Sunday Favorites: Angola and the Underground Railroad Part 3

In the early 1700s, the American frontier was a hotbed of expansion and conflict. As settlers moved into new territories, European rivalries between the English, French, and Spanish spilled over into the U.S., leading to shifting alliances and conflicts among Native American tribes.

Reap Part One and Part Two of this series here. 

During this era, maroon communities formed at the headwaters of the Apalachicola and Flint rivers, challenging the Southern slave system. Slavery also divided Native American tribes: some saw Black people as allies, while others sought alliances with powerful American forces.

Cannon balls from Fort Gadsden State Historic Site - Sumatra, Florida. 1900 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory.

By 1763, Florida had transitioned from Spanish to British control. In 1772, a British court ruling effectively banned slavery, inspiring many Black Americans to view the British as true champions of freedom, contrary to the American Patriots. This sentiment intensified when Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, offered freedom to enslaved individuals who joined the British during the Revolutionary War. Approximately 20,000 enslaved people in Virginia responded, with 12,000 achieving freedom in the West Indies or Florida, according to the National Park Service website.

Despite Florida’s role as a refuge, the British loss in the war led to Florida’s return to Spanish control, with Spain largely neglecting its remote territories, according to “Manatee, Angola and the Underground Railroad,” by Sherry Svekis a historian from Reflections of Manatee.

By 1790, former Virginia Governor Dunmore, then Governor of the Bahamas, supplied arms to Black maroon communities along the Apalachicola River. Prospect Bluff, located near present-day Apalachicola, became a key site for these villages. It served as a British supply depot, fort, and training ground for freedom seekers, emancipated black people and displaced Native Americans. By 1814, as in the Revolutionary War, Black Americans were offered freedom for military service and fought alongside the British in various battles. Major Edward Nicholls, a staunch abolitionist, arrived to command Prospect Bluff and ordered the construction of fortifications. By the time peace was declared in early 1815, over 3,500 Black and Native soldiers were armed and equipped in Florida.

With the war’s end, the British evacuated many Black troops to Bermuda or Trinidad, while others were discharged at Prospect Bluff. Those who remained defended the fort, which became known as the “Negro Fort,” a haven for freedom seekers and a diverse mix of cultures, including Black Cubans, British colonial marines, and escaped former slaves.

The fort’s existence alarmed the pro-slavery press and plantation society in the United States. In response, the U.S. Army built Fort Scott on the Flint River, upriver from Apalachicola, aiming to cut off supplies to the fort. Skirmishes ensued, and on April 22, U.S. boats were fired upon while attempting to pass the fort. By 1816, Andrew Jackson ordered the fort’s destruction. A hot-shot cannonball hit the fort’s powder magazine, causing a massive explosion that killed most of the 320 defenders, including women and children. The remaining survivors were captured.

Many people fled the fort before the American attack. This confrontation is now considered one of the first battles of the First Seminole War. Black warriors fought a delaying action against Jackson and his allies, allowing their families to escape. Survivors sought refuge further south, with many eventually reaching the Suwannee, Tampa Bay, and the Everglades. These movements marked the ongoing struggle for freedom, shifting from Fort Mose to Prospect Bluff and later to Angola, deep in the Florida peninsula and far from American control.