On to Angola Book Review/Signing/Complementary Wine Tasting

On to Angola had to be written. In the last book in the Creek Indian Family Saga, we followed the former Red Sticks that we met in Swimming with Serpents (Creek Indian War) with In Pursuit (First Seminole War). But what happened then after Jackson defeated them once again? Many settled down in Florida near the Peace River that flows into Charlotte Harbor. Nearby, those who had settled around the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River had fled after Jackson ordered its destruction and had settled in a community they called Angola, named for the part of Africa from which many had been taken.

In 1821, friends of new the territorial governor, Andrew Jackson, sent Coweta Indians under the leadership of William Weatherford and William McIntosh on a raid down into Florida. Why? Because Andrew Jackson and his friends knew that there was still communication between those former Red Sticks and Blacks who had fought with the British in the Corps of Colonial Marines and the British. They feared a war or a slave uprising like what had happened in Louisiana in 1811. Truth was they thought such a threat hurt real estate prices and so there had to be extermination...or at least bring the former slaves back to their owners. And kill those pesky Red Sticks.

Fiction based on historical facts, this is the poignant story of 10 year old twins separated from their mother at one of Jean Lafitte's slave auctions, then separated from each other at the Fort Mims massacre. Fate brings them together and sends them to searching for their mother in spite of slave traders, kidnappers, and the harsh elements of Florida in 1821. 

Here you will meet others prominent in Florida History: Billy Powell, Abraham, Wild Cat, John Horse Caballo, Moses Elias Levy (father of David Yulee), Zephaniah and Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley.

John Crowell to John C. Calhoun, January 22, 1822, in T. J. Peddy, “Creek Letters 1820-1824.” (typescript in Georgia Department of Archives and History, Atlanta), 22.2.22.C.C.

The raiders wrecked havoc throughout Florida until they launched a surprise attack on Angola and devastated the settlement. The Creek raiders captured over three hundred inhabitants, plundered their plantations, and set fire to all of their homes. Afterwards, the war party made its way south and plundered the Spanish fisheries on the Caloosahatchee River. Most of the three hundred prisoners taken in the raid disappeared as the Creek party made its way back to the United States. 

The “eye-witness” in the Charleston Gazette detailed the raid of Angola: 

“They arrived at Sazazota, surprised and captured about 300 of them, plundered their plantations, set on fire all their houses, and then proceeding southerly captured several others; and on the 17th day of June, arrived at the Spanish Ranches, in Pointerrass Key, in Carlos Bay, where not finding as many Negroes as they expected, they plundered the Spanish fishermen of more than 2000 dollars worth of property, besides committing the greatest excess. With their plunder and prisoners, they returned to the place appointed for the deposit of both.” 

On to Angola is dedicated to those returned to slavery by the Coweta Raiders. John Crowell was Indian Agent to the Creeks. He died years later at Fort Mitchell, Alabama, at his trading post where the Creek Agency was moved from Fort Hawkins in Georgia in 1817. 

As Paul Harvey would say, this is "the rest of the story."

Friday at 5:30 I will be signing books at Something's Cookin' at 93 E 11th Street Panama City, FL 32401. To register for the complimentary free wine tasting call: (850) 769-8979. I hope you will come. I will have copies of my other books there as well: Mint Julep Mysteries, Swimming with Serpents, In Pursuit, as well as the new one, On to Angola.