PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Down Bozeman Road off Fort King about a mile or so back, there once sat a thriving all African-American Settlement called Freedtown.
Foundeded around 1866, it’s nearly 200 acres south of Buddy Lake.
Pasco historian Jeff Cannon has been looking into Freedtown for years.
“1869 was a time of reconstruction. We were literally four years out from the Civil War. The Freedman’s Bureau which was a newly formed goverment organization, were helping these newly freed slaves acquire land.”
Former slave Benjiman Baisden was among them. He founded Freedtown.
“The unique part aspect of Freedtown is that Benjiman Baisden went and did this on his own,” Cannon said.
For many years the town flourished and several families moved to the settlement. There was a school formed for black children. There was a church as well.
“The superitendent of that school was the community’s founder. The Baisden family deeded one acre of property to the church and the church actually had a cemetary at one time,” said Cannon.
But by 1895, Freedtown was essentially gone. What happened to “The Town That Vanished?”
See my special report Thursday on News Channel 8 at 5 p.m.
