Hello, and welcome to the sixth episode of the Ranger Roadshow! I’m Amanda Pollock, Visual
Information Specialist for the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network
to Freedom Program. As you know, we are in the middle of a virtual road trip across the country
visiting sites, programs, and facilities that are listed on the Network to Freedom. Today, we
are headed to Pensacola, Florida to meet up with Ranger Casimer at Gulf Islands National Seashore.
[INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC]
Gulf Islands National Seashore is the largest of 10 National Seashores within
the National Park System. The seashore which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year,
consists of over 160 miles of coastline stretching from Cat Island, Mississippi to Fort Walton Beach,
Florida. Gulf Islands National Seashore also protects one of the finest coastal defense systems
in the nation. In the 1820s, the US Navy established a Navy Yard in Pensacola Bay,
along with a string of forts constructed by army engineers and enslaved laborers to
protect that Navy Yard. Constructed between 1829-1834, Fort Pickens is located on the
western side of Santa Rosa Island – the second largest barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico.
Today, you can visit Gulf Islands National Seashore, though operations may be limited due to
the outbreak of COVID-19 and damage from coastal storms. For the most up to date information about
current conditions and visiting Gulf Islands National Seashore, please visit www.nps.gov/guis.
Before we begin, we do want to emphasize that viewer discretion is advised.
These stories involve mature themes, and we will discuss violence towards Black individuals.
Although these stories are important to tell – they also contain subjects that are
extraordinarily difficult to talk about, and can be triggering to hear. We encourage any viewer
that might be under 18 years old to watch with an adult in their life that they can trust, and we
encourage adults to take care of their wellbeing as we learn more about these stories together.
Without further ado, lets head to Pensacola, Florida. Take it away, Ranger Casimer!
Hello, everybody! My name is Casimer Rosiecki and I'm a Park Ranger with the National Park Service
at Gulf Islands National Seashore. You're joining me today from inside historic Fort Pickens. For
those of you who are unfamiliar with the National Seashore, and with Fort Pickens, the fort is
located just south of Pensacola, Florida. Behind me, or North of me, we could see Pensacola Bay;
off to my right, to the West of us, we can see Pensacola Pass from where I'm standing;
and then to my front, or South of me, we have a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico.
In order to build Fort Pickens, which covers today an area of about 32 acres, Army Engineers
forced enslaved men skilled in carpentry, metalworking, and masonry, to build the fort.
Those enslaved laborers had to endure horrible conditions in order to build this fort in a matter
of five years between 1829 and 1834. They would go on and construct the other forts here on the bay.
So for some Americans, these forts would be seen as the Guardians of
the Republic. But for others, they were pillars of a violent and oppressive system of enslavement.
[BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND] Fort Pickens became a destination
on the Underground Railroad in 1861, the first year of the American Civil War.
In fact, on March 12, just eight days after Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of
the United States and one month before the first shots of the Civil War were fired,
eight freedom seekers came here to Fort Pickens. The Union commander, a young Lieutenant named Adam
Slemmer, he noted that the freedom seekers, they came here entertaining the idea that the
soldiers were here to protect and give freedom to those freedom seekers. Slemmer did what he could,
though, to teach them the opposite. In fact Slemmer would personally see to it that the
enslaved people were returned to the City Marshal in Pensacola and given back to the enslavers.
Though these nameless eight freedom seekers failed in their attempt to gain freedom at Fort Pickens,
they blazed the path. [BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND] Hundreds
and eventually thousands more enslaved men, women, and children would soon
begin to seek out Union armies in places like Maryland, on the Virginia shoreline,
and North Carolina shoreline, and here on the Florida coastline in their pursuit of freedom.
Two individuals would successfully fight and secure their freedom when coming here to Fort
Pickens around August, 1861. This couple, their names were Peter Dyson and Henrietta.
Peter was a mason by trade. He was about 35 years old prior to seizing his freedom and he
had labored on forts like Fort Barrancas and in the Pensacola Navy Yard. Peter's wife, Henrietta,
was about 30 years old before seizing her freedom. She had been enslaved by a Pensacola merchant
named Oliver Jenkins. Prior to her escape, Jenkins had brutally beaten Henrietta, so viciously that
Henrietta would flee to the pine forest northeast of the city. There she hid and there Peter would
find her and would provide her food and water and then also talk about what they should do next. The
couple talked about coming to Fort Pickens where they could be protected and receive their freedom.
Henrietta would look to her husband and she would say, "Well, let us go." And from that moment they
made their plan to come to the Fort. [BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND] They hid
away a small boat and then in their second attempt, they sailed about 15 miles from the
mouth of the Escambia river down to Santa Rosa Island. They successfully landed here and then,
two days later, entered Union lines here at the fort. The couple continued to work and live here
at Fort Pickens until mid-October when they were placed on a ship that took them all the way to
New York City, where they very likely continued to live through the rest of the American Civil War:
a war that would eventually determine their fates, but a fate that they helped secure.