Disturbance in the Dirt: African Cemetery Under Higgs Beach

Meet The Hosts And Pour Drinks

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Oh, hey there.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I'm Kate.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I'm Bradley.

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And this is the History Buffoons.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

What are you going to teach me today?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Um, today I'm going to tell you the story of um the African cemetery at Higgs Beach in Key West, Florida. It's a place connected to three illegal slave ships.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Uh-huh. And a discovery that happened 140 years later.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That's a long time afterwards. I know. Why is our theme slave for like the last few episodes?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Unplanned.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Maybe my searches are like, here, you've looked at everything under the slave trade. Here you go. Here's another one. Here's another one. That was really unplanned. Thank you for calling that out.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yep. I'd like something different for the next.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

So um disclaimer, I might have to cut out some sneezes, coughs, tissue papers. She's all just she's feeling fine, just stuffed up.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

It's allergies, and I don't know why.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I don't either. But all right. We I got us an old classic that we haven't had in a minute. Because we haven't. Seattle cider basil mint.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

It's been a, I don't know, geez, it's been a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

It's just such a nice zipper, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

It is. And then I also have myself some delicious torpedo. Torpedo. I love torpedo. Dubs. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

I don't know. Man, it's still good.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

It's weird because I can't like smell right now, so like tasting is a little off is weird, yeah. Yeah.

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No, I get that. All right.

A Lost Cemetery On A Tourist Beach

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So 140 years later they discovered something. Let's find out what.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Okay. So when archaeologists arrived at a stretch of beach in Key West, Florida.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah. My parents used to go there all the time.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

I've been there once.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

I've I've I don't think they ever took me there. I I've been to Florida a bunch of times, but I don't think I've ever been to Key West.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

So this is in 2002.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

They were trying to answer a mystery that kind of puzzled historians for quite a few generations. Records from the 1860s showed that hundreds of Africans who had been rescued from illegal slave ships had been buried somewhere near the island, yet over the years the exact location of the cemetery had been lost.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

So they rescued him and then they buried him?

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

That seems really why would you rescue him just to bury him? There's a story behind it. Is there really?

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

So, okay, let's find that out. What the hell?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

So Key West is one of Florida's uh most popular destinations.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

It's a very touristy place these days.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Tourists stroll along historic streets and they spend their afternoons on the beach, explore landmarks that tell, you know, the history of the island. Yep. So if nearly 300 people had been buried there, it seemed reasonable to assume that they would know where the cemetery was.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

But they don't. Well, unless they wanted it hidden, right? It's not like that. Okay. Nope, it just got lost. Well, I mean, things do get lost over time.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

They do, and this is one of them.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Look at like the um I just heard uh on a podcast I was listening to, so you obviously know the the Sphinx, right? Yeah. Do you know what LIDAR is?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

It's is it like gay dar?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Where you just know when someone's gay? Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Like someone someone know you know when someone's lying. Not even close. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

It's I don't know all the ins and outs, I just know of it. But they can do like scans, like underground scans, yeah, basically. So they just found because when like Napoleon found the Sphinx, it just its head was showing. Oh they think they think they found another Sphinx under the like a second Sphinx under the sand. Whoa. But my point is you wouldn't know that because all the sand went over it. Right. So things get lost over time.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

But what if they're lying?

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Dar. That was a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. Anyways.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

So old military maps pointed to a cemetery near what is now Higgs Beach.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Nineteenth century newspapers described the burials, and government records documented the deaths of Africans who had been rescued from illegal sh slave ships and brought to Key West.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

So they rescued him, brought him to Key West, but they didn't then bury them. They died first. Yes, clearly. You are not very clear on that. They died.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Clearly. They didn't get buried alive.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Okay, because they would have died if they did get buried alive. They did.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

They would. They didn't, but they would.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

So the mystery was why the cemetery itself had seemingly disappeared. The breakthrough finally came when archaeologists used ground penetrating radar to examine the area without disturbing the ground. So as the images came back, they began identifying and what appeared to be grave shafts hidden beneath the sand. Shafts. So after more than 140 years, the cemetery had finally been found. This discovery stunned a lot of people in Key West because the graves had been hiding in plain sight.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Families had picnicked on top of them. Children spent countless afternoons playing on the beach on top of them. Visitors walked across the beach for decades without realizing that they were standing um on top of a significant burial ground. Sure. So if these men, women, and children had been rescued from illegal slave ships, how had so many of them died after finally reaching freedom? And I'm gonna go for disease Kleenex.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

They die from disease injuries. Um maybe gladiator games. That's wow. Do it away from the microphone. Trying to talk here. So gladiator games is how I'm guessing. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

That's your final okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Because there is a Coliseum in Key West, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:29

For sure. So we have to go back to 1860.

