On Saturday, March 23, 2019 from 5:00-7:00 PM, a nice crowd helped us celebrate the opening of the first permanent exhibit that tells the story of Angola, a free black settlement on the Manatee River in the 1810s. “Angola’s Freedom Seekers and Florida’s Underground Railroad”
The exhibit covers key events for freedom seekers in Florida: Fort Mose’s founding in 1738; Black warriors fighting as English Colonial Marines in the War of 1812; freedom at Angola; Angola’s destruction and the flight to the Bahamas; free and enslaved in the Village of Manatee; and Union Colored Troops occupying Manatee in 1864.
You too can see the visual displays dedicated to the Florida Underground Railroad and the Angola community as documented through archaeological research at the Manatee Mineral Spring. The exhibit, funded by the Florida Humanities Council and with support from Realize Bradenton, is open at the Visitors Center of the Curry Houses Historic District in Bradenton.