Sunday Favorites: Angola and the Underground Railroad

Did you know the Underground Railroad extended to Manatee County? This week, we will explore the African-American settlement of Angola and its involvement in the Underground Railroad.

As we all know, the Underground Railroad was not actually underground (this was term was used symbolically) and not a railway at all, but a secret transportation network for escaped slaves.

Organizers of the Underground Railroad used railroad terms as secret language when discussing strategy. 'Agents' coordinated routes. 'Baggage' was fugitive slaves that needed to be moved from place to place. If a slave was expected to arrive they were referred to as a 'bundle of wood', if they were traveling via an agricultural shipment, they might be referred to as a 'load of potatoes. 'Conductors' were people that transported slaves directly and a 'station master' was the keeper or owner of a house where slaves could stay safely hidden until it was time to move to the next stop, according to a 2019 speech entitled Manatee County, Angola, and the Underground Railroad by Sherry Svekis, of Reflections of Manatee, a local historical organization.

This highly organized system was made up of independent subsets. It is thought to have assisted more than 100,000 slaves from 1810 -- 1850. However, there was no clearly defined route and 'station masters' and 'stations', or safe dwellings, changed frequently. While many northern-based slaves were escaping to the Ohio River, where they were instructed to follow the North Star to Canada, those in the south rarely made it in that direction.

Instead, they traveled a very different route, one that may have taken them south into the Florida wilderness, where they formed alliances with another group of exiled people, the Seminole natives. Often located in remote areas on the edge of settled areas, these communities were known as "maroon communities" and were often targeted by militias, thus forcing slaves and natives to fight for freedom, according to Svekis.

One such community existed here in Manatee County. Angola consisted of around 750 escaped slaves and Seminole natives who temporarily made the Sarasota/Bradenton area their home. The free society served as a haven where this group of exiled individuals enjoyed freedom, at a time when both groups were being persecuted and enslaved in other parts of the country.

The location of this community is thought to have been at the confluence of the Manatee and Braden rivers, according to Sarasota-based historian, Vicki Oldham. The site was unknown until the early 2000s, when Oldham teamed up with New College Anthropology Professor Uzi Baram, director of New College Public Archaeology Lab, and discovered relics thought to be associated with the community, according to a 2018 article in Sarasota Magazine called "Angola's Ashes: Newly Excavated Settlement Highlights Florida's History of Escaped Slaves," by Isaac Edger.

The article cites a book called "Florida's Peace River Frontier, a detailed history of 19th-century Florida Seminoles," by Canter Brown Jr. The book features a comprehensive account of the village made up of African-Americans and Seminole natives. The perimeters of this community reached from the Manatee and Braden Rivers all the way to Sarasota Bay.

The group of people that lived in Angola was decedents of free and runaway slaves in Georgia and the Carolinas. At the time, Florida was under British rule. The British offered the group sanctuary if they joined forces and fought against the U.S. during the War of 1812, according to Edger.

The group manned a fort on the Apalachicola River known as Prospect Bluff. When the United States Government got wind of its existence, it sent Gen. Andrew Jackson to destroy it. The destruction of the fort put the black Seminoles on the move again. They are thought to have escaped down the coast, finally settling in Angola. There they farmed, hunted, and traded with seasonal Cuban fishermen. They also utilized large dugout sailing canoes to travel back in forth to the Bahamas. The community existed until 1821 when Gen Jackson organized an attack that burned it to the ground.

The next few decades were tragic for the group of people, but they were determined to protect their freedom. In the 50 years preceding the Civil War, African-Americans had the most significant influence in shaping Seminole affairs, including the First and Second Seminole wars. But the alliance of black people and Native Seminoles was a constant source of concern to the U.S. Government because the Seminoles were seen as a major threat to the institution of slavery.

The U.S. Government set out to re-enslave those free black people and drive their Native American alliances south. Many of the Angola residents were able to escape to the Bahamas where their ancestors still reside.

Those that fought with the Seminoles were driven into the Everglades, where some of their ancestors live today.

The thriving community of Angola is an intriguing story of a brief haven that provided hundreds of people sanctuary. The only remaining proof of its existence is a new historical marker dedicated to its history, thanks to historians like Oldham and Baram, who fought to keep the story alive.