2 Best Sights in Mobile, Alabama

Operated by the History Museum of Mobile, this new branch, which opened in 2023 in a  newly constructed building in the Africatown historic area of Mobile, tells the story of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship, which sailed into Mobile Bay with 110 enslaved people in 1860, more than 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade had been outlawed. The wreck of the ship itself was discovered in the Mobile River only in 2019, and the museum includes many artifacts that were found and preserved from the wreck. But the exhibit mostly focuses on the lives of the 110 people who survived the sailing (and their descendants), who eventually made their homes as free people in Mobile's Africatown. Because of the size of the facility, advance reservations are required and walk-ins are not allowed.

Interactive exhibits and special collections of antique silver, weapons, and more tell the 300-year history of Mobile. The Southern Market/Old City Hall, an 1857 National Historic Landmark Italianate building, houses the museum. A Civil War cannon, miniature houses, and souvenirs from Mobile's oldest mystic societies, the secretive social groups that stage the city’s Mardi Gras celebrations, are on display.