Video
Program Booklet
Let’s Celebrate Florida History!
Join us in Jupiter, Florida, for the 187th
Anniversary Annual Seminole Maroon Remembrance
SATURDAY: West Jupiter Community Recreation Center
6401 W. Indiantown Road
Date/Time: Saturday, January 18, 2025, at 3:00 pm
SUNDAY: Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park
9060 W. Indiantown Road
Date/Time: Sunday, January 19, 2025, at 10:00 am
(Saturday’s lectures begin two days of events honoring Seminole Maroon history in Florida. See details about the weekend’s activities!)
REMEMBER ‘NEGRO FORT,’
HONOR SEMINOLE MAROON AMERICAN HERITAGE
The saga of the post-War of 1812 “Negro Fort” at Prospect Bluff on the Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle (not to be confused with the older, more famous Fort Mose near St. Augustine) will be the special focus of the 2025 Annual Seminole Maroon Spiritual Commemoration of the Loxahatchee Battlefield with two events, January 18 and 19, presented by the nonprofit Florida Black Historical Research Project during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
Free Black Settlements Destroyed
The devastating destruction of the free Black settlement at the fort in 1816 would have repercussions for decades to come throughout the Florida peninsula and reaching as far as the Bahamas, Trinidad, and Cuba as it set the stage for the unrelenting decades-long war against Seminole peace, prosperity and freedom that would come to its turning point with the two “battles” of the Loxahatchee River in Palm Beach County in January, 1838.
Local Historic Sites
The two holiday-weekend events, featuring illuminating presentations on largely forgotten, yet decisive history, will take place at locations on West Indiantown Road in Jupiter, in the general Loxahatchee River and Limestone Creek areas of the established Seminole settlement to which Native and Maroon (African American) survivors of the Christmas Day, 1837 Battle of Okeechobee) had retreated.
Outstanding Historians Featured
On Saturday, January 18, at 3:00 p.m., Willard “Bill” Steele, former historian for the Seminole Tribe of Indians of Florida, who produced a 64-page study of the preliminary conditions and aftermath of the “Negro Fort’ for the National Park Service, will speak on “Florida’s Black Frontier,” focusing on Black settlements on the peninsula during the early 1800s, at West Jupiter Community and Recreation Center, 6401 W. Indiantown Road.
On Sunday, January 19, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park (in Riverbend Park), 9060 W. Indiantown Road, the Annual Spiritual Remembrance will feature author Dale Cox, discussing his book The Fort at Prospect Bluff, a detailed account of the origins, occupation, and destruction of “Negro Fort.”
Both presentations will feature overviews by Dr. Anthony Dixon, author of Florida’s Negro War, who will offer insights into the little-known history of “a fighting force of thousands, Red Stick Creeks, Seminoles, Miccosukee, other American Indians . . . and freedom-seeking maroons, gathered. . . to form the largest free Black settlement in North America” (from book cover of Cox’s study).
Annual Remembrance on January 19
Sunday’s event features traditional opening rituals, prayers, and ceremonies to honor the land and all of the fallen whose lives were sacrificed at the sacred battlefield site; also included will be insightful greetings from partnering organizations --Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists and Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation Department-- and two special musical presentations, amidst the historical and cultural exhibits on display.
Special Performances/ Cleansing Rituals
The Afro-Indigenous flautist known as “Fluteity” will honor Ancestors through her sacred Native American flute sounds, and the ever-popular Tallahassee-based Capital Battery Line of youths led by Brian Forbing will provide stirring drumming performances.
Admission to both weekend events is free and open to the public. For further information, please call 305-772-7714 or visit the FBHRP website at www.fbhrpinc.org
NOTE: These weekend events also contribute significantly to the Remembrance of the life, teachings, and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and, notably, launch the observance of the centennial year of the birth of his contemporary human rights leader Malcolm X, which, tragically, is also the 60th anniversary year of his assassination; both leaders were murdered at age 39.
The story of the "Negro Fort" is the focus of our January event.
Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. Receives National Grant Funding
Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc. (FBHRP) has received $50,000 from Telling the Full History Preservation Fund—a grant program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, made possible through the National Endowment for the Humanities under the American Rescue Plan.
The funding enables the planning and presentation of a five-day “185-Year Seminole Maroon Family Reunion,” on January 11-15, 2023, a physical and virtual gathering in Jupiter Florida (in present-day Palm Beach County), site of the two pivotal 1838 Battles of the Loxahatchee River during the Second Seminole War, which significantly altered the course of full American history.
The event also marks the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking “160-Year Family Reunion” held in 1998, which brought Oklahoma Seminole Maroon (“Black Seminole” or “Estelusti”) descendants (of Trail of Tears survivors) to their Ancestral homeland of Florida for the first time, garnering remarkably broad local interest and support, and establishing permanent networks and exchanges which continue today, with January’s event expanding to include Maroon descendant communities in Mexico, Texas, and the Bahamas as well as Oklahoma and Florida itself.
FBHRP is one of 80 organizations that received $25,000 or $50,000 grants to interpret and preserve historic places of importance that embody the history of underrepresented communities in our nation.
Telling the Full History grants support the core activities of humanities-based organizations as these organizations recover from the pandemic, using historic places as catalysts for a more just and equitable society. To learn more about this program, visit Forum.SavingPlaces.org/tellingthefullhistoryfund.