Wendy Ide 

Descendant review – fascinating documentary about a lost slave ship

The families of freed slaves in Alabama and marine archaeologists work together to unearth lost history
  
  

African American studies professor Dr Kern Jackson in Descendant.
Dr Kern Jackson, an expert in African American studies at the University of South Alabama, in Descendant. Netflix Photograph: Netflix

For more than a century, the burnt wreck of the Clotilda, the last known ship to have transported enslaved Africans to America, lay somewhere in the straits near Mobile, Alabama. But it was through the oral histories of the descendants of those freed slaves, rather than the history books, that the legend persisted. Margaret Brown’s fascinating film deals not only with the rediscovery of the ship by a team of marine archaeologists, but also with its impact on a community that has rallied together and has finally managed to establish a key element of their collective history. And while the past has a tendency to be claimed and reshaped by those in power, the residents of Africatown, Alabama, are not about to let that happen again.

Watch a trailer for Descendant.
 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*