[7] Before the Lighthouse was built, the Cape Florida Light was one of the places where slaves and Black Seminoles boarded ships for the Bahamas.

[8] Spanish Florida had been a slave refuge until President Andrew Jackson, a strong supporter of slavery,[9] invaded in 1818.

Enslaved people in the south had limited options for escape, northern states and British Canada, where slavery was either abolished or restricted by the 1820s.

[10][11] During the early 1820s an estimated 300 Black Seminoles found passage from Key Biscayne to Andros Island in the Bahamas on seagoing canoes and Bahamian boats.

In 1820 one traveler reported seeing 60 "Indians", 60 "runaway slaves", and 27 boats of Bahamian wreckers preparing to leave Cape Florida.

While the lighthouse was helpful to sailors offshore it proved a setback to those seeking to escape Florida at night.

Although Cape Florida was less suitable as a departure point after the lighthouse was built, the Bahamas remained a haven for escaping slaves.

[12][8] The Park carries a special significance as a designated National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site.

In January 1836 the Seminoles massacred the family of William Cooley at their coontie plantation on the New River, in what is now Fort Lauderdale.

As the island was not considered safe, the settlers and Captain Dubose's family moved to Key West for refuge.

[14] Later in January, Lt. George M. Bache, U.S. Navy, arrived from Key West with a small work party to fortify the lighthouse tower; they boarded up the ground floor windows and reinforced the door.

Thompson's clothing had been soaked with oil, and he and Carter retreated to the top of the tower, taking a keg of gunpowder, balls, and a rifle with them.

They fired a ramrod tied to a small line up to Thompson and used it to haul up a rope strong enough to lift two men to the top, who could get the wounded man down.

[1] The new keeper was Reason Duke, who had lived with his family on the Miami River before he moved to Key West because of the Second Seminole War.

Even with its height and more powerful lamp and lens, the Cape Florida Light was deemed to be insufficient for warning ships away from the offshore reefs.

The US Coast Guard decided to build a screw-pile lighthouse on Fowey Rocks, seven miles (11 km) southeast of Cape Florida.

[24] From 1888 to 1893, the Cape Florida lighthouse was leased by the United States Secretary of the Treasury for a total of US$1.00 (20 cents per annum) to the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club for use as its headquarters.

[25] In 1898, in response to the growing tension with Spain over Cuba, which resulted in the Spanish–American War, the Cape Florida lighthouse was briefly made U.S. Signal Station Number Four.

His parents had purchased the title to a Spanish land grant for the southern part of Key Biscayne soon after the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821.

[27] In 1913 Davis sold his Key Biscayne property, including the lighthouse, to James Deering, International Harvester heir and owner of Villa Vizcaya in Miami.

Attorneys eventually convinced the U.S. Congress and President Woodrow Wilson to recognize Deering's ownership of the Cape Florida area of Key Biscayne, including the lighthouse.

An automated light was installed in the tower to serve as a navigational aide, particularly to help boaters find the Florida Channel at night.

A museum was installed in a replica of the keeper's quarters, to give visitors a sense of the maritime history of Florida.

[34] In 2004 a sign was installed in the park to commemorate the site for the escape of hundreds of slaves and Black Seminoles to the Bahamas in the nineteenth century.