Why Illegal Slave Ships Kept Sailing

SPEAKER_01 7:35

The United States was only months away from the Civil War, and political tensions between the North and South were reaching a breaking point. Yep. Many people assume that once the United States outlawed the international slave trade that happened in 1808, the simp the ships would simply stop sailing, right? Right. Uh-uh. Not quite.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Well, that's that's almost like saying, hey, um we're gonna initiate prohibition.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

That means there will be no alcohol moving at all.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Right. Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yeah, right. It it created gangsters and uh huge underground business. And I mean, great fucking thinking people.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So Congress had made it illegal to import enslaved people from Africa, Britain had outlawed the trade as well, and both nations committed naval vessels to hunt down these slave ships.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Is that who rescued them then?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

So on paper, it looked as though the Atlantic slave trade had been brought to an end, but it like you said, it just went underground. Underwater, if we if you will.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

They had submarines. Could you imagine that? Nope. That would be fucking wild. You know, they did have submarines in like the Civil War, right? They were very crude, obviously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Anyways.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Did they still have like a spout that came that just brought in air?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

I remember seeing a picture once, and I don't know the years that they were in service, and again, they were very crude for the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

I I remember one story, and I could be mixing up things where like one sank and kill everybody in it or something or other. I I don't remember all the details, but or I read a book once that was fiction, and I'm remembering that. I don't know. I'm pretty sure they did, though.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

So the enormous enormous profits were enough to convince traffickers that the risk to keep going was worth taking.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Well, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Captains sailed under false flags, they carried forged paperwork and searched for routes that would help them avoid the naval patrols. Yeah. And every successful voyage could make investors wealthy. So the ships continued crossing the Atlantic long after the governments had declared the trade illegal.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

So the fact that the trade had become illegal often made conditions even worse for the people trapped aboard those vessels.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Well, yeah, because they probably had them in the low fucking whatever the bowels of the ship in hidden compartments. And it's not like they had bathrooms in there. Yeah. Figure it out, people.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

So captains knew that every extra day at sea increased the chances of being intercepted, so ships were packed with as many captives as possible.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Well, and you had to probably think these people were such pieces of shit. They played the law of averages. We'll just go off of the basic number. Like, hey, we got a hundred, we showed up with 80. We were hoping for 75.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

We're good. Right. We don't care if like 20 died or whatever number it would have been. Right. They still were like, well, we hit our quota for what we wanted.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

And that's why they overpacked them.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Exactly. Food and water on the ships were rationed. Living spaces were reduced to the bare minimum. Of course. And speed became more important than anybody's health and survival of the people below deck. Right. The voyage was already one of the most brutal experiences imaginable, and then the pressure of avoiding capture on top of that only made it more deadly. Yep. The men, women, and children who would eventually arrive in Key West came from communities across uh Western and Central Africa. Sure. Many had been captured during raids, while others were forced into existing slave trading networks that stretch hundreds of miles inland.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Well, yeah, because their own people gave them away for money because they were terrible fucking people, too. Yeah. Everyone blames the white man for the first time slaves. But it was everybody. Yeah, we're all just terrible. It wasn't just one race.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

So families were separated, villages were torn apart, and children suddenly found themselves surrounded by strangers speaking unfamiliar languages. By the time that they reached the coast, some had already spent weeks or even months in captivity. And that was only the beginning of their ordeal in some cases. Slave traders had little interest in preserving the identities of the people they transported.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

They probably didn't even know half of them what they were because they didn't speak that language.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yes. Ship manifest manifests rarely recorded names, family relationships, or even ages.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

