Cycling the Underground Railroad--Day 1

DAY 1: MOBILE, ALABAMA

After a 2 hour car ride from Prescott to Phoenix (starting at 8am), almost 5 hours on three different flights, and two Uber rides of 30+ minutes each, I finally arrived at my motel, the (not so) Quality Inn, around 10:30pm.  That's a long time to wear a mask...just sayin'.

I met some interesting people.  Ginger from Dallas is a chiropractor who owns a business which manufactures and distributes restorative medicine for horses, and was interested in this ride.  She and her husband did a 100 mile bicycle fundraiser in Ireland.  Omar, my Houston Uber driver, writes theology books (you can check him out, Omar V. Gearty, on Amazon).  Beth, who was on her way to Mobile on my flight, is a hospital chaplain who is doing a Kindness Rock project with her hospital staff.  (I shared one of Carolyn's Kindness Rocks with her). And Taylor, the young man who was my Mobile Uber driver and a Mobile native asked me, "Is the Underground Railroad actually underground?" (No, it's not.  It is the name given to the routes that slaves seeking freedom took prior to the Civil War.)  The world is full of interesting personalities!

Today I met up with Susan DuFour from Schenectady, New York, who will be my riding partner for much of the trip.  Since eating was a luxury I didn't have much of yesterday,  we had breakfast on the downtown square at Spot of Tea.  There was a mini-festival going on,  including ladies dressed up in traditional Southern gowns.

A great little eating establishment on the plaza in Downtown Mobile.

A "Mini-Gras" Festival, in lieu of Mardi Gras (due to Covid)

We then headed to the corner of Royal and St. Louis streets, where one of the largest slave markets in the South used to be.  Because of Mobile's geographic position on the Gulf coast, there was easy access for slavers and  human smugglers.  The city moved these unsightly auctions out of the public eye, and when the rail lines were put in, Montgomery became the favored place to buy and sell human labor. (Just for the record, I'm not happy in this photo because the slave market was there; I'm grateful that it's NOT!)

The Mobile Slave Market was the busiest in the South for a period.

About two miles from there is the African-American Archives and Museum. This facility, for reasons unknown to me, is unfortunately closed and boarded up.  The building, however, is very significant.  Until the mid- 60s, this was the "Negro Library," the only place in Mobile where Blacks could check out books!

This museum is now closed, but is housed in the only "colored" library in Mobile.

From there, we headed to the rail yards, turning north to Plateau,  Alabama,  otherwise known as Africatown.   Bear with me.  This is a story worth telling!

Though Transatlantic Slave Trade (bringing slaves directly from Africa) was outlawed in the U.S. in 1808, ships from Mobile continued to defy the ban. In 1858, a couple of shipbuilders decided to craft a ship that could outrun the authorities.  (Some sources say that this was the result of a bet, but that is not agreed upon by historians.) The ship, the Clotilde (pictured on this mural we passed today), went to what is present day Benin in West Africa, and bought 110-160 Africans captured by a neighboring tribe and sold to these Americans. 

Mural of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to come into Mobile, painted in Africatown.

On returning to Mobile, the word of this illegal journey got out and the captain,  afraid of being apprehended,  snuck into Mobile Bay at night, transferred the slaves to small boats and took them upriver, sinking the Clotilde in the bay so he couldn't be indicted without the evidence.  (Amazingly,  in 2018, the wreckage was discovered! See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/clotilda-the-last-american-slave-ship-found-in-alabama for the whole story.)

The captives, who were thought strange by American born slaves, were dispersed to those plantation owners who had invested in the venture, At the end of the Civil War, 7 years later, these captives were set free.  Many of them reunited and settled just a few miles north of downtown Mobile in an area known as Plateau.  They reinstated a chief, had their own rules to settle disputes, and their own traditional healers.  For decades they lived in their own society, today known as Africatown. 

In 1935, the last surviving African from the Clotilde, "The Last Black Cargo," passed away at about 95.  Cudjoe (Kazoola) Lewis, of Yoruba tribal descent, was in his late teens when captured and sold to slavers in West.

Kazoola (Cudjoe) Lewis, the "Last Cargo," was the last living African-born slave.

Cudjoe's story was captured by Zora Neale Hurston, a black female anthropologist at Howard University, in a book entitled Barracoon  (the Portuguese name for the holding pens where slaves were held in West Africa before they were sold to slave traders).  In it Kazoola tells of his capture, the horrific voyage across the Atlantic, his enslavement, and the founding of Africatown.  It is an amazing first person account.  Cudjoe/Kazoola survived his wife and all his children.  He was a founder of the Union Baptist church there.  His bust (above) is located in front of the church, along with a plaque naming the other founders, accompanied by the African tribe from which each on hailed.

 I visited the Plateau Cemetery to try to locate Cudjoe Lewis's grave.  I was unsuccessful,  but did find the markers for 3 of his sons.

The gravesite of two of Cudjoe Lewis's son, both who died before him.

We cycled around the Africatown neighborhood, then headed back downtown.  Enroute we passed some places sporting the local culture, such as this small Blues and Jazz Club.

Local Mobile culture--a local blues/jazz club.

I discovered, just across the street from my lodging,  a beautiful park, which turns out to be the "Spanish Plaza," a tribute to the European nation that first "discovered" what is now the entire southern half of the United States in 1519, a century before the pilgrims arrived.   Spanish influence is evident and appreciated in Mobile. 

Spanish Plaza, commemorating the first settlers of Mobile.

Tomorrow we leave Mobile and begin our journey north.  Heavy fog is forecast until 9am.  So...we'll see (or, in this case, maybe not far!).

Today's Mileage: 15.1

Total Distance to date: 15.1 miles