BEYOND THE EXCAVATION: INTERPRETING ANGOLA
Jean L. Lammie
IN PERSON SPEAKER PRESENTATION (Zoom might be available at this link Meeting ID: 875 9116 9750 Passcode: 049553)
Where enslavement exists, so too does the desire for freedom. Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, many enslaved individuals ran from their enslavement seeking freedom. Some ran north along the now well-known routes of the Underground Railroad to Canada. Others ran south and sought freedom in Spanish Florida. Some of these people joined the Spanish forces at St. Augustine, some chose to settle near Seminole allies, and others continued south. One such group of several hundred people made their freedom refuge on the south bank of the Manatee River at the mineral spring near present-day Bradenton. The community of ‘Angola’ lasted approximately 30 years (about 1790 to 1821) before it was destroyed by allies of Andrew Jackson. By the time the Armed Occupation Act, homesteaders began to settle in Bradenton after 1842, the freedom seekers of Angola were long forgotten, and the evidence of the community was hidden beneath the sands. After more than 10 years of community-oriented research, Reflections of Manatee secured funding for a large, multi-organization excavation of the mineral spring park, home of the Angola Freedom Seekers, in 2020. This presentation explores the excavation, analysis, and interpretation of the materials recovered.
Dr. Jean Louise Lammie, Ph.D, RPA is the Executive Director of Reflections of Manatee and a Project Archaeologist with Archaeological Consultants, Inc., of Sarasota. She has extensive experience developing interpretive content, displays, and tours for a variety of audiences. Jean’s academic research focuses on Seminoles, soldiers, and maroons in Territorial Florida with an emphasis on the period of the Second Seminole War. She is particularly interested in the ways that social groups use expressions of identity to confirm or contest colonial power structures.