The Black Seminoles are a descendant group of self-liberated formerly enslaved African peoples who, for several generations, were a part the Seminole Indigenous group before fleeing violent encroachment via the “Gulf Passage” on the Saltwater Underground Railroad to Andros island in The Bahamas. Dr. Rosalyn Howard documented in her ethnography, Black Seminoles in the Bahamas, “the fact that most people have not heard of Black Seminoles points to a critical void in historical records that is the result of deliberate acts of omission by those who enslaved, colonized, and annihilated millions of African and Native American peoples” (2002, xiii). Black Seminole inter-generational material knowledge and oral histories are at risk from both climate impacts like sea level rise and severe economic strain that causes family members to move to other islands for educational or employment opportunities. Even when Howard conducted her ethnography in 1996, she notes that Black Seminole material knowledge of basket making, foodways, agriculture, and plant use is endangered from the economic threats that have caused a diasporic displacement of families. In partnership with The Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Corporation (AMMC) the National Museum of The Bahamas; the Bahamas Ministry of Education (who will add knowledge obtained from this project to the national curriculum in social studies); and the Coastal Heritage at Risk Taskforce (CHART); this project will video document the enduring and endangered legacy of the families who braved and survived the Saltwater Underground Railroad in dugout canoes and other dangerous maritime crafts.

Principal Investigator:
Meryl Shriver-Rice

Collaborators:
Perlene Lewis Baker, Sara Ayers-Rigsby, and Brittany Brown

Research Assistants:
Christopher Curry, Grace Turner, Karen Eileen Herrerro Backe, and Kim Outten Stubbs

Location of Research: 
Red Bays, Andros Island, The Bahamas

Host Institution:
The Antiquities, Monuments, and Museums Corporation, The Bahamas

Top Banner Image:  Sign at Entrance to Red Bays Village. Photo credit: Bahamas Ministry of Tourism.