New College Professor Discovers Evidence of Historic Angola Community in Bradenton

New College Anthropology Professor Uzi Baram said traces of the Angola community have been recovered near Manatee Mineral Spring after years of research. Baram said Wednesday the history of Angola, a community of escaped slaves that fled south two centuries ago to Florida wilderness, is an obscure piece of history unique to Manatee County that he hopes to see in the school curriculum one day. The “Looking For Angola” project was created in late 2004 by archeologist Vicki Oldham. Baram, an original member of the research team set up to search for the settlement, said Oldham started the project after reading scholarly works on escaped slave communities on the Manatee River. Baram will discuss the findings at a special presentation starting at 11 a.m. Saturday during the Viva Florida Pioneer Annual Heritage Festival and National Day of Archaeology festivities at Reflections of Manatee — near where evidence of Angola was found.