最后一艘美國(guó)奴隸船的幸存者

最后一艘美國(guó)奴隸船的幸存者

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

經(jīng)過(guò)艱苦的研究，跨大西洋奴隸貿(mào)易的最后幸存者已經(jīng)被確認(rèn)。

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.

馬蒂爾達(dá)·麥克雷爾兩歲時(shí)在西非被奴隸販子抓獲，并乘坐最后一艘美國(guó)奴隸船“克洛蒂爾達(dá)”號(hào)運(yùn)往美國(guó)?？寺宓贍栠_(dá)號(hào)于1860年7月停靠在阿拉巴馬州的莫比爾。

McCrear died in 1940, aged 82 or 83.

麥克雷爾于1940年去世，享年82或83歲。

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.

紐卡斯?fàn)柎髮W(xué)英國(guó)文學(xué)學(xué)院文學(xué)和電影講師漢娜·杜爾金博士在《塞爾瑪時(shí)報(bào)》雜志上讀到麥克雷對(duì)她的采訪時(shí)，揭開(kāi)了麥克雷爾的故事。然后，杜金利用人口普查數(shù)據(jù)和其他記錄將她的生活拼湊在一起。

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

這項(xiàng)研究使麥克雷爾83歲的孫子約翰尼·克雷爾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.”

他在紐卡斯?fàn)柎髮W(xué)發(fā)布的一份聲明中說(shuō):“我不知道她上過(guò)‘克洛蒂爾達(dá)’。這真是個(gè)驚喜。”

“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.”

“她的故事讓我喜憂參半，因?yàn)槿绻龥](méi)有被帶到這里，我就不會(huì)在這里，”他補(bǔ)充說(shuō)。“但很難了解她經(jīng)歷了什么。”

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.

研究顯示，馬蒂爾達(dá)是和她的母親格雷西、她的三個(gè)姐姐以及那個(gè)將成為她的繼父的男人一起被帶到美國(guó)的。她的兩個(gè)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.

“盡管她在蹣跚學(xué)步時(shí)就離開(kāi)了西非，但她似乎在一生中都以傳統(tǒng)的約魯巴式發(fā)型留著頭發(fā)，這種發(fā)型大概是母親教給她的。她還將自己的姓氏從克雷爾(她的前奴隸的拼寫)改為麥克雷爾(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.

麥克雷爾70多歲時(shí)接受了《塞爾瑪時(shí)報(bào)》雜志的采訪。1931年，她來(lái)到位于塞爾馬的達(dá)拉斯縣法院，為自己和作為克洛蒂爾達(dá)幸存者的雷多希提出賠償要求，但沒(méi)有成功。

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

這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《奴隸制與廢除：奴隸與后奴隸研究雜志》上。