The Secret Road to Freedom

Most stories about escaping slavery point north. This one points south.

In 1693, Spain's king offered freedom to enslaved people who escaped from the English colonies and reached Spanish Florida, on condition that they become Catholic. For people enslaved in Carolina, the border with Spanish Florida was much closer than any northern refuge.

People made the dangerous journey through swamps, rivers and forests. Some served in the St. Augustine militia. In 1738, the Spanish governor established a settlement for them about two miles north of town: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, better known as Fort Mose.

Captain Francisco Menéndez

The community was led by Francisco Menéndez, a militia captain who had himself escaped slavery in Carolina. Fort Mose was a town and a military outpost at once: its men guarded the northern approach to St. Augustine. It is recognized as the first legally sanctioned free African settlement in what is now the United States.

Destroyed, rebuilt, remembered

In 1740, during James Oglethorpe's invasion, Fort Mose was captured and then retaken by Spanish and Mose forces in a fierce battle. The settlement was later rebuilt. When Spain handed Florida to Britain in 1763, the people of Mose left with the Spanish for Cuba. The site was rediscovered by archaeologists in the twentieth century.

Freedom at Fort Mose had conditions, and slavery still existed elsewhere in Spanish Florida. Both things are part of the true story.

Historical basis: Florida State Parks, History of Fort Mose; National Park Service, African Americans in St. Augustine 1565–1821. See all sources.