Cudjo Lewis was one of the Africans brought to Alabama aboard the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring captive Africans into the United States. His African name was Kossola (Kazoola). He was born in what is now Benin, West Africa, around 1841. In 1860, when he was about 19, he was captured, sold into slavery, and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Clotilda. After slavery ended in 1865, Cudjo and other Clotilda survivors wanted to return to Africa. They couldn't afford the journey, so they eventually acquired land near Mobile, Alabama and helped establish Africatown, a community where they tried to preserve their African traditions and language.