About a mile west of this location stood Freedtown, Pasco County's pioneer black community. Established about 1869 by newly freed slaves southwest of Lake Buddy, it consisted of cabin homes, a congregation of the African Methodist Episcopal AME Church, and a cemetery. The small community thrived until the Great Freeze of 1894-95 decimated the agrarian economy of Freedtown and the nearby lakefront communities of Pasadena and Earnestville. Nothing remains today of Freedtown or its cemetery. Following the freeze, most of its population migrated north and became residents of Dade City, where many united with the Mount Zion AME Church congregation.