The History of Fort Mose Florida
Fort Mose Florida
Junious Ricardo
Stanton
“More than 300 years ago, courageous Africans escaped
from enslavement in British colonies. They fled southward on foot to Spanish St. Augustine, crossing
swamps and dense tropical forests. Along they way, they sought assistance from
Natives, thus creating the first ‘underground railroad’”. The Fort Mose Story https://fortmose.org/about-fort-mose/
Most people think the path to
freedom for enslaved Africans in the British colonies and the US ran from the
South to the North along the fabled “Underground Railroad”, but that is not the
case. Blacks escaped via a Southern route to Florida and a few fled into the Mid-Western
territories.
Spain had a different approach to
slavery. Slavery existed in Spain
but in Spain
slaves who were mostly prisoners of war had rights they could own property and
they could sue in court. As a strategic move King Charles II of Spain ordered
the Florida colony to provide free haven to enslaved people from the British
colonies. “In 1693, King Charles II of Spain
ordered his Florida colonists to give runaway
slaves from British colonies freedom and protection if they converted to
Catholicism and agreed to serve Spain.
The fugitive slaves from South
Carolina who made it to Spanish Florida could expect
to gain more control over their own lives, even as Spanish slaves. Between the
late 17th and the mid-18th centuries, an unknown number of slaves from South Carolina successfully escaped to Florida. Spanish records note at least six
separate groups of slaves who escaped from South Carolina
to St. Augustine
between 1688 and 1725. This policy of refuge encouraged fugitive slaves to flee
to Spanish Florida with the hope of a better life if they made it to a Spanish
outpost, and it gave the Spanish a weapon to use against the British. Spain’s policy
toward runaways took laborers from the British colony and boosted
its own colonial population to oppose the British.” Fort
Mose Site Florida https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/American_Latino_Heritage/Fort_Mose.html
The first actual Black settlement
in Spanish Florida was Fort Mose
it was founded in 1687. The Spanish who were bitter rivals of England France
and the Dutch offered freedom to escaping enslaved people with the condition
they pledge loyalty to the Spanish crown and convert to Catholicism. Most of
the Africans who fled left South Carolina
heading South to Florida.
Escaped males had to serve in the Spanish militia. The hardy souls who made the
trek had to traverse swamps and thick forests to make their way to St Augustine. Many did
not survive the journey. The first to arrive was a small band that included
only eight men two women and an infant child.
The escapees were a welcome
addition because they provided skilled labor and men to man the fortified
settlements. “The Spanish were glad to have skilled laborers, and
the freedmen were also welcome additions to St. Augustine’s weak military forces. In 1738
the Spanish governor established the runaways in their own fortified town,
Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, about two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida.
Mose (pronounced “Moh- say”) became the first legally sanctioned free Black
town in the present-day United
States, and it is a critically important
site for Black American history. Mose provides important evidence that Black
American colonial history was much more than slavery and oppression. The men
and women of Mose won their liberty through great daring and effort and made
important contributions to Florida’s
multi-ethic heritage.” Fort Mose
America’s Black
Fortress of Freedom https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/research/st-augustine/fort-mose/
A fortified town was established
and the Black men who arrived served in the militia defending the fort. “By
1738, more than 100 freedom seekers had achieved asylum. In that year, a
fortified town named Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose was constructed on St. Augustine’s
northernmost border. Fort Mose became the site of the first free black
community in what is now the United
States.
A formerly enslaved African led the
free black militia of Fort
Mose. His name was
Captain Francisco Menéndez. For years, the warriors valiantly protected St. Augustine. However,
when Spain ceded all of La Florida to England
in 1763, the citizens of Fort
Mose once again faced
enslavement. They abandoned the fort and sought safety in Spanish Cuba.” https://fortmose.org/about-fort-mose/
The wars between Spain and England
spilled unto their colonies and the British took Fort Mose
in 1740. The residents fled to nearby St.
Augustine but regrouped under their leader Francisco
Menendez and subsequently retook the fort. “By 1738 there were 100 blacks,
mostly runaways from the Carolinas, living in what became Fort Mose.
Many were skilled workers, blacksmiths, carpenters, cattlemen, boatmen, and
farmers. With accompanying women and children, they created a colony of
freed people that ultimately attracted other fugitive slaves. When war broke
out in 1740 between England
and Spain, the people of St. Augustine and nearby Fort Mose
found themselves involved in a conflict that stretched across three continents.
The English sent thousands of soldiers and dozens of ships to destroy St. Augustine and bring
back any runaways. They set up a blockade and bombarded the town for 27
consecutive days. Hopelessly outnumbered, the diverse population of
blacks, Indians and whites pulled together. Fort Mose
was one of the first places attacked. Lead by Captain Francisco Menendez,
the men of the Fort Mose Militia briefly lost the Fort but eventually
recaptured it, repelling the English invasion force. Florida
remained in Spanish hands and for the next 80 years remained a haven for
fugitive slaves from the British colonial possessions of North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia and
later when these possessions became part of the United States.” Fort Mose Florida
(1738-1820) James Bullock https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/fort-mose-florida/
Fort Mose
was abandoned and was overrun by marsh. Fort
Mose garnered attention in the mid
twentieth century when archeologists began uncovering the ruins and discovering
the African contribution to St
Augustine Florida.
The state of Florida
acquired the twenty-four acre site and administers it through the Anastasia State Recreation Area. The area is located in
a marsh so there is no public access to the actual fort site. In 1994 Fort Mose
was designated a National Historic Landmark.
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