In several places I read about these English speaking cocolos who are descendants of slaves from the US who speak English in Samana. In ten years I have never encountered English speaking Dominicans/African slave descendants in Samana. Is this folklore or has anyone else met any of these cocolos? See below;
"In 1824 a ship, the Turtle Dove, filled with freed slaves from the United States (slaves who had escaped from the southern part of the United States and run away to the northern part of the United States) left from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (a state in the northern part of the United States). The ship was purchased by two Protestant sisters named Freeman who were of the Quaker Protestant religious faith. The ship was sailing to Liberia, a country in West Africa founded by freed American slaves in 1820. There was a big rainstorm in the Atlantic Ocean in front of Las Terrenas and the ship sank. The freed slaves swam to Las Terrenas. They spoke English. Their great- grandchildren still live in Las Terrenas and they speak English. They are called cocolos. On Sunday, you may attend a religious service at an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in the village of El Limon near Las Terrenas. There you will hear people singing American spiritual hymns in English."
"In 1824 a ship, the Turtle Dove, filled with freed slaves from the United States (slaves who had escaped from the southern part of the United States and run away to the northern part of the United States) left from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (a state in the northern part of the United States). The ship was purchased by two Protestant sisters named Freeman who were of the Quaker Protestant religious faith. The ship was sailing to Liberia, a country in West Africa founded by freed American slaves in 1820. There was a big rainstorm in the Atlantic Ocean in front of Las Terrenas and the ship sank. The freed slaves swam to Las Terrenas. They spoke English. Their great- grandchildren still live in Las Terrenas and they speak English. They are called cocolos. On Sunday, you may attend a religious service at an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in the village of El Limon near Las Terrenas. There you will hear people singing American spiritual hymns in English."