To the traffickers, the people crowded below deck were not individuals, they were just cargo. That's 100% what they were. The ships that would eventually carry many of these captives to Key West were named the Wildfire, the William, and the Bogota. So to the captains who operated them, they represented another opportunity to make a fortune.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

To the people forced aboard, they represented fear, uncertainty, and a voyage that many wouldn't not survive.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

The voyage across the Atlantic only deepened that tragedy. If you've ever walked through a historic sailing ship or toured like a maritime museum, it's easy to picture like these wide wooden decks and open spaces and and the it being on the ocean with the the fresh sea air.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

But the reality was for these enslaved Africans was the opposite. They spent the voyage confined below deck in spaces so crammed that many could not even stand upright. Men were c constantly shackled together in rows, while women and children usually separated into different sections of the ship. Ventilation was almost non existent, and the air was filled with heat, humidity, sweat, vomit, and human waste. Yeah, it's gross. Food and water were distributed sparingly because every barrel occupied space that could have otherwise been a space for a captive. Yeah. Disease spread rapidly throughout the crowded um holds where there was no practical way to isolate any of the sick. Dysentery, measles, smallpox, and respiratory illnesses were throughout the entire ship, while malnutrition and dehydration left many people too weak to even fight what they were dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

I still cannot separate dysentery from the Oregon Trail.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I know.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

That's where it looks like.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

It's ingrained in us from a young age because of the game.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

You died of dysentery.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Great game, by the way. Such an up-and-coming, like just masterpiece.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

I mean, it still is. If there's a video game Hall of Fame, and I don't know if there is, it should be in there.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

It should be in there.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Just saying.

The Wildfire Is Captured At Sea

SPEAKER_01 14:39

So one of the ships involved in this story was the Wildfire. Yeah. A fast-sailing vessel that had been built for speed that made it an attractive choice for traffickers operating in an era when outrunning the naval patrols meant the difference between making a fortune and losing everything.

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

The wildfire was believed to have been bound for Cuba, where slavery remained illegal.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

And the demand for enslaved labor on sugar plantations continued to generate profits. Sure. In April of 1860, the wildfire neared the end of its Atlantic crossing. It attracted the attention of the United States Navy.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

The USS Mohawk. Mohawk. Which was conducting anti-slavery patrols off the coast of Cuba. Okay. Commanded by Captain Silas Terry, the Mohawk has spent years searching for vessels involved in the illegal slave trade, and its officers knew exactly what signs to look for.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

One detail immediately stood out. What? Can you guess what that might be just by looking at a ship from afar?

SPEAKER_00 15:48

It's sail?

SPEAKER_01 15:50

No.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Oh. Um its mast. What?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

The wildfire appeared to be riding unusually low in the water. Oh, sure. Yes. Experienced sailors could recognize this as a possible indication that a ship was carrying far more weight than it should. Yeah. Didn't that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Reminds me of uh, well, you've seen the Italian job with Mark Mark. Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Thuron and Jason Statham and all those guys.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

I mean, that's how they figured out which one of the trucks that left Edward Norton's compound was carrying the gold bricks because it they measured they measured the distance.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah, exactly. So it's similar, obviously much different, but similar. Yeah. So all right.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

So a heavily loaded merchant vessel was not unusual, but in waters known for illegal slave trafficking, an overloaded ship was enough to justify a closer inspection.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Oh, I'm I have no doubt.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

So as the Mohawk approached, Navy offices officers boarded the vessel and quickly confirmed their suspicions the wildlife was carrying more than 500.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

You said wildlife. Wildfire.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Sorry, wildfire. Five hundred Africans who had been packed into conditions that shocked even like the most seasoned naval personnel.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

So did this uh Mohawk ship and his captain then take them on there and then bring them to Key West? Um escorted them to uh on that ship?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah. You couldn't give them a little relief and like I'm not sure if the crew boarded Wildfire and and they took the ship, or if they were like, follow me. I doubt it, but I they probably got on board. They had to go on board and well they had to, but like I'm assuming they like took the helm.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

