This timeline aims to provide a visual reference to key dates in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Events related to specific sunken ships discussed on this website are color coded.

All events related to the Henrietta Marie will appear in light blue, Guerrero in light green, Peter Mowell in orange, and Clotilda in yellow. Significant dates related to the Transatlantic Slave Trade appear in white.

• 1525

  First slave voyage direct from Africa to the Americas.

• 1699

  British slave ship Henrietta Marie, part of the Triangle Trade, made its way from England to Africa in December 1699.

• 1700

  Henrietta Marie Sinks

  Enroute back to London after delivering enslaved Africans to Jamaica, the ship was hit by a hurricane. There were no slaves aboard when the ship sank.

• 1807

  The Transatlantic Slave Trade is outlawed in Britain.

• 1808

  In January, U.S. Federal law abolished the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

• 1820

  The Transatlantic Slave Trade is outlawed in Spain.

• 1827

  Guererro Sinks

  On December 19, Spanish pirate ship Guerrero sank off the coast of the Florida Keys, carrying 561 stolen Africans, 41 of whom drowned with the ship.

• 1829

  After nearly three years of political uncertainty, 121 surviving Africans from the Guerrero shipwreck were taken from St. Augustine as free men to live in Liberia, the American-controlled colony in Africa on September 30. Poor navigation, stormy weather, and an ill-equipped ship landed them in Barbados after 89 days.

• 1830

  From Barbados, the journey was long, and more lives were lost along the way before the remaining 91 men who were rescued from the Guerrero and transported from Key West to St.
  Augustine landed back in Africa.

• 1860

  In February of 1860, the Peter Mowell made its way to Liberia from New Orleans. It met with a larger ship operating as a slave market at sea, carrying about 1,000 captive Africans near the Congo River. Over 400 people were transferred to the Peter Mowell.

  Because the slave trade had been outlawed in the United States in 1807, the Peter Mowell was operating as slave ship illegally.

• 1860

  Timothy Meaher, local businessman in Mobile, AL, made a bet that he could smuggle Africans into the country for cheaper than buying slaves in the domestic market without getting caught.

  Meaher hired Captain William Foster, who built the Clotilda and then set sail for Africa in April.

• 1860

  Clotilda arrives illegally in Mobile, Alabama on July 9.

  Last known slave ship to illegally bring stolen Africans to the U.S.

  

  JASON TREAT AND KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI, NG STAFF. ART: THOM TENERY

• July 1860

  Clotilda Sinks

  To hide evidence of their crime, Meaher and Foster burned and sunk the Clotilda.

• 1860

  Peter Mowell Sinks

  Fear of getting caught led the crew to change course, causing the Peter Mowell to wreck near Lynyard Cay, Bahamas.

  Because the ship were close to shore, those
  aboard were able to climb to land and were then rescued by wreckers.

• 1972

  Henrietta Marie discovered by Captain Demostenes “Moe” Molinar

  Many shackles were first discovered in 1972, including children’s sized shackles and an 800-pound iron cannon.

  Abandoned after its initial finding, the ship remained largely unexplored for 11 years.

  

  David Moore, Site Report: Historical and Archaeological Investigation of the Shipwreck Henrietta Marie

• 1983

  Henrietta Marie identified

  Henrietta Marie‘s bell was found, making it possible to confirm the ship’s identity, and the year she was built, in 1699.

  

• Early 1990s

  Gail Swanson, a local Floridian turned Guerrero historian, ignited the search to locate the Guerrero with her research and writing, which quickly became her passion project.

• 1993

  

  A bronze memorial plaque facing toward Africa was placed at the Henrietta Marie site by the National Association of Black SCUBA Divers (NABS).

  Michael Cottman gently touches the underwater memorial, which honors the African lives lost during the passages of the Henrietta Marie. Photograph by Courtney Platt/National Geographic Creative

• 1993

  Mel Fisher donated his claim to Henrietta Marie’s wreck site and the retrieved artifacts to the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society (MFMHS).

  The MFMHS continues to fund research and conservation for this wreck site.

• 1995

  MFMHS opened “A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie,” a traveling exhibition and the first major museum exhibition in the United States dedicated to a ship involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

• 2003

  Karuna Eberl, director and producer of The Guerrero Project documentary, contacted Ken Stewart, who was at the time the Southern Region Representative for the National Association of Black Scuba Divers (NABS). She was looking for Black divers to interview for her documentary on the sunken slave ship.

  After getting involved, Ken Stewart connected with Brenda Lanzendorf, Biscayne National Park’s only archaeologist at the time, who wanted help documenting sunken ships in Biscayne.

  Together the two formed Diving With a Purpose and began recruiting and training other Black divers and volunteers in marine archaeology and preservation.

• 2012

  Peter Mowell Found

  An interdisciplinary team searching for the Peter Mowell found a “shipwreck consisting of ballast stones, iron spikes, copper fasteners, copper sheathing, and sheathing tacks,” where they predicted the wreck was likely to be located based on historical records.

  Bricks, nails, and concretized metal were also found.

• 2015

  São José becomes the first slave ship to be identified and documented.

• 2019

  Clotilda is discovered at the bottom of the Mobile River in Alabama.

  

  A sonar image showing the wreckage of the Clotilda, SEARCH Inc./Alabama Historical Commission, via Associated Press

• 2023

  Africatown Heritage House Museum officially opens in Mobile, AL on July 8.

• 2024

  Following twenty years of research on the
  Guerrero, Diving With a Purpose members traveled to Liberia, to meet with descendants of the Guerrero survivors.

  The visit included a symposium, interviews, filming, and discussions with living descendants about building a memorial park in their honor.

• 2024

  Mel Fisher Maritime Museum unveils a new permanent exhibit, Spirits of the Passage: The Story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with a focus on material objects from the Henrietta Marie.

• 2025

  All NEH Landmarks programs, including From Clotilda to Community: The History of Mobile Alabama’s Africatown, were canceled in April.

  Participants were notified that these programs will no longer be offered due to DOGE’s termination of their grant award.