The Many Lives of Francisco: Luso-African Recaptives in Key West, Florida

This paper explores the complex mixture of humanitarian aid and racial voyeurism that unfolded at the “African Depot” on a Key West beach in the summer of 1860. Here, survivors of the Wildfire, William, and Bogota, (shipmates embarked from the mouth of the Congo River and from Ouidah) lived in temporary quarters prior to their removal to Liberia. Extensive U.S. and Liberian government correspondence, as well as ACS records, manuscript accounts from government agents, and archaeological work on the African cemetery allow a detailed reconstruction of the social history of the camp adjacent to Fort Taylor. Popular magazine and newspaper coverage provide evidence of the spectacle of suffering offered to the American public far from the port of Key West.