I'm saying they probably commandeered the ship. Yeah. Because otherwise, like, all right, um, they're not looking.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Hard to port. Right. I mean, right. So seriously.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Official reports describe people crammed into spaces with almost no room to move. Many were suffering from severe dehydration, malnutrition, and disease after weeks at sea. Right. The air below deck was so foul that it was hardly un unbearable. And the physical condition of many of the captives made it painfully clear what type of punishment basically that they had to endure.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah, I mean, I think punishment is even an understatement. Yeah. I don't know what else you would call it. Torture. That's probably actually better because Jesus Christ, could you just I hate it when I'm like, think of going in an elevator with like five other people. It's like this. Could you imagine that? No. And that's not even that bad. Yeah. Or being at a concert, squished into the crowd or whatever. Yeah, but I'm there on out of my own free will. Yeah. You know, these guys are sardined in not against against their will, not out of their own free will.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

So fuck that. So for the people aboard aboard the wildfire, the arrival of the United States Navy meant something that they could not have imagined only hours earlier.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

No.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

The voyage that had begun with capture, forced marches, and weeks of confinement aboard a slave ship had finally come to an end. The rescue created a new challenge for officers abo aboard the Mohawk. Saving the captive the captives was the first step. The Navy how now had to turn to deep deep. The Navy now had to determine what to do with more than 500 people who required immediate food, water, shelter, and medical attention. Jeez. Returning them directly to Africa was not a practical option. The Mohawk was a warship, not a passenger vessel, and it did not have the space or supplies needed to transport hundreds of survivors across the Atlantic. Of course not. So the nearest location with a significant naval presence, federal officers, physicians, and facilities capable of responding to an emergency like this was Key West. Wow. So they were the wildfire was escorted there. At the time, it was a practical solution with the known resources available.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, I totally understand why.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah. No one involved could have known that the island would soon become the site of one of the last great humanitarian crises connected to the transatlantic slave trade, or that nearly 300 people they had just rescued would never leave Key West alive.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

But like, how long did they live there?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Not long.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Not long.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

And you're gonna get to why they didn't leave. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

For the Africans aboard the wildfire, Key West represented something that they had not experienced in weeks. One solid ground.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Oh, geez, could you imagine being on a fucking ship? I've been on a boat before. I've never been on a boat for an extended amount of time, meaning days, let alone weeks. And of course, their conditions are far worse. Crammed in whatever fucking I'm a buoy. But yeah, could you imagine stepping on the ground as a big thing?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

This makes me uncomfortable just to think about. I can't imagine what they went through.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Do I need to go get the dramamine?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

There's some in my car.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Is that really?

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Okay. Easy access. Why do you have that?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

From when I went to Ohio driving. As a passenger. So after everything that they had endured, it would have been understandable to believe that their nightmare would have come to an end.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

When the wildfire reached Key West on April thirtieth, of eighteen.

The African Depot And A Crisis

SPEAKER_01 22:00

1860, the island suddenly found itself responsible for more than 500 people in desperate need of care.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Although Key West was an important naval station and one of the busiest ports in the Gulf of Mexico, it was still a relatively small community with only a few thousand residents. Okay. Nothing in its history had prepared it to receive hundreds of severely malnourished refugees in a single day.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Right. Yeah. No, how can you prepare for that?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Yeah. Federal officials moved quickly to establish what became known as the African Depot, a temporary facility where kind of like the Home Depot? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Um, so it was a temporary facility where the rescued Africans could receive food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Physicians examined the new arrivals while soldiers, um, government employees, local martin merchants, and ordinary residents worked together to gather supplies and care for their survivors.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

That's nice, at least.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

It was an enormous enormous logical undertaking and more not logical, logistical. Um and before officials had time to catch their breath, the situation became even more complicated. Right. Within weeks, two additional slave ships, the William and the Bogota, were intercepted and brought to Key West. Together with the wildfire, the three vessels carried approximately 1,400 rescued Africans, transforming what had become as a single rescue into one of the largest humanitarian crises the island had ever faced. Temporary shelters expanded, additional supplies were requested, and physicians worked tirelessly to treat the constant flow of patients arriving from the newly captured ships.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

That's so many people.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

So many people. Every available resource was stretched, yet the doctors quickly realized they were fighting a battle that they had little chance of winning.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

