Existing comment:
WARRIORS FROM BONDAGE
30" X 48" Oil Painting
The attack of Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River, 1816.
In the summer of 1816, as the morning sun burned off the storm clouds over the Gulf of Mexico to the south, a showdown developed on the Apalachicola River. At a place known as Prospect Bluff, an abandoned British fort from the war of 1812 was now occupied by a fugitive collection of escaped slaves from the plantations of the southern United States and the "Indian Negroes," who found refuge and acceptance among the local tribes.
These men, along with their women and children, lived in precarious security under the rule of a fierce leader known only by the name of "Garson." The fort and the Spanish control of Florida offered some defense against the bands of slave hunters from the American states to the north. However, the American government soon tired of this band of "lawless banditti" and their perceived threat to America's southern border.
When Spain did nothing to return the slaves, the U.S. government determined to send an expeditionary military raid to terminate the outlaw colony. On July 27, a U.S. Naval detachment of two small vessels armed with cannons sailed up the river to the fort and began exchanging fire. After a short while, one of the vessels fired a heated red-hot cannon ball, known as a "hot shot" into the fort. The hot shot scored a direct hit on the powder magazine, igniting a massive explosion that destroyed the colony and nearly all its inhabitants. |