WEBVTT - How Did the Saltwater Underground Railroad Work? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.120 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:11.920 Lauren Vogelbaum here. When we hear the term underground railroad, 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.200 we usually think of the network of secret overland routes 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.480 traversed by enslaved people escaping north into Ohio and across 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:23.680 the border into Canada. In America, in the early eighteen hundreds, 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.240 the underground Railroad launched a freedom movement that brought people 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.760 of varying religions and races together in a unified fight 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:35.400 against the horror and injustice of chattel slavery. But did 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:37.559 you know that there was a southern version of the 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.000 underground railroad as well. In the early eighteen hundreds, enslaved 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:44.640 black people in Florida and other regions of the South 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.760 were hundreds of miles from border states like Maryland and 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.480 Kentucky and thousands of miles away from British Canada, making 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.160 their options and odds for a successful escape that way 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:59.040 close to zero. We spoke via email with Dr Paul George, 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:03.360 Resident History and at History Miami Museum. He said the 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:07.679 Saltwater Underground Railroad headed south into Spanish Florida, a region 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.319 which was really off the grid and close to other 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.840 areas outside of the US which might behavens for fugitives. 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.920 Believed to have operated from between eight and eighteen sixty one. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.600 The Saltwater Underground Railroad refers to the coastal escape route 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.160 followed by enslaved people into the British controlled Bahamas. People 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.080 who are running away from southern slave states escaped through 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.720 an underground to South Florida. From there, some paid for 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.600 their passage on Bahamian vessels, while others made their way 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:40.320 across the perilous Atlantic in dugout canoes and small boats. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.080 Once out to sea under cover of night, they faced 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:49.560 unimaginable unknowns, unpredictable weather and storms, recaptured by slave hunters, 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:55.880 assault by pirates, and unfathomably deep dark waters. Situated about 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.720 a hundred and fifty miles or two hundred forty kilometers 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.880 off the coast of Key Biscape in Miami, Florida, Bahamas 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.520 were a viable destination for several reasons. For one, in 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.079 eighteen twenty five, the British government decreed that anyone who 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:13.720 relocated to British territory was free, regardless of their prior status, 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.480 and in eighteen thirty four slavery was abolished in all 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.120 British territories, including the Bahamas. Free black people in the 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:26.799 British Bahamas could get married, own land, and pursue an education. Secondly, 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.440 most of the Bahamas inhabitants were black, it was relatively 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.800 easy for escape ees to assimilate into the diverse communities 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.520 of Bahamians made up largely of descendants of enslaved Africans, 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.800 some of whom were themselves escape ees called Maroons, including 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.919 some who had taken refuge with the Seminole people. George said. 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.600 They settled into neighborhoods alongside families of earlier fugitives. Many 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.040 of their descendants still reside there, maritime people as well 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.760 as farmers. Between eight and eighteen thirty seven, in the 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.519 early years after the US acquired Florida from Spain in 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.800 eighteen nineteen, hundreds of Maroons fled to Andrews Island in 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:08.560 the Bahamas. The US paid off Spain's debt to landowners 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:12.200 who had lost their human property, and thus began a 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:16.320 forty year campaign to locate and capture formerly enslaved Africans 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.320 who had escaped to Spanish Florida, as well as to 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.000 force the seven old people onto reservations west of the 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.680 Mississippi on the Trail of Tears. In fifty six, the 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.880 Spanish had brought the first enslaved Africans to what would 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:34.200 become America, though that colony collapsed and British colonies began 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.840 springing up a century later. In an effort to destabilize 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.480 those colonies, Spain, which had by then established a foothold 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.400 further south, began offering asylum to refugees from slavery in 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:49.200 sixteen ninety three, though only if they converted to Catholicism 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.880 and did four years of military service. That enticing policy 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.200 made Spanish Florida into a haven for enslaved people seeking 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.600 their freedom, and led to the birth of the First 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.280 League lea sanctioned free black settlement in what would become 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:07.280 the United States. Fort Mose near St. Augustine. This community 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.280 was probably a way point for black refugees heading south, 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.000 but with the ratification of the Honest Adams Treaty in 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:19.480 eighteen Florida effectively became a US territory that allowed slavery, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.120 spurring Black Floridians to make their way through palmetto fields, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:26.560 dense marshy flats mangrove forests and swamps to get to 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.520 the beaches of southern Florida, where they could hopefully secure 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:34.320 safe passage to freedom in the Bahamas. George said Miami 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.480 was likely the main escape point of the Saltwater Underground Railroad, 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.200 more specifically keep Askayne on the Bay and Ocean, seven 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:46.240 miles southeast of Miami, with the Cape Florida Lighthouse up by, 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.320 it was all over for that main escape route of 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:52.880 the Saltwater Underground Railroad. That lighthouse still stands in Bill 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.080 Bag's Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne and is 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.520 one of two designated National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.159 sites in Florida. Historians estimate that before the eighteen thirties, 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.039 as many as six thousand enslaved people had escaped to 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:13.919 the Bahamas. Today's episode was written by Carrie Tetro and 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.200 produced by Tyler Clang. For more on those and lots 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.960 of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.520 Stuff is production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.479 my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.360 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.