And why did they realize that? Disease. Yeah. I unfortunately kind of thought that's where that was going.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

You were correct, right? Fresh food, clean water, and proper shelter undoubtedly saved many lives, but for others, the damage had already been done. Yeah. Nineteenth century physicians did everything they could with the knowledge that they had, but medicine had obvious limitations.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Germ theory had not been widely accepted yet. Um, antibiotics were still generations away, and treatment often consisted of little more than providing nourishment, rest, and supportive care while hoping that the body could recover on its own. Jeez. And of course, for hundreds of survivors, it could not.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Yeah, I mean, you can't really they did what they could. Can't really fault them.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

No, for the information and the resources that they had at the time.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

At the time, yeah. I mean, they did. So the total number was 300 people who died. That's right. Out of 1400. Yeah. I mean, obviously that sucks, clearly. But they saved 1,100 people. Yeah. That's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

But you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

So deaths began occurring soon after the first arrivals reached Key West. Right. And the number continued to grow over the following weeks. Historical records vary slightly, but most historians agree that approximately 295 of the rescued Africans died before arrangements could be made to transport the survivors back to Africa.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Is that what they ultimately did?

SPEAKER_01 25:46

For most of them, yes. Really? Okay. So these were people who had survived capture, uh, forced marches across Africa, imprisonment aboard illegal slave ships, and an Atlantic crossing that claimed countless lives already. They had endured enough to reach freedom, only to die days or weeks after they finally escaped the system. So sad. The dead were buried just outside the town in a simple cemetery. There was no monuments, no headstones.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

I feel like it was too simple since it was lost for 140 years.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

The burials were carried out as respective respectfully as circumstances allowed.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

But they took place during an unfolding public health emergency, and no one involved could have imagined that more than a century and a half later, people would still be trying to uncover the stories of those who were who rested there. Sure. That the absence of names has become one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the story.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

When historians research Civil War soldiers, they can often reconstruct entire lives through military records, sure. Letters, diaries, uh census records, and family documents. Right. Even many immigrants who arrived in the in the U.S. during the 19th century left behind passenger lists and official records that allow descendants to trace their journeys. Yep. The Africans who arrived in Key US were rarely afforded that dignity.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Well, because they just didn't again, A, they probably couldn't communicate with a lot of them. It's not like the Africans coming over learned English, and it's not like the people here in Key West knew whatever dialect they were a part of.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

So I mean, obviously that's your number one deterrent. And it's not like I don't know how many of the Africans could write. I don't know. So I mean, if you're from a tribe from name your African place here, they might not even be able to like learn that shit. I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

But they also didn't care. They were it was money. They were money.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Well, no, I'm talking about the people who are saved, like the actual people that were saved. They might not have written been able to write either. Right. Is my point. Yeah. You were talking about the rescuers, not the the rescued, not the rescuers. Not the even the people who transported them. Right, that's what I meant. Yeah. Because they might not have been able to do it, is all I'm saying.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

And God forbid, those people who stole them from Africa, they don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

No, they don't. So this was also one of the reasons archaeologists and historians have approached the cemetery with care. Their work is more about locating these graves. In an effort to restore a measure of humanity to people whose identities were deliberately stripped away more than 160 years ago. Yeah. Not everyone who had arrived or aboard the wildfire, the world and the pogota, became part of that cemetery. Hundreds recovered well enough to continue their journey, although that journey would not take them home.

Liberia Transport And Hard Questions

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Because the Africans had been brought to the United States illegally, federal officials arranged for the survivors to be transported to Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Now, if you recall from earlier, these Africans were taken from Central and Eastern Africa.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

And they're gonna drop them off on the West Coast. I mean So nowhere near home.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

At least they're on the right continent.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

At first glance, it might sound like a straightforward decision, but the reality was a little bit more complicated. Many of the survivors have never lived lived anywhere near Liberia. They had been captured in communities across Central and West Africa, and some had traveled hundreds of miles before ever reaching the Atlantic coast. Um, even if they had somehow been returned to the exact point they have boarded the slave ships, there was no guarantee that they would find their families again.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Yeah, but you can't fault the people who took them back that, well, why did you take them to the Liberia? You're an asshole. They got them to the fucking continent. They got them back home. You can't fault them for that. They could have just been like, good luck, figure it the fuck out and not done anything. At least they took them back that way. It was a step in the right direction. It was, and money and resources you only have so much. You can't be like, all right, now where do you which village do you live in? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Do you have the address for your hut?

