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A small, unique piece of
American history lies beneath a narrow strip of sandy beach not far from
this island's hotels and nightlife. It's the known resting place of nine
Africans, and 286 others are believed to be entombed along Higgs Beach on
Key West's shore.
The dead were casualties of a trans-Atlantic trip aboard three
American-owned slave ships intercepted by the U.S. Navy in 1860. The vessels
were heading to Cuba to sell their 1,432 passengers into labor.
Rescued from slavery, the Africans spent three months in Key West, being
cared for by local doctors with supplies purchased by the U.S. marshal and
donated by an accepting citizenry. About 1,100 survived, and were eventually
sent back to Africa in a dangerous voyage.
"They were brought here for refuge and became part of our community," said
Norma Jean Sawyer, director of Key West's African-Bahamian Museum. "In Key
West, they found some peace."
The cemetery is just one attraction for tourists who find themselves in Key
West during February, which is black history month. There's also a permanent
exhibit focusing on the Henrietta Marie shipwreck on display at the Mel
Fisher Maritime Museum, in Mallory Square just steps from famous Duval
Street.
Excavated largely by the society, the Henrietta Marie, which sank near Key
West in 1701 after delivering slaves to Jamaica, is one of only a handful of
slave shipwrecks in the Western Hemisphere ever identified by name.
The slave trade had been declared illegal in the United States by the
mid-19th century. But it still continued in places such as Cuba and Brazil,
financed illegally by American profiteers. Slave traders were considered
pirates and faced penalties of death if caught.
'Welcomed
graciously'
President Buchanan in 1859 ordered a blockade of Cuba with Navy steamers to
intercept any American-owned slave ships. In the spring of 1860, sailors
boarded the Wildfire, the William and the Bogota, finding the Africans
living in deplorable conditions. They were destined to be sold as slaves in
Cuba for as much as $1,200 each, said archaeologist Corey Malcom of the Mel
Fisher museum.
The Navy brought the Africans to the nearest U.S. port, Key West. The remote
mariner town had only 3,000 residents and its main industry was salvaging,
also known as wrecking. "These surprise guests were welcomed graciously,"
Malcom said.
Soldiers, carpenters and others quickly built a barracks and a hospital on a
three-acre compound on what is the United States' southernmost point. The
Africans, many of whom were ill after enduring the six-week voyage from
their homes near present day Benin and the Congo, were confined to the
compound.
They remained in Key West for three months, with U.S. Marshal Fernando
Moreno spending his own money to build the barracks and provide the Africans
with food, clothes and medicine.
Townspeople "cleaned out their closets" and wagon drivers, carpenters and
other workers were hired to help, Malcom said. But despite their efforts,
295 of the Africans died.
Moreno paid the $1,617
for the burial of 294 Africans. One other was buried before Moreno took
custody of the Africans.
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Moreno spent thousands
of dollars in the three months, but although he petitioned the government
for repayment until his death, he was never reimbursed.
The surviving Africans were sent across the Atlantic to Liberia, a
U.S.-sponsored West African colony for free slaves. Some died on the voyage,
and most of the roughly 800 who did make it never returned to their homes.
The town's seafaring
identity made it such an accepting place, though there was a minority who
didn't like the presence of the Africans and was eager for them to leave,
Malcom says.
"You would see that diversity and tolerance because there were always people
coming in off ships from different places with different values and
different cultures," he says.
Looking
But their tale of death and survival remained obscure until about four years
ago, when Malcom helped discover the nine graves on Higgs Beach near a paved
road and beach volleyball courts.
Inspired by an old map of the Higgs Beach area that showed the cemetery, he
found documentation on the whole ordeal, from apothecary shopping lists, to
inventories of plates and dishes, to a journal of the return trip to Africa.
Malcom then decided
that the area in and around Higgs Beach should be investigated. He contacted
Lawrence Conyers, a University of Denver archaeology professor, who came to
Key West with ground-penetrating radar.
They beamed radar waves into the ground for three days and found nine graves
that resembled a series of 5- to 6-foot-long ovals, neatly lined up in rows
of three only a couple of feet deep. Malcom believes most of the other
graves were moved after a fort was built over the cemetery, and suspects
there could be a massive pile of bones nearby.
The site of the nine shallow graves is marked off by a black steel fence,
and plans are to build a more permanent barrier to protect them.
Malcom is preparing to apply for a designation on the National Register of
Historic Places." I expect at some point, whether it's us or someone else,
someone will come across the other 280 people that were buried there,"
Malcom says.
Adegbolu Adefunmi, prince of the Yoruba African tribe in America, and Sawyer
coordinated three days of burial and purification rituals for the cemetery
last year.
While there are historic burial grounds for freed slaves, the cemetery joins
one in New York as one of two in the country that houses people from Africa
who were not sold as slaves, Adefunmi said.
"Unlike many Africans buried on (U.S.) soil, these people were shown respect
with an ordered burial," Adefunmi said.
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