Angola, Florida

Angola was a prosperous agricultural community^[1]: 232 of maroons (escaped slaves) who had close relations with disaffected Red Sticks that existed in the Tampa Bay area following the War of 1812, the Patriot War, the Creek War and the First Seminole War until Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, after which point it was destroyed. The location is hypothesized as along the Manatee River in Bradenton, Florida, near Manatee Mineral Springs Park.^[2] However, the exact location is theorized as more 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.^{[3][4][additional citation(s) needed]} Archaeological evidence has been found^[5] and the archaeology report by Uzi Baram is on file with the Florida Division of Historical Resources of the Florida Department of State. In 2019, the National Park Service added the excavated location at Manatee Mineral Springs Park to the Network to Freedom Explore Network to Freedom Listings - Underground Railroad (U.S. National Park Service).

At the State Library and Archives of Florida, the Spanish Land Grant applications for both Jose Maria Caldez and Joaquin Caldez, each list Angola as on the north side of the Oyster River, respectively eight and nine miles from Tampa Bay. Florida Memory • Spanish Land Grants 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]

Autonomous maroon 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.

Following the Treaty of Ghent, in 1815, British officials transported around 80 black veterans (Corps of Colonial Marines) of the War of 1812 to Tampa Bay area.^[11] Other Colonial Marine veterans and their families were transported to other British colonies (see Merikans).

Another community was at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River, but it was destroyed by forces under the command of General Edmund P. Gaines in 1816 (Battle of Negro Fort). The refugees from this tragic event, including blacks from the surrounding plantations who were not at the Fort, moved east to the Suwannee River valley and settled Nero's Town, near Alachua Seminole leader Bolek's (Bowlegs) "Old Town."^[1]232-233 These settlements were destroyed and abandoned during General Andrew Jackson's invasion of Spanish Florida during the First Seminole War.

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."^[5]: 73 He described it as "one of the most significant historical sites in Florida and perhaps the U.S."^[5]: 71

Destruction

When Andrew Jackson became Florida's de facto territorial governor in 1821, he decided that the refugee maroons and Red Sticks near Tampa Bay 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 Creek allies to raid in Florida instead.^[12] "Acting in direct defiance of Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, Jackson's first order of business was to send his Coweta Creek allies (see William McIntosh) on a search and destroy mission against Angola",^[1]: 250 which was "burned to the ground".^[5]: 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 (see Nicolls Town).^[13]

A small number of the surviving Red Sticks (see Peter McQueen) joined other Lower Creeks refugees 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.^[5]: 71 Descendants of those who had escaped to the Bahamas attended.^[14]

See also

• Merikins
• Black Seminoles
• Fort Mose Historic State Park
• Negro Fort
• Prospect Bluff Historic Sites
• Seminole Wars
• List of ghost towns in Florida