I really enjoyed the first 40% of the book. It was all about Lewis and the other shipmates. How they went from slavery, to starting their own town, and what happened to them and their descendants. I was intrigued by the story of his capture and his time on the ship.
I thought that he had really brought with him after slavery a sense of community to the land that they ended up buying.
The last 60% of the book dragged on and on about the industrial pollution, the ways in which Mobile City went over and through the Plateau region of the area. The author goes on about environmental racism.
This last part of the book was very dry. It had some key players, however, there was no personal touch to the accounts and there was no more sense of community. The key players were often those NOT living in the community.

I think that this book should have been two books. One focusing on the community that the ex-slaves created. The second book should be about the push to have this area outside of Mobile be the 'plymouth rock' of slaves...which was odd to me, since it wasn't so much where they landed, but where they ended up. The second book should also include the environmental racism.

Overall, a bit of a disappointing book for the subject. I learned alot about Lewis and Clotilda but the community basically disappears after the 1950s.

I recently watched a documentary about the Clotilda, so I jumped at the opportunity to read this book. The ship and community are a symbol of the worst of our nation's history. The author has tried to separate fact from fiction, which can't be easy after all these years. I can't say that it is an enjoyable read (it's slavery, after all), but more Americans need to read this book.
I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

A sad but compelling story of the slaves that were brought from Africa to the United States. They were brought over by a plantation owner, Tim Meagher who owned the ship Clotilda. Although years later, the slaves were emancipated, they had no means to get back to their homeland, but instead made a community for themselves called Africatown.
There was obviously a lot of research to write this book and many facts are verified. It is a difficult book to read just for the sad content but very enlightening.
I thank the author,publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Deeply compelling and poignant, Africatown is history that I never even heard of until I read the synopsis of this book and knew that I needed to learn about this.

The author so wanted to do right by this story that he moved outside of Mobile, as to have easier access for research and conversations, during his time on this book. The resulting story is a gripping one as well as being an important part of US history - as much for the horrifying wrongness of trafficking and slavery as the story of the town’s founders and their creating a community, where some of their ancestors live to this day.

Absolute recommendation.