The burned-out shipwreck of the Clotilda was discovered last year deep in an Alabama river, bringing new attention to the history. Now, Copeland's song "Clotilda's on Fire" explores the legacy of that voyage.
More than 50 years after the slave trade was outlawed in the U.S., plantation owner Timothy Meaher hired a ship captain to smuggle 110 kidnapped West Africans to Alabama. Copeland says this song is about embracing a part of American history that a lot of people would like to forget.
"History is not always pretty," she says. "But first, you must accept it and then you have to change it."
When the Clotilda returned, its captives were hidden in the swamps near Mobile Bay, and the wooden schooner was scuttled upriver and set afire to hide any evidence. No one was ever held to account.
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