Angola, Florida

Angola was a prosperous community^[1]^: 232 of up to 750 maroons (escaped slaves)^[2]^: 71 that existed in Florida from 1812^[2]^: 72 until Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, at which point it was destroyed. The location was along the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida, near Manatee Mineral Springs Park.^[3] The exact location is expansive, ranging from where the Braden River meets the Manatee River down to Sarasota Bay; archaeological research focuses on the Manatee Mineral Spring—a source of fresh water and later the location of the Village of Manatee two decades after the destruction of the maroon community.^[4]^[5]^{[additional citation(s) needed]} Archaeological evidence has been found^[2] and the archaeology report by Uzi Baram is on file with the Florida Division of Historical Resources of the Florida Department of State.

At the State Library and Archives of Florida, the Spanish Land Grant applications for both Jose Maria and Joaquin Caldez, each list Angola as on the north side of the Oyster River, respectively eight and nine miles from Tampa Bay. [1] The location of Angola on the Oyster River as described by local history author Janet Snyder Matthews, was in "southern Sarasota Bay, eight miles from Tampa Bay."^[6] ⁷¹ In the footnotes to Edge of Wilderness, Matthews speculated that the "Oyster River of Caldes which may have been present-day Whitaker Bayou or Hudson Bayou."^[6]³⁹⁵

In his book on The Territory of Florida, John Lee Williams, described "a stream that enters the bay joining the entrance of Oyster River, on the S.W."^[7] and his accompanying map published in 1837 shows an area between a stream he called the "Oyster River" not to be confused with the Manatee River labeled elsewhere on the map; and another stream entering lower Sarasota Bay as "Old Spanish Fields."^[7]

Background

Spanish Florida was a haven for escaped slaves and for Native Americans deprived of their traditional lands during colonial times and in the first decades of U.S. independence. The Underground Railroad ran south during this period.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Three autonomous black communities developed in Spanish Florida, though not simultaneously. Fort Mose was the first and smallest autonomous black community but it was abandoned in 1763 after the Spanish cessation of Florida in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War. Fort Mose was heavily influenced by neighboring St. Augustine. The second community was at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River, but it was destroyed by forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson in 1816. Angola, farthest from the border of Georgia, was the last of the black settlements to survive.^{[citation needed]} According to historian Canter Brown, Jr., "Most maroon settlements were tiny because people needed to escape detection. Angola's 600 to 750 people was an incredible size back then, and shows that these were capable people."^[2]^: 73 He described it as "one of the most significant historical sites in Florida and perhaps the U.S."^[2]^: 71

None of these were settled as a group, as white colonies were; refugees gradually accumulated over many years until a community of several hundred existed. Some refugees from the Negro Fort calamity came to Angola.^[11]^: 5 In 1815, British officials transported around 80 black veterans of the War of 1812 to Angola.^[12]

Destruction

When Andrew Jackson became Florida's de facto territorial governor in 1821, he decided that Angola would need to be destroyed and its runaway slave populace returned to bondage.^{[citation needed]} Without the official backing of the U.S. government, Jackson decided to employ Indian allies to raid in Florida instead.^[13] "Acting in direct defiance of Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, Jackson's first order of business was to send his Creek allies on a search and destroy mission against Angola",^[1]^: 250 which was "burned to the ground".^[2]^: 73 The result of the raid was "terror" all over Florida and all the blacks who could left for The Bahamas.^[1]^{: 250–252} Those trying to reach the Bahamas would go to Cape Florida. They would be denied refuge in The Bahamas or assistance in general by British officials there. However they still established a settlement on Andros Island, named Red Bays in 1821.^[14]

A small number joined the Red Sticks Indians and formed a community called Minatti at the headwaters of the Peace River near Lake Hancock.^{[Citation needed]}

Commemoration

In July 2018, the first Back to Angola Festival was held at the Manatee Mineral Springs Park.^[2]^: 71 Descendants of those who had escaped to the Bahamas attended.^[15]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Millett, Nathaniel (2013). The Maroons of Prospect Bluff and Their Quest for Freedom in the Atlantic World. University Press of Florida. ISBN 9780813044545.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Eger, Isaac (July 2018). "Angola's Ashes: A newly excavated settlement highlights Florida's history as a haven for escaped slaves". Sarasota Magazine. Vol. 40, no. 11. pp. 70–73.
^ Young, Mark (March 24, 2018). "Slaves had key stop to freedom in Bradenton. It's drawing international attention". The Bradenton Herald. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
^ Vickie Oldham, Uzi Baram (May 12, 2011). "Escaped Slave Community of Angola". C-SPAN Cities Tour. C-SPAN3. American History TV. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ Baram, Uzi (June 2008). "A Haven from Slavery on Florida's Gulf Coast: Looking for Evidence of Angola on the Manatee River" (PDF). African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 3, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ ^a ^b Matthews, Janet Snyder (1984). Edge of Wilderness, A Settlement History of Manatee River and Sarasota Bay 1528-1885 (2nd ed.). Sarasota, Florida: Coastal Press. ISBN 0-914381-00-8.
^ ^a ^b Williams, John Lee (1837). The Territory of Florida, Or, Sketches of Topography, Civil and Natural History, of the Country, the Climate and the Indian Tribes, from the First Discovery to the Present Time, With a Map, Views, &C. A.T. Goodrich. p. 300.
^ Smith, Bruce (March 18, 2012). "For a century, Underground Railroad ran south". Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
^ National Park Service. "Aboard the Underground Railway. British Fort". Archived from the original on May 14, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
^ McIver, Stuart (February 14, 1993). "Fort Mose's Call To Freedom. Florida's Little-known Underground Railroad Was The Escape Route Taken By Slaves Who Fled To The State In The 1700s And Established America's First Black Town". Sun-Sentinel. Archived from the original on February 13, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
^ Brown Jr., Canter (2005). "Tales of Angola: Free Blacks, Red Stick Creeks, and International Intrigue in Spanish Southwest Florida, 1812–1821". In Brown Jr., Canter; Jackson Jr., David H. (eds.). Go Sound the Trumpet! Selections in Florida's African American History. University of Tampa Press. pp. 5–21. ISBN 187985242X.
^ Rivers, Larry E. (2000). Slavery in Florida : territorial days to emancipation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p. 8. ISBN 9780813018133.
^ Rivers, Larry Eugene (2012). Rebels and Runaways: Slave Resistance in Nineteenth-Century Florida. University of Illinois Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-252-03691-0. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved July 2, 2021 – via Project MUSE.
^ Howard, Rosalyn (Summer 2013). ""Looking For Angola": An Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Search for a Nineteenth Century Florida Maroon Community and its Caribbean Connections". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 92 (1). Florida Historical Society: 18–21. JSTOR 43487549 – via JSTOR.
^ Fanning, Tim. "Inaugural Back to Angola Festival celebrates history, culture". Sarasota Herald. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. Retrieved December 24, 2018.