SPEAKER_01 30:30

I mean So villages had been destroyed, relatives had been scattered, and they're and months had passed um since many of them had been taken from their homes. Sure. Yeah, the federal government worked with the American Colonization Society to organize the voyage. The organization had spent um years transporting free black Americans and rescued Africans to Liberia, believing it offered the best opportunity for them to begin new lives. Histori historians still debate that decision today. Some argue it was the most practical solution available under their circumstances, while others believe it reflected the era's deeply rooted belief that black people, whether free or formally enslaved, did not belong in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Yeah, but that's a modern look on a fucking ancient, if you will, problem. Potentially, yes. Because and that's what's so stupid about the world we live in today. It's like, oh my god, like that song said this. Yeah, it's from 1950. Times were fucking different 70 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

Don't look at today's eyes on something that came out that long ago. Yeah. It doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

So, regardless of the motives, their survivors had little influence over the decision. Of course, why would they? Once they had recovered enough to travel, they found themselves boarding ships once again. This time they were not in chains or facing the horrors of the illegal slave voyage, but they were still leaving for a land that was unfamiliar unfamiliar to many of them.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

It was more familiar.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Freedom had finally been achieved, yet the future remained uncertain, and home was still farther away. Um, so some eventually did settle in Liberia and built new lives there. Missionary records, government correspondence, and Liberian documents show that at least a portion of their survivors married, raised families, farmed, learned trades, and became members of these communities. I mean, that sounds pretty good. For then, the rescue at sea marked the beginning of a second chance. Right. Um, unfortunately, the historical record becomes a little bit quieter after that. A few names appeared in scattered documents, an occasional letter. Right. The government reports uh mention the arrival of another group, then the paper trail just kind of ends. Historians can often follow the broad outline of what happened to the survivors, but tracing individual lines' lives became increasingly difficult.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Which is totally understandable there.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

The people who were treated as cargo by slave traders were never given the kind of documentation that later historians wish they had. Sure. While the survivors were beginning new lives across the Atlantic, life in Key West continued moving forward.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

The temporary camps had been that had housed the rescued Africans were dismantled. The medical emergency came to an end. The ships involved in the operation disappeared from local headlines, replaced by new events demanding public attention. Then, less than a year later, the Civil War began. The conflict transformed nearly every aspect of American life. Newspapers had devoted columns to the arrival of the slave ships, and then were suddenly filled with reports of the battlefields.

How The Cemetery Disappeared From Memory

SPEAKER_01 33:56

National tension uh shifted almost overnight, and the events of 1860 quickly became yesterday's news. The cemetery remained, but it was no longer at the center of everyone's attention. As the decades passed, the landscape also changed around it. Sure. Military construction altered portions of the area during the Civil War. Roads were built, neighborhoods expanded, parks were created, the shoreline itself evolved as development continued throughout the 20th century.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

All that and just normal natural things, too, I would imagine, with the shoreline.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

People remembered that rescued Africans had once been buried somewhere near the southern edge of the island, but exactly where it became uncertain. Unlike many historic cemeteries, this one had uh very little to guide future generations. The people buried there had arrived without relatives, and most of those who survived had sailed back across the Atlantic. Right. There were no descendants living in Kyuest to place flowers on individual graves and remind the community that they were once loved. By the middle of the 20th century, some historians believe they knew the general location of the cemetery.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Like had a basic idea, more or less. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

And others argue that development had destroyed it entirely. Old maps were difficult to reconcile with the modern landscape, and no one wanted to begin excavating a public beach based on educated guesses alone.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Well, that would just be like I almost feel it's like so I have a TV mounted up over here that people can't see. It's kind of like me. I started just drilling till I hit a stud. Yeah. Because I have lathen plaster. Yeah. And it's the worst. Yeah. I don't have drywall because my house is ancient. It'd be like that. It's like, all right, dig here. Take care. Yeah. Dig here. Nope. Dig here. Hey, we found one. Yeah. It's like that one. You can't just do that.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

So a combination of old maps, historical research, and technology offered investigators an opportunity that previous generations had never possessed.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

So let me ask this then. Why and who consistently were looking for this?

