Story of early Florida black settlement emerging

For 10 years, they fought, hid and prayed for freedom here by the river, those 750 fugitive slaves, free blacks and black Seminoles who drifted west from the middle of Florida to form the largest community of its kind in the early 19th century South. Then, in 1821, their settlement, which they had named Angola after its kindred region in West Africa, was burned and looted and destroyed, probably by order of Gen. Andrew Jackson.

For the past five years, documentary producer Vickie Oldham has searched for the forgotten story of this self-sufficient village, which survived war, invasion and the threat of capture long enough to form one of the most extraordinary chapters of Florida history.

Now, Oldham and a team of scientists and historians believe they have found the bones of the Angola story lying beneath a several-mile stretch where the Manatee and Braden rivers meet, secrets suspended under a tranquil trailer park, under the tabby ruins of a plantation owner's castle, under a playground near a mineral spring.

They call the project -- as much spiritual journey as science -- Looking for Angola.