Areba Riggins

The Dahomey kingdom in western Africa grew wealthy and politically powerful as willing participants in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. In 1860, Timothy Meaher, a wealthy criminal and cruel slave owner in Mobile, Alabama took advantage of the kingdom’s dealings in human cargo. Although the importation of slaves was illegal during that time, owning slaves was not. Meaher financed the illegal voyage of the slave ship Clotilda after a bet with friends that he could bring slaves illegally into the U.S. and sell them right under the noses of the federal government. The story of the Clotilda is well-known, however, the story of Areba is not.

Areba was only 16 years old when she was captured and brutally snatched from her homeland. She was one of the 110 who survived the voyage of the Clotilda, which landed in Mobile Bay on July 8, 1860. Abaché (also known as Clara Turner), Areba's sister, was also devastatingly on this same kidnapping voyage. Areba suffered the ultimate humiliation of forced labor in the Meaher’s home caring for their family while longing for her own. She became known as “the weeping girl” because her intense longing for her family and homeland produced inconsolable tears for years. A well-known story about her in Hannah Durkin's book, The Survivors of the Clotilda and Nick Tabor's book, Africatown: America's Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created is that when she was being forced to learn to cook for the Meahers, she was scolded and hit by the cook Polly. Areba screamed so loud that the rest of her shipmates fiercely came to her rescue and scared Polly away and frightened Mary Meaher. The rest of the household never messed with her again.

After slavery was outlawed in the U.S., Charlie Lewis, a fellowship mate, gave Areba and her husband Bill some land in what is now the historic Lewis Quarters, which is still a neighborhood today, where Clotilda descendants still live. Areba was part of the founding community of Africatown and the Union Missionary Baptist Church. Africatown got its name from being settled by persons that came from the shores of Africa and refused to let go of certain cultures and traditions.

The descendants of Areba have been searching for answers for decades. Areba died so young, and for unknown reasons her husband Bill left and never returned leaving her six young children as orphans. Some families of Africatown and Mary Meaher helped to place the children with families to care for them. At some point Areba also went by the name Lillie Nichol, because it is believed she remarried after Bill left. Although her story has been largely untold, her descendants are working to make sure it is never forgotten. Her story lives on in the lives and stories of her descendants and their quest to ensure that her legacy and history is preserved for future generations of descendants and for the whole world to remember and never forget.