SPEAKER_01 36:19

Um, I don't think it was I don't think it was somebody trying to find it. I think someone came across an old map.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Okay. And they were like, what is this?

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Because there was a map, I think it was from 1861 that a historian found, and they're like, where there's supposed to be a cemetery right here.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

And that's my point, because it's not like I and again, this is just my perception. I'm not saying you you did this. Like, were people constantly looking for this because it was lost? It's like, no, someone discovered something far later from when it happened and be like, wait a minute, yeah, there's supposed to be a cemetery here. I'm pretty sure that's kind of how it happened. Where exactly? I don't know, but in this vicinity, okay. Yeah. That makes more sense to my brain now.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

So instead of relying solely on shovels and luck, like you've talked about with your plaster wall, researchers could look beneath the ground without disturbing it.

How Ground-Penetrating Radar Finds Graves

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Ground penetrating radar works by sending electromagnetic pulses into the soil and recording the signals that bounce back.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

So, do you know what this reminds me of?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

What?

SPEAKER_00 37:29

We're gonna bring them up again. Sam Neil. The beginning of Jurassic Park, where they shoot that like shotgun-looking shell into the ground and it bounces the image back, and it's the Velociraptor. Yep. I'm still not over it, so I had to bring them up again. I miss him so much.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

So different materials reflect those signals differently, allowing archaeologists to identify buried features that are unvisible from invisible from the surface.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

I'm glad you said features and not like feet. No, because that would have been fucking weird.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

So the technology cannot. I'm sorry, did you have something else to add?

SPEAKER_00 38:06

I just like to what I picture for some reason. They like just all right, they shoot this down there on their screen. It's just like skeletons. That would be so fucking creepy. But it's just it's just weird to think about, like, because obviously it doesn't give them a clear picture all the time. Yeah. That like you said, they found um whatever shafts, what did you call it? Graveshafts. Graveshafts, yeah, you know, or whatever. Not just like a a layer of skeletons.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

No, it's more like they can tell if soil had been disturbed.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

So were they they weren't like mass grave berry type thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

No, it was very respectful. It was okay, good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Thank goodness. Because again, now I watch a lot of movies. This is one of your favorite movies, too, or one of your top ones. I think of like V for Vendetta, where they just shove all the people into that pit and put the the lie or whatever whatever it was on them. Like, good. I'm glad they were respectful. They were respectful, yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

So the technology cannot tell a researcher exactly who is buried in a grave, but of course not. But like I said, it reveals disturbances in the soil that can strongly suggest where the graves were dug. It's like disturbances in the force. Exactly. Disturbances in the Disturbances? Disturbances in the dirt.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

All right, continue.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Okay. In 2002, the technology was brought to Higgs Beach. I accidentally hit the wrong button.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Okay. So Higgs Beach technology brought ought to let's do this.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Yes. Researchers carefully compare compare 19th century maps with the modern shoreline before surveying the area.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Okay, so they noticed there's a discrepancy here.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

As the radar data accumulated accumulated, a pattern emerged. The evidence pointed to numerous grave grave shafts beneath the sand. After more than a hundred and forty years, it had been waiting quietly beneath the feet of generations of visitors.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

So how far down was were they buried?

SPEAKER_01 40:29

I didn't find that information.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

Six feet under?

SPEAKER_01 40:32

You could probably say that, but I did not actually come across a definitive part of your research? It was not part of my research.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

Why have you abandoned that saying? Because that that was so classic.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

That was not part of my research.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Anyways.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

So in many archaeological investigations, the discovery of a burial ground is followed by excavation.

SPEAKER_03 40:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Archaeologists carefully remove the remains, they study them and attempt to learn as much as possible about the people who were buried there.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

In this case, however, researchers approach the site very differently. The purpose has never been to disturb the dead, it was just to find them.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Oh, of course not.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

So once the cemetery's location had been confirmed, there was uh an agreement that the people buried there deserved the same respect afforded to any other cemetery.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

So now they're like, stay off?

