It is known as the town that freedom built!
Just north of Orlando, Florida exists a town called Eatonville. Bordered by the predominantly white towns of Maitland and Winter Park, the rich history of the residential community has been a source of scholarly work over the years.
Made popular by novelists like Zora Neale Hurston, Eatonville represents the best of what Black people created in the years following the abolition of slavery. Towns like Eatonville ultimately served as a beacon of hope and an example of what could become when we focus on developing things that are for us and by us.
Eatonville was named after Josiah Eaton, a local white landowner who helped acquire the land for Black settlers.
Central Florida was virtually desolate up until after the Civil War when Republican legislation established Reconstruction efforts to help poor Black and white Southerners buy up unused public land at a cheap price. The Freedmen’s Bureau helped amplify this legislation to the newly freed slaves from places like Georgia and Alabama who began flocking to the then unincorporated Maitland, first settling in 1880, The Town of Eatonville reports.
After clearing land, planting crops and helping to build homes and a railroad system, Black settlers in Maitland wanted to establish their own town.