Many of the subjects are direct descendants of the Clotilda survivors who banded together to buy a plot of land and establish the community of Africatown. For more information, read this guide.
While the story of the Clotilda has been kept alive in local lore through oral storytelling, the discovery of the actual sunken ship brought an unprecedented degree of attention to the area. Descendant follows Africatown community leaders as they try to figure out how to best honor their ancestors, share their story and do right by their neighbors, many of whom have been grievously affected by the pollution from local factories. Some of these factories were owned by descendants of Timothy Meaher.
Fourteen years ago, while working on another documentary about Mobile’s racially divided Mardi Gras, director Margaret Brown became acquainted with both a descendant of Timothy Meaher and a descendant of one of the Clotilda’s African captives. “My hometown of Mobile, Alabama, is a city of closely guarded secrets,” Brown explains. “But what underpins all that storybook Mobilian lore is the darkest, most painful and indeed most American of secrets: the brutal reality of slavery.”
When Brown learned that wreckage from the Clotilda had been found, she became interested in discovering how Black and white Mobilians would respond to this piece of local lore being proven as documented history. “What I found instead was that white people, most particularly those directly connected to the story, didn’t want to talk about this story at all. Silence,” she says. “Africatown, on the other hand, was a community brimming with pride, deeply connected to its history, celebrating and conjuring its story in present and dynamic ways as it confronts current-day challenges.”
Working with Kern Jackson — a folklorist at the University of South Alabama with extensive knowledge and footage of Africatown’s oral histories — Brown set out to tell these stories, while documenting how the community’s leaders are working to shape its future.
Descendant takes place primarily in and around Mobile, Alabama — particularly within the historic community of Africatown.
One of the last surviving passengers on the Clotilda, Cudjoe Lewis, was interviewed by Zora Neale Hurston. Her book about Lewis, Barracoon, was published in 2018. Passages from Barracoon are read throughout Descendant.
You can also keep up with Africatown via the Clotilda Descendants Association.
A number of the subjects featured in Descendant are quoted in this Smithsonian article, which details the search for the wreckage of the Clotilda.