She and Sallie hid in a swamp for several hours, only to be discovered by the overseer’s baying dogs. Matilda was a born resister, and one of her earliest memories was of running away from her captors. Once on the plantation, Gracie moved in with a man named Guy, a fellow Clotilda survivor. The two older daughters went to another buyer, and their family never heard from them again. Gracie and her two youngest daughters-toddler Matilda and 10-year-old Sallie-were sold to Memorable Walker Creagh, a planter, physician, and state representative.

Less has been known, until now, of the fate of some 25 Clotilda captives who were “sold upriver” to plantations in the Black Belt of Alabama. (I detailed their story in my book Dreams of Africa in Alabama, and in the recent National Geographic cover story “Last Journey into Slavery.”) Some of their descendants still live there today. Five years later, after the Civil War ended their bondage, many of the freed Africans banded together and built their own close-knit community, which came to be known as Africatown. When the 108 survivors of the crossing arrived in Mobile, most were put to work on local plantations.

Her son Paul (right) says his great-great grandmother's story inspires pride in his family, and also 'creates some personal pressure to persevere.' Photographs by Elias Williams, National Geographic 'I feel sad for what happened to her, but happy to learn more about her,' says Matilda's great-granddaughter Yolande Calhoun (above).

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