Celebrating Black History Month: Fort Mose, the first all-black settlement in the U.S.

The authorities of Spanish Florida in 1689 began offering asylum to escaped slaves fleeing from the British colonies. In 1693, King Charles of Spain issued a royal decree that granted asylum in Florida, if they converted to Catholicism and serving four years in the colonial militia.

In 1738, Manuel de Montiana, the governor of Spanish Florida, established Fort Mose at the Spanish fort near St. Augustine, Florida. It was the first free black settlement in the US.  Any slave from the surrounding British colonies who made it to Fort Mose was granted asylum.

In 1739, slaves from the British colonies staged the Stono Rebellion, as they tried to reach Fort Mose.  They burned plantations as they moved southward, and many slaves joined them.  However, many were caught and publicly executed.

The people of Fort Mose made allies with the Spanish soldiers and fought against British forces who attacked St. Augustine in 1740. The fort was destroyed.

The Spanish returned and rebuilt Fort Mose by 1752, and black were allowed to resettle. When east Florida was ceded to England by the 1763 Treaty of Paris, most of the free blacks emigrated to Cuba with the Spanish settlers.

Fort Mose is consider a premiere site on the Florida Black Heritage Trail, and a precursor to the Underground Railroad. It is now a US National Historic Landmark.