Black Seminoles
The free blacks and Indian slaves, Black Seminoles, living near St. Augustine fled to Havana, Cuba, to avoid coming under US control. Some Seminole also abandoned their settlements and moved further south. Hundreds of Black Seminoles and fugitive slaves escaped in the early nineteenth century from Cape Florida to The Bahamas, where they settled on Andros Island, founding Nicholls Town, named for the Anglo-Irish commander and Abolitionist who fostered their escape, Edward Nicolls.