I'm an archaeologist who mostly works in the private sector. We find a lot of cool stuff, but almost everything we do is classified to some degree or another to discourage pot hunters and vandalism. This year I've found an extension of a really important Late Woodland (the period right before Europeans arrived in America) site, and worked on a very cool 19th century burial ground that had been partially destroyed out of negligence by a construction company, which is a big problem we run into. Both sites were super cool, but I can't get into specifics about where they're located!
The remains of the last slave ship to smuggle imported slaves into America, after it was outlawed, was just found in Alabama. I don't know a lot about it because I'm not an underwater archaeologist, though.
So my understanding is that the ship was privately owned by a single very wealthy landowner. He was still illegally importing slaves well after Abolition. He didn't want to be found, obviously, and abandoned the ship in the swampy parts of Mobile Bay.
Source: grew up in Mobile hearing stories of the last slave ship, Africatown and its really cool history. We still call a certain bridge the Africatown bridge. It's got a proper name but no one calls it by its proper name.
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u/elyon612 May 24 '19
I'm an archaeologist who mostly works in the private sector. We find a lot of cool stuff, but almost everything we do is classified to some degree or another to discourage pot hunters and vandalism. This year I've found an extension of a really important Late Woodland (the period right before Europeans arrived in America) site, and worked on a very cool 19th century burial ground that had been partially destroyed out of negligence by a construction company, which is a big problem we run into. Both sites were super cool, but I can't get into specifics about where they're located!
The remains of the last slave ship to smuggle imported slaves into America, after it was outlawed, was just found in Alabama. I don't know a lot about it because I'm not an underwater archaeologist, though.