Florida Cultural Groups

The Last Slave Ships: Key West African Cemetery

This report details the evidence of an African cemetery at Higgs Beach in Key West, Florida, and describes how it was located. Includes facsimiles of historical records, maps, graphs, tables, and photos. In 1860, the U.S. Navy intercepted three American-owned slave ships taking Africans to Cuba. Now refugees, the Africans were taken to Key West before being sent to Liberia. Many died and were buried at Higgs Beach. From the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society.

http://www.melfisher.org/exhibitions/lastslaveships/cemetery.htm