By Susan Loden

The Underground Railroad that brought freedom for some 60,000 slaves through secret flight north from 1830 through the Civil War is well documented. Former slave Harriet Tubman and the hidden network abolitionist who guided and sheltered slaves along this train-less "railroad" are revered as heroes.

However, until now, little was known about a small band of slaves that escaped from plantations in Georgia and South Carolina into Florida to forge a new community among the Seminoles before fleeing farther to the Bahamas.

Rosalyn Howard

University of Central Florida assistant professor Rosalyn Howard, who is of African-American and American Indian heritage, found her niche as an anthropologist when she heard about these Black Seminoles.

A student of African Diaspora, the spread of Africans across the world and the relationships they form with other peoples, Howard zeroed in on the journey of this 200-member group that sailed with some full-blooded Seminoles and Africans in 1821 to the northwest tip of Andros Island. She learned how they survived in virtual isolation for almost 200 years when she lived among 300 Black Seminole descendants in Red Bays for a year. Howard has documented their history and their contemporary life in her new book, "Black Seminoles in the Bahamas."

Howard with Henry Wallace,a woodcarver, creating beautiful art from mahogany and other native woods.

"This is the first in-depth study of a group who went east instead of north or west," she says. "It’s wonderful. It’s every researcher’s dream to find something new that hasn’t been researched 50 times before. Their acts of resistance and how they survived are an important part of American history. I am adding a piece of the puzzle and bringing out rich details. I am filling a void in the historical records that, unfortunately, have left out or obscured the relationship between enslaved Africans and Native Americans," continues Howard, who joined UCF’s faculty three years ago after earning her doctoral degree and leaving a business career.

Howard stays in touch with the people of Red Bays and they often ask, "’When are you coming home?’ I am considered like part of the family," she says. "It is a very poor community. It is beautiful, but until 1968 there was no road into Red Bays and it is very far from other settlements."

Red Bays children love to be photographed. These children all attended the Red Bays Primary school.

Because of its isolation, other Bahamians sometimes call Red Bays "the land behind God’s back." Howard notes shallow water around Red Bays offered protection from ship-borne intruders in the early days but has limited access to the community over the decades. Red Bays residents identify themselves as Bahamians. There is no separate Seminole-derived culture. The men fish and the women weave baskets similar to those made by their possible ancestors in the South Carolina Sea Islands and in one region of Western Africa. "The people have a reputation of being backward, because of their isolation. The road has brought more access into and from the community," Howard notes.

Dora Russell cleaning a grouper caught by her husband Stancil. Stancil Russell is a descendant of John Russell, an original Black Seminole settler from Florida.

Access brings new challenges and a new project for Howard. She and public health colleagues from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro are pursuing a grant to pay for a study of the social network of young people in Red Bays and other Andros Island communities. The study, to be conducted by students from UCF, UNCG and the College of the Bahamas, will lead to development of an HIV/AIDS prevention program. "A few have died from AIDS in Red Bays. It’s a serious problem throughout the Bahamas and other areas of the Caribbean," she says.

"They really wanted me to tell their story," Howard says of her book. "I wanted to do something original that would really make a contribution to anthropology. Their rich history is something to be proud of and it acts as a kind of cultural capital. They are very brave people who have withstood adversity and overcome that."

"Black Seminoles in the Bahamas", published by University Press of Florida, is available at amazon.com or www.upf.com. Howard can be reached at rhoward@mail.ucf.edu. She will speak about Black Seminoles in the Bahamas at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in UCF’s Student Union as part of the African American Studies James Weldon Johnson Lecture Series. She will also address the same topic at the Orange County Library in downtown Orlando at 2 p.m. Feb. 22.

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