SPEAKER_01 41:27

No. Okay. Um, so ground penetrating radar had allowed researchers to identify the graves without exhum the individuals inside them. No, I get that. And many believe that leaving the burials underserved was the most appropriate course of action.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Oh, I 100% agree. My I guess my point is like, hey, don't walk on here because this is a grave site now.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

That's what I'm asking.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

I so where this beach is, I think a section of it is the graves.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Um, other parts of the grave, I think, are under roads and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

I would imagine, because again, they didn't know it was there. Yeah. So I totally understand it, but I also find it weird that, like, you know what's really a good idea? Let's bury them in the sand. They couldn't have moved it in.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

We also don't we also don't know what it looked like 140 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

I mean, I'm pretty sure I do not either. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

So instead of opening the graves, historians turn back to the documents. Military records, newspaper articles, government correspondence, shipping records. Yeah. Every surviving piece of evidence was examined in an effort to understand not only how those people died, but how they had lived as well. Sure. And that process does continue today. Okay. Although we still cannot identify every individual buried beneath Higgs Beach. Yeah. Historians have reconstructed far more of the story than was once thought possible. They know the names of the slave ships. They know approximately how many people were rescued. They know where the survivors were taken, what illnesses swept through the camp, how many eventually made the voyage to Liberia. Back to there, yeah. Those discoveries transform the cemetery from an anonymous collection of graves into a place connected by real historical events and real human lives. Yeah. There is a memorial now that stands near Higgs Beach. I figured as much, yeah. Rather than celebrating a military victory or commemorating a famous individual, it asks visitors to remember hundreds of ordinary people whose lives were interrupted by extraordinary cruelty. The cemetery now has never truly been lost. As roads were paved, neighborhoods expanded, and generations came and went, the knowledge of what happened on that small stretch of Key West slowly faded.

SPEAKER_03 43:56

Sure.

Memorializing Lives Without Names

SPEAKER_01 43:57

It took historians willing to ask them. difficult questions archaeologists willing to trust both technology and the minimal historical records and the community willing to acknowledge a painful chapter of its own past before that picture finally turned into um reality right when people think about the trans the transatlantic slave trade they often picture enormous plantations or crowded auction blocks those those places are part of the story of course but they all also can make the trade feel distant and impersonal yep numbers become so large that they start stop feeling like people the cemetery at Hicks Beach reminds us that history is always personal among the nearly 300 people buried there was a child who never had the opportunity to grow into adulthood there was almost certainly a mother whose family never learned where she died. There were brothers fathers sisters daughters and sons whose names disappeared from official records but whose lives matter just as much as those whose stories fill history books today. Yeah

Closing Banter And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 45:11

and that is the story of the African grave underneath Hicks Beach at Key West I'd say I'd go visit it but fuck floor is hot right now yes all the time for for Signor Bradley Senor Bradley Well that's wild I never heard yeah never heard of that before I learned of this story from a client of mine.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Did you unfortunately I can't remember who that client was just because I see so many people but she told me about it and I was like oh I need to look this up I am Bradley I have to constantly remind Kate who I am I am your co-host Bradley we do a podcast today. Um this beer this cider I love it to death it's so good I have basil mint I had one I got us a six pack because that as far as I know that's the only way they come I got a six pack I had one and I had two torpedoes I am actually really looking forward to having another basil mint yeah it's it's nice and it's refreshing yeah and it's a sipper which is nice a nice treat too instead of the flavor is just so good. It is I really enjoy it yeah I think I need to go to Seattle Cider Seatt Seattle Seattle that's what I said Seattle Cider.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

You sounded like Seattle Cider Well I'm not saying it I'm not done I'm defending myself here I will have video proof and audio proof I don't know how to say so well I suppose all right buffoons that's it for today's episode buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time feeling hungry for more buffoonery or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Hit us up on social media where History Buffoons podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at HistoryBaffoonspodcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

Follow us wherever you get your podcast and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Until next time stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

Remember the buffoonery never stops