From Africa to Florida: A Story of People, Faith & Freedom

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This October, during Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Month, join filmmaker, historian, and cultural advocate Derek Hankerson for a fascinating look at Florida’s Gullah Geechee legacy and the remarkable people, places, and stories that helped shape the state’s history.

The Gullah Geechee story reaches from the Sea Islands and coastal communities of the Carolinas into Florida, carrying generations of traditions, perseverance, faith, family, agriculture, and the pursuit of freedom. Hankerson has spent more than two decades researching and preserving this history, inspired in part by his own family connections to Gullah Geechee communities in South Carolina and Florida.

"I have traveled to Germany for 20 plus years." says Derek Hankerson.

"Today, I am bringing back a new historical lens: looking at San Agustín named for Augustine of Hippo in 1565 through the connections between Florida, Europe, empire, Native peoples, Africans, and the 250th anniversary."

Bullet Points we are covering:

• San Agustín and Augustine of Hippo — why the Spanish named the settlement for the saint and why that European intellectual/religious connection matters.
• 1565 vs. 1776 — St. Augustine was established 211 years before American independence and has a much deeper European, Indigenous and African history.
• The three worlds of early Florida — Native Florida, Spanish Florida and the African presence.
• Fort Mose and freedom — the Spanish sanctuary policy that drew enslaved people escaping the British colonies southward, culminating in Fort Mose in 1738.
• The 250th anniversary — asking Americans to look beyond 1776 and understand the centuries that preceded it.
• My Freiburg experience — what seeing European museums and historical interpretation firsthand mades one think about how Florida tells its own history.
• My documentary work — connecting this perspective to The Long War, Fort Mose, the Seminole Wars and continuing work.

“The 250th anniversary asks us where America began. My question is: how far back are we willing to look?"

Hankerson’s family history offers a unique window into Florida’s past. His great-great-grandfather, Rev. J. P. Hankerson, served with the Florida Freedmen’s Bureau during Reconstruction, while his great-grandfather, Rev. J. H. Hankerson, became one of Florida’s pioneering African American civic leaders. His grandmother also lived in historic Gullah Geechee communities in Florida, creating a family connection that spans generations and states.

Through his research, documentaries, teaching, and preservation efforts, Hankerson has helped bring greater recognition to Florida’s place within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. His work contributed to the expansion of the federally recognized corridor to include St. Johns County and has explored the connections between Florida, South Carolina’s Lowcountry, Fort Mose, the Seminole experience, and the southern route to freedom.

Hankerson is also an accomplished filmmaker and educator. He wrote, narrated, produced, and directed the documentary Gullah Geechee Corridor & the East Coast Greenways, and has taught college-level courses on Florida’s Gullah Geechee history. His work extends beyond the classroom through historical documentaries, walking tours, film festivals, and advocacy for preserving and accurately interpreting African American history.

For this special October presentation, Hankerson will also share family photographs and images from his international travels to Portugal, Germany, and Ireland, where he conducted primary research connected to American history and the transatlantic slave trade and its connections to West Africans known as Gullah Geechee.

Come discover the people and stories behind Florida’s Gullah Geechee legacy—and explore how their history is an essential part of the larger American story.

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Event Host

The Historical Society of Martin County