom.
As many of us reflect on history, a Southfield family reflects on their heritage, giving Juneteenth 2023 more meaning than ever.
"It was an awakening. And so I'm proud to be woke. I think that's a very positive thing to be woke, and I'm not going back to sleep," said Cynthia Crawford.
Crawford and her family are the descendants of an enslaved man brought illegally to the U.S. on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to arrive in the U.S.
"Peter Lee was my great-great-grandfather, my grandfather's grandfather," said Clotielde McCain.
McCain's great-great-grandfather, Peter Lee, was brought to America from Africa as an enslaved man on the Clotilda. The slave ship was recently discovered sunken off the coast of Alabama.
"The Clotilda is the last slave ship that made it to America that we have any record of," said Detroit historian Jamon Jordan. "It arrived in Alabama near Mobile, Alabama, in 1860. Now, of course, the slave trade - that means ships arriving from Africa bringing enslaved Africans to America - that was outlawed in 1807 and went into effect in 1808."
"The Mobile River is where it was sitting, not far from Mobile downtown itself, and the owner brought the Africans off the ship and decided to scuttle the ship. He set it aflame and to sink it, but that ship is still pretty much intact at the bottom of the Mobile River today," said Yolanda Jackson, a historian with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
It's an uncomfortable truth.
"I don't have much of an understanding. Grandad was a very quiet man. He didn't even speak about the ship. I heard it from my aunt. So … we kind of heard it word of mouth, but it was whispered because it was a secret, and slaves weren't supposed to talk about it. So he didn't talk about it, at least not to me," said McCain.
That could lead to invaluable lessons.
"There's so much that we don't know for most people of African descent," Jackson said. "Once they were brought here, a lot of that information was lost. So here we have an example of people who can point to documents, who can point to specific information that says, yes, this is what happened. Unlike any other story or anecdote that we might have about enslavement here, we have a number of people who have proof."
"We kind of think we know what that process was like, but the closer we can get to an actual ship, the records of that shi, the people who are held on that ship, we can use that information to draw more information about what happened on thousands of other ships that we don't have the records of, or we don't have the wreckage of. So that mission is good for those of us who are studying this history and are really trying to understand what was going on, how people survived, and how this trade this enslavement of millions of African people," said Jordan.
"There's an opportunity for all people to understand the significance, the psychological, the economic as well as the social impact of what was happening in enslavement and what happened with the Clotilda in 1860," added Jackson.
The ship's discovery gives the family a deeper appreciation of the freedom represented by Juneteenth.
"I know Peter Lee desperately wanted to go back to Africa, but at some point, they realized that they were staying here in America, and I feel like everything happens for a reason," Crawford said. "I'm here in America for a reason, so their wildest dream is for me to remember where I came from and remember that my great-great-great-grandfather came with his family giving him away. He was a nobleman. So if he can overcome all that, I can overcome the things that I face here."
An ancestor, though generations removed.
"I think that it's important that, you know, we learn as much as we can about our history," McCain said. "Everybody is important. Your life, my life, it all matters, and let's face it, we're not gonna be here forever. We're gonna be passing this on to the next generation, and for them to know who they were and where they came from is important."
After Juneteenth, Peter Lee and others did experience life outside of enslavement, forming Africatown, a place still in Alabama.
To read more about the Clotilda, visit here.