最后一艘美国奴隶船的幸存者

最后一艘美国奴隶船的幸存者

The final survivor of the transatlantic slave trade has been identified after painstaking research.

经过艰苦的研究，跨大西洋奴隶贸易的最后幸存者已经被确认。

Matilda McCrear was just two years old when she was captured by slave traders in West Africa and transport to the U.S. on the Clotilda, the last American slave ship. The Clotilda docked in Mobile, Alabama in July 1860.

马蒂尔达·麦克雷尔两岁时在西非被奴隶贩子抓获，并乘坐最后一艘美国奴隶船“克洛蒂尔达”号运往美国。克洛蒂尔达号于1860年7月停靠在阿拉巴马州的莫比尔。

McCrear died in 1940, aged 82 or 83.

麦克雷尔于1940年去世，享年82或83岁。

Dr. Hannah Durkin, a lecturer in Literature and Film at Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, uncovered McCrear’s story when she read an interview with her in the Selma Times-Journal. Durkin then used census data and other records to piece her life together.

纽卡斯尔大学英国文学学院文学和电影讲师汉娜·杜尔金博士在《塞尔玛时报》杂志上读到麦克雷对她的采访时，揭开了麦克雷尔的故事。然后，杜金利用人口普查数据和其他记录将她的生活拼凑在一起。

The research enabled McCrear’s 83-year-old grandson Johnny Crear to find out about his grandmother’s story.

这项研究使麦克雷尔83岁的孙子约翰尼·克雷尔得以了解他祖母的故事。

“I had no idea she’d been on the Clotilda,” he said in a statement released by Newcastle University. “It came as a real surprise.”

他在纽卡斯尔大学发布的一份声明中说:“我不知道她上过‘克洛蒂尔达’。这真是个惊喜。”

“Her story gives me mixed emotions because if she hadn’t been brought here, I wouldn’t be here,” he added. “But it’s hard to read about what she experienced.”

“她的故事让我喜忧参半，因为如果她没有被带到这里，我就不会在这里，”他补充说。“但很难了解她经历了什么。”

The research revealed that Matilda was brought to the U.S. with her mother Gracie, her three older sisters and the man who would go on to be her stepfather. Two of her brothers were left in West Africa.

研究显示，马蒂尔达是和她的母亲格雷西、她的三个姐姐以及那个将成为她的继父的男人一起被带到美国的。她的两个兄弟留在了西非。

“Even though she left West Africa when she was a toddler, she appears throughout her life to have worn her hair in a traditional Yoruba style, a style presumably taught to her by her mother. She also changed her surname from Creagh – her former enslaver’s spelling– to McCrear,” Durkin explained.

“尽管她在蹒跚学步时就离开了西非，但她似乎在一生中都以传统的约鲁巴式发型留着头发，这种发型大概是母亲教给她的。她还将自己的姓氏从克雷尔(她的前奴隶的拼写)改为麦克雷尔(McCrear)。

McCrear was in her 70s when she was interviewed by the Selma Times-Journal. She had come to Dallas County Courthouse in Selma in 1931 to make an unsuccessful claim for compensation for herself and Redoshi as Clotilda survivors.

麦克雷尔70多岁时接受了《塞尔玛时报》杂志的采访。1931年，她来到位于塞尔马的达拉斯县法院，为自己和作为克洛蒂尔达幸存者的雷多希提出赔偿要求，但没有成功。

The research is published in “Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies.”

这项研究发表在《奴隶制与废除：奴隶与后奴隶研究杂志》上。