1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:07,120
Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,920
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here. When we hear the term underground railroad,

3
00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:15,200
Speaker 1: we usually think of the network of secret overland routes

4
00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,480
Speaker 1: traversed by enslaved people escaping north into Ohio and across

5
00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,680
Speaker 1: the border into Canada. In America, in the early eighteen hundreds,

6
00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:27,240
Speaker 1: the underground Railroad launched a freedom movement that brought people

7
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:30,760
Speaker 1: of varying religions and races together in a unified fight

8
00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:35,400
Speaker 1: against the horror and injustice of chattel slavery. But did

9
00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:37,559
Speaker 1: you know that there was a southern version of the

10
00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:42,000
Speaker 1: underground railroad as well. In the early eighteen hundreds, enslaved

11
00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:44,640
Speaker 1: black people in Florida and other regions of the South

12
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:47,760
Speaker 1: were hundreds of miles from border states like Maryland and

13
00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:51,480
Speaker 1: Kentucky and thousands of miles away from British Canada, making

14
00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:54,160
Speaker 1: their options and odds for a successful escape that way

15
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:59,040
Speaker 1: close to zero. We spoke via email with Dr Paul George,

16
00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,360
Speaker 1: Resident History and at History Miami Museum. He said the

17
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:07,679
Speaker 1: Saltwater Underground Railroad headed south into Spanish Florida, a region

18
00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,319
Speaker 1: which was really off the grid and close to other

19
00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,840
Speaker 1: areas outside of the US which might behavens for fugitives.

20
00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,920
Speaker 1: Believed to have operated from between eight and eighteen sixty one.

21
00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:22,600
Speaker 1: The Saltwater Underground Railroad refers to the coastal escape route

22
00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:27,160
Speaker 1: followed by enslaved people into the British controlled Bahamas. People

23
00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,080
Speaker 1: who are running away from southern slave states escaped through

24
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:33,720
Speaker 1: an underground to South Florida. From there, some paid for

25
00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:36,600
Speaker 1: their passage on Bahamian vessels, while others made their way

26
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,320
Speaker 1: across the perilous Atlantic in dugout canoes and small boats.

27
00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,080
Speaker 1: Once out to sea under cover of night, they faced

28
00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:49,560
Speaker 1: unimaginable unknowns, unpredictable weather and storms, recaptured by slave hunters,

29
00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:55,880
Speaker 1: assault by pirates, and unfathomably deep dark waters. Situated about

30
00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:58,720
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty miles or two hundred forty kilometers

31
00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,880
Speaker 1: off the coast of Key Biscape in Miami, Florida, Bahamas

32
00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,520
Speaker 1: were a viable destination for several reasons. For one, in

33
00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:09,079
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five, the British government decreed that anyone who

34
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:13,720
Speaker 1: relocated to British territory was free, regardless of their prior status,

35
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,480
Speaker 1: and in eighteen thirty four slavery was abolished in all

36
00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:21,120
Speaker 1: British territories, including the Bahamas. Free black people in the

37
00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:26,799
Speaker 1: British Bahamas could get married, own land, and pursue an education. Secondly,

38
00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 1: most of the Bahamas inhabitants were black, it was relatively

39
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,800
Speaker 1: easy for escape ees to assimilate into the diverse communities

40
00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,520
Speaker 1: of Bahamians made up largely of descendants of enslaved Africans,

41
00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:41,800
Speaker 1: some of whom were themselves escape ees called Maroons, including

42
00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:45,919
Speaker 1: some who had taken refuge with the Seminole people. George said.

43
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 1: They settled into neighborhoods alongside families of earlier fugitives. Many

44
00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:54,040
Speaker 1: of their descendants still reside there, maritime people as well

45
00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:58,760
Speaker 1: as farmers. Between eight and eighteen thirty seven, in the

46
00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,519
Speaker 1: early years after the US acquired Florida from Spain in

47
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,800
Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen, hundreds of Maroons fled to Andrews Island in

48
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,560
Speaker 1: the Bahamas. The US paid off Spain's debt to landowners

49
00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:12,200
Speaker 1: who had lost their human property, and thus began a

50
00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:16,320
Speaker 1: forty year campaign to locate and capture formerly enslaved Africans

51
00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:19,320
Speaker 1: who had escaped to Spanish Florida, as well as to

52
00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,000
Speaker 1: force the seven old people onto reservations west of the

53
00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,680
Speaker 1: Mississippi on the Trail of Tears. In fifty six, the

54
00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:29,880
Speaker 1: Spanish had brought the first enslaved Africans to what would

55
00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:34,200
Speaker 1: become America, though that colony collapsed and British colonies began

56
00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,840
Speaker 1: springing up a century later. In an effort to destabilize

57
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,480
Speaker 1: those colonies, Spain, which had by then established a foothold

58
00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,400
Speaker 1: further south, began offering asylum to refugees from slavery in

59
00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:49,200
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety three, though only if they converted to Catholicism

60
00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:53,880
Speaker 1: and did four years of military service. That enticing policy

61
00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:57,200
Speaker 1: made Spanish Florida into a haven for enslaved people seeking

62
00:03:57,240 --> 00:03:59,600
Speaker 1: their freedom, and led to the birth of the First

63
00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,280
Speaker 1: League lea sanctioned free black settlement in what would become

64
00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:07,280
Speaker 1: the United States. Fort Mose near St. Augustine. This community

65
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,280
Speaker 1: was probably a way point for black refugees heading south,

66
00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 1: but with the ratification of the Honest Adams Treaty in

67
00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:19,480
Speaker 1: eighteen Florida effectively became a US territory that allowed slavery,

68
00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:23,120
Speaker 1: spurring Black Floridians to make their way through palmetto fields,

69
00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,560
Speaker 1: dense marshy flats mangrove forests and swamps to get to

70
00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,520
Speaker 1: the beaches of southern Florida, where they could hopefully secure

71
00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:34,320
Speaker 1: safe passage to freedom in the Bahamas. George said Miami

72
00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:37,480
Speaker 1: was likely the main escape point of the Saltwater Underground Railroad,

73
00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,200
Speaker 1: more specifically keep Askayne on the Bay and Ocean, seven

74
00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:46,240
Speaker 1: miles southeast of Miami, with the Cape Florida Lighthouse up by,

75
00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:48,320
Speaker 1: it was all over for that main escape route of

76
00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,880
Speaker 1: the Saltwater Underground Railroad. That lighthouse still stands in Bill

77
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:56,080
Speaker 1: Bag's Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne and is

78
00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,520
Speaker 1: one of two designated National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

79
00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:03,159
Speaker 1: sites in Florida. Historians estimate that before the eighteen thirties,

80
00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:06,039
Speaker 1: as many as six thousand enslaved people had escaped to

81
00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:13,919
Speaker 1: the Bahamas. Today's episode was written by Carrie Tetro and

82
00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:16,200
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on those and lots

83
00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:18,960
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain

84
00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:21,520
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for

85
00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,479
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

86
00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:26,360
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.