FLORIDA BLACK HISTORICAL RESEARCH PROJECT, INC.

Dear Friends of Florida History:

We send you greetings from Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. (FBHRP), the nonprofit founded in 1996 to reclaim and celebrate Seminole Maroon history and heritage and related topics.

In support of this mission to tell of the full history of the State of Florida and its environs, we are posting the publicity material from our colleague, Valarie Seymour, announcing the annual two-day "Back to Angola Festival," March 7-8, in Bradenton, Florida, a celebration of history and culture that commemorates the saga of Seminoles\ Maroons who found freedom in Trinidad, the Bahamas, and other locations.

The Festival specifically commemorates the inspiring saga of the survivors of the tragic massacre of self-liberators from enslavement that took place on July 27, 1816 at Fort Negro on the Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle, a consequence of the War of 1812, when a “hot cannonball” struck the gunpowder magazine causing an explosion that killed at least 270 people instantly, including women and children, and could be heard more than a hundred miles away.

Devastated but undaunted, survivors made their way southward, establishing a thriving settlement called Angola in the modern-day Bradenton area. From there, many would migrate farther south to Key Biscayne where the “Salt Water Underground Railroad” would carry them by boat to permanent freedom in the Bahamas,

The Back to Angola festival celebrates the combined cultures of the descendants of Fort Negro survivors who did not lose contact with their Florida history, with food, music, performances, historical presentations, cultural demonstration booths, and more.

Thank you for helping to share our true and full Florida history.

July 27, 2016

On this day, July 27th, 1816, troops of the United States military assaulted and blew up an African-American and Native American settlement on the frontier of Spanish Florida during the Battle of Negro Fort. Negro Fort had served as a refuge for freed men and women, as well as those fleeing slavery in the South. Because of this, Georgian plantation owners feared it as a threat to the institution of slavery. The battle that ensued in 1816 at the fort is remembered today as the beginning of General Andrew Jackson’s conquest of Florida and as either the forerunner to or first engagement of the Seminole Wars. The First Seminole War began in earnest the following year, 1817, and lasted until 1819, arising from the tension that resulted from Jackson’s expedition into Northern Florida. After the First Seminole War, the group was forced to move deeper into Florida for fear of additional reprisals.

Marronage in the Americas — “Sanctuary” by Johnny Montgomery, South Carolina Sea Islands Seminole Maroon Descendant.

Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. (FBHRP) invites
you to Palm Beach County, January 16-18, 2026
to commemorate the 188th Anniversary
of the Second Seminole War at Loxahatchee River Battlefield.

We will explore its connections to hemispheric marronage
in the context of America 250!

"Marronage in the Americas" is our theme as we seek to
honor Seminole Maroons who found freedom in Florida
before, during and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
the founding moment of the United States.

We’re hosting this 3-day celebration of maroon history,
and we’d love to see you there!

Join us for "Marronage in the Americas,"
beginning Friday, January 16, 2026 at 5:30 PM at
Historic Tabernacle Church at 801 8th Street,
West Palm Beach, FL 33401.

Activities continue on Saturday, January 17,
at 10:00 am at Historic Tabernacle Church
and Sunday, January 18, at 10:00 am
at Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park in Jupiter, FL.

Hotel reservations
FYI for our visitors from out-of-town:
We have confirmed limited availability at
The Fairfield Inn by Marriott on Indiantown Rd. in Jupiter, FL.
Please call 561-748-5252. Ask for Beverly or Ashley.
We look forward to seeing you in Palm Beach County
January 16-18, 2026.

DAY CLEAN IN LA FLORIDA

A Poem By Wallis Tinnie
(With highest regard and gratitude,
an allusion to Langston Hughes’s “Daybreak in Alabama”)

When I become an Artist
I’ll draw me some pictures
About day clean in La Florida
I’ll put some glorious paint in it
There’ll be the silence of grey moss
disguised by the morning dew
ghosts glittering on mighty oaks
And the fertile promise of ebony muck
in Belle Glade and Pahokee Near Lake Okeechobee
The air will be redolent with the sweet memory
Of Seminole Maroon camp fires
And softened by the aroma of pine needles
and Tallahassee clay after rain.
And there will be “black and white black white”
and red and black red “black people”
And I’ll paint “white hands and black hands”
and black and red hands “and brown and yellow hands”
And black muck hands
And shell mound hands
“Touching everybody with kind fingers
And touching each other natural as dew”
In that dawn of color
when I Become an artist
And paint about daybreak
In La Florida.

Did You Know?

• Africans were in the Americas centuries before Columbus and the “slave trade,” as shown by the research of scholars like Ivan van Sertima and Leo Weiner. Some evidence suggests an early African presence in Florida.

• Africans accompanied the first Spanish explorers and settlers of Florida, nearly a full century before the English settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.

• While the Southern colonies, and later Southern states of the U.S., were dominated by plantation slavery, Florida was Spanish territory and “Freedom Land” for Africans escaping enslavement and Native peoples escaping settler encroachment on their traditional lands.

• Pirates were known for exercising “complete integration and complete democracy.” Among the most legendary of pirates was Black Caesar, who operated in South Florida waters.

• The first invasion of a foreign country by the U.S. began with the incursions into Florida which became known as the Seminole wars.

• Both the words “Seminoles” and “Maroons” are derived from the Spanish word “cimarrones,” which was used for livestock which escaped into the wild. “Cimarrones” became “Siminoli” in the Creek Indian language, and then “Seminole” in English.

• “The Seminoles were a people, not a tribe,” consisting of numerous Native groups and Africans. Black Seminoles were especially valuable to the alliance as interpreters, since they knew both European and Native languages.

• The Seminole Wars were the costliest in U.S. history, in both money and bloodshed, until the Vietnam War.

• The main goal of the Seminole Wars was not only to “fight Indians” and to displace them west of the Mississippi River on the Trail of Tears, but equally importantly to "recapture the 'property' " of Southern slave owners and prevent further escapes of enslaved people.

• One of the most important sites of the Second Seminole War was the 1838 Loxahatchee River Battlefield in northern Palm Beach County, Florida, where Black and Native Seminoles, outnumbered and outgunned, fought bravely for their freedom, until they were captured by U.S. forces, dishonorably, under a flag of truce, and marched on the Trail of Tears to Tampa, shipped to Louisiana and east Texas, and marched to Oklahoma.

Dear Lovers of History and Culture:

This comes to request your support of Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc.'s [ FBHRP ] new initiative, "Speaking Memory, Archives, and Artifacts."

This project was selected for promotion in a fundraising effort to support Black Non-profit organizations, Give 8/28, organized by Mighty Cause.

Financial Contributions--small, very small, tiny, really miniscule! none and large, very large, gigantic!--are appreciated .

Important also is your sharing this message with someone who you feel would support this effort.

We appreciate your support, your presence at our events, your financial contributions and your publicity. Every gesture is important. All support is welcome and valued.

On behalf of the Board of FBHRP, I thank you.

Sincerely,
Wallis Tinnie
Board Member
Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc

Retrieving, Preserving, and Celebrating Seminole Maroon History and Heritage

M I S S I O N

The Mission of the Florida Black Historical Research Project Inc. is to research, collect, and disseminate knowledge of significant contributions Blacks have made in the State of Florida.

Massacre Unveiled: Remembering the Negro Fort

Did You Know?