Matilda McCrear

Matilda McCrear (c.1857 – January 1940) was a West African woman who is the last known living survivor of the transatlantic slave trade which brought her to the United States.[1][2] Together with other American slaves, she was granted freedom and American citizenship in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, but she only escaped slavery after the de facto abolition of slavery in 1865.

Matilda McCrear
BornWest Africa 
DiedJanuary 1940 
Other namesMatilda Creagh
OccupationFarmer (1865–) 

According to research by Hannah Durkin of Newcastle University, published in 2020, McCrear was captured in West Africa and was brought to the United States on the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to have carried captives from Africa to the United States. She was a member of the Yoruba people.[3] When she was two years old, she and her mother Gracie and sister Sallie, were bought by a plantation owner, Memorable Creagh.[4] After the abolition of slavery in 1865 she continued to work as a sharecropper with her mother and sister.[5] She remained unmarried, but according to her grandson had 14 children with a white German-born man, and changed her name from Creagh to McCrear.[6] In her seventies, she made a legal claim for compensation for her enslavement, which was dismissed.[7] According to Durkin, she appears to have continued to have worn her hair in a traditional Yoruba style all her life, and to have had traditional facial scars. She died in Selma, Alabama, aged 83.[1]

Prior to the publication of Durkin's research in 2020, McCrear's contemporary Redoshi (c.1848 – 1937) was thought to be the last living survivor of the transatlantic slave trade.[8]

References
  1. Coughlan, Sean (2020-03-25). "Last survivor of transatlantic slave trade discovered". BBC News. Retrieved 2020-03-25.
  2. Durkin, Hannah (2020-03-19). "Uncovering The Hidden Lives of Last Clotilda Survivor Matilda McCrear and Her Family". Slavery & Abolition: 1–27. doi:10.1080/0144039X.2020.1741833. ISSN 0144-039X.
  3. Katz, Brigit. "Researcher Identifies the Last Known Survivor of the Transatlantic Slave Trade". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  4. "The last slave ship survivor and her descendants identified". History. 2020-03-27. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  5. Gifford, Storm. "Final survivor of transatlantic slave trade revealed to have died 80 years ago". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  6. "Matilda McCrear – the hidden story of the last transatlantic slave trade survivor". HeritageDaily - Archaeology News. 2020-03-25. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  7. "Survivor of Transatlantic Slave Trade Identified - Archaeology Magazine". www.archaeology.org. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  8. Guy, Jack. "Last known survivor of transatlantic slave trade identified". CNN. Retrieved 2020-03-29.

See also
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