In 1860, 110 West Africans endured a harrowing Atlantic journey to Mobile Bay aboard the Clotilda, the last US ship to transport enslaved Africans, and as many as seven died at sea. Timothy Meaher orchestrated the voyage, commissioning Capt. William Foster to smuggle the human cargo into Alabama despite an 1808 international ban. Survivors were hidden upriver before being sold to plantations in several Alabama counties. After their 1865 emancipation, many Clotilda survivors forged their own communities, including Africatown and Lewis Quarters. On April 5, 1870, four Clotilda survivors and three American-born freedpeople, some of whom had been enslaved by Col. Thomas Buford, bought this seven-acre parcel for $200 from former Confederate Sgt. Hiram Mounger Posey, Buford's stepson, and his sister Ella E. Posey and S. Hooks. The Clotilda survivors in the transaction were Charlie Lewis and his wife Maggie and Africatown doctor Jabez Shade and his wife Polly; joining them were Lucy Wilson, Horrace Ely, and his wife Matilda. They were the first Clotilda survivors to possess their own land, and residents named the property Lewis Quarters. The residents surrounding Africatown adapted their ancestral music and prayers, built homes collectively, and embraced Christianity. Charlie Lewis, a Yoruban culture preserver and elder co-judge, enacted laws, farmed, and taught entrepreneurship to his daughters Martha and Mary, who sold his vegetable crops in town. After initially laboring for poverty wages at Timothy Meaher's sawmill, Lewis became the wealthiest townsman, known for his repair skills and ability to foster harmonious relationships. The Lewis Quarters community soon included fellow Clotilda survivors Anthony Thomas and Uriba Riggins and their partners Ellen and Bill. Before the violent end of Reconstruction, many original residents participated in civic affairs. During the racially charged 1868 election, five male residents of Africatown and Lewis Quarters, including Charlie Lewis, defeated efforts by Timothy Meaher and others to prevent them from voting, each paid their $1 poll tax, and cast their ballots. They applied for citizenship later that year, and descendants of the first Lewis Quarters residents remain in the community today.