The Lost African American Cemeteries of Tampa Bay

 A number of African American cemeteries in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area have been "lost" or "erased" over time. One cemetery, the Zion Cemetery, has been the focus of a great deal of scrutiny. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been used to verify the presence of graves. Government and community members have gotten involved to identify those interred there, and to learn more about them.

Drew Smith is the Genealogy Librarian at the University of South Florida Libraries and he is leading a group of volunteers to trace the families and descendants of those interred in the Zion Cemetery. The article he wrote about the project can be found at https://lib.usf.edu/news/the-lost-african-american-cemeteries-of-tampa-bay-whats-being-done-to-remember-them/?fbclid=IwAR3CC0WUQMtSCw6u7kan9t0m05SFE2mSw3HXlBREGcgKtcKnsYxHpXgb7T4. 

African Americans with Native Americans

During the first half of the 19th Century in the United States, African Americans and Native Americans in some places began bonding together because of their shared enemy, the white man. Slaves in the southernmost states fled south to Florida rather than attempt a longer escape to the north, knowing that the Florida wilderness provided a better opportunity to avoid capture and return to their owners. 

An engraved illustration of a Native
American Indian dance, from a
Victorian book dated 1883
that is no longer in copyright

Some African-Americans came to live with Native Americans in their villages and helped make a living there. Some Native Americans even owned slaves, although the slaves were treated more as farming partners or sharecroppers. The two cultures blended as they worked together to farm the land, hunt game, raise livestock, weave fabrics and baskets, create pottery, share cooking responsibilities, raised children, and shared experiences with one another. 

A U.S. commemorative stamp from
1948 shows the Map of Indian Territory
 & Seals of Five Civilized Tribes

In the course of these relationships, some African-Americans may have been returned to their former masters for bounty payments. However, a sizeable number of them were forced to relocate with members of the Five Civilized Tribes during the Trail of Tears to what now is Oklahoma and other lands set aside for resettlement.

By the start of the Civil War, more than 4,000 former slaves lived in Oklahoma. Some of them even joined and fought with the Union Army. Don't overlook checking records relating to Native Americans to locate your African American ancestors.

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy

One of the most impressive collection of online African American genealogical materials can be found at the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy website at http://www.ibiblio.org/laslave. The database, created by Dr. Gwendolyn Hall, a professor emerita of history at Rutgers University, consists of a vast collection of materials discovered in 1984 in a courthouse in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Included are documents delineating the backgrounds of approximately 100,000 slaves brought to Louisiana in the 18th and 19th centuries. The database is searchable by name, gender, racial designation, and plantation or origin, and will be invaluable to many African-ancestored researchers.

Main page for the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy website.