Francisco Menéndez & Fort Mose

Feb 25, 2026

A deep dive into the creation of a free Black settlement in Spanish Florida and how geopolitics made it a refuge. Stories of military strategy, border conflicts, and a community organized as an exterior defensive line. The rise of Francisco Menéndez from enslaved person to militia leader. Battles, forced relocations to Cuba, and the settlement’s legacy in archaeology and memory.

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INSIGHT

Early Free Black Presence In Spanish St Augustine

Spanish St. Augustine had a notable population of free Black people by the late 1500s, partly because Spanish law allowed manumission and limited rights for freed people.
Holly Fry cites Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founding St. Augustine in 1565 and notes over 10% of the city's population was Black by the end of the 16th century.

INSIGHT

Spain Used Freedom As A Strategic Tool

Spain formalized a policy in 1693 and 1733 offering freedom to enslaved people who converted to Catholicism and pledged allegiance, to boost militia and undermine British colonies.
Tracy B. Wilson explains King Carlos II's 1693 decree and King Felipe V's 1733 adjustments requiring service to the crown.

INSIGHT

Fort Mose Combined Defense And Segregation

Fort Mose was created as both a defensive buffer for St. Augustine and a segregated settlement to remove free Black residents from the city.
Tracy B. Wilson notes officials established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose in 1738 for strategic defense and racial segregation.

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Fort Mose was the first officially sanctioned settlement for free Black people in what’s now the United States. It was established as a place where people who escaped enslavement in the U.S. could live in the Spanish territory of Florida.

Research:

Blumetti, Jordan. “The First Floridians.” The Bitter Southerner. https://bittersoutherner.com/the-first-floridians-fort-mose-st-augustine
Cancio-Donlebún Ballvé, J. Á. (2021). The King of Spain’s Slaves in St. Augustine, Florida (1580–1618). Estudios del Observatorio / Observatorio Studies, 74, pp. 1-81. https://cervantesobservatorio.fas.harvard.edu/en/reports
curtis, Marcus. “Fort Mose: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose.” 3/2/2022. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2f5446036d2d4e109439baade4e1f4e7
Dunlop, J.G. “Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida.” The American Historical Review , Feb., 1990, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Feb., 1990). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2162952
org. “Francisco Menéndez.” https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-92885/
Florida Frontiers. “Fort Mose: America’s First Free Black Community.” 12/11/2016. https://www.pbs.org/video/florida-frontiers-fort-mose-americas-first-free-black-community/
Florida Museum. “Fort Mose.” https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/research/st-augustine/fort-mose/
Fort Mose Historical Society. “The Fort Mose Story.” https://fortmose.org/about-fort-mose/
Halbirt, Carl D. “La Ciudad de San Agustín: A European Fighting Presidio in Eighteenth-Century ‘La Florida.’” Historical Archaeology , 2004, Vol. 38, No. 3, Presidios of the North American Spanish Borderlands (2004). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25617179
Hurston, Zora Neale and John R. Lynch. “The Journal of Negro History , Oct., 1927, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Oct., 1927). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2714042
Landers, Jane. “Black Frontier Settlements in Spanish Colonial Florida.” OAH Magazine of History , Spring, 1988, Vol. 3, No. 2, The Frontier (Spring, 1988). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25162596
Landers, Jane. “Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida.” The American Historical Review , Feb., 1990, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Feb., 1990). https://www.jstor.org/stable/2162952
Landers, Jane. “The Atlantic Transformations of Francisco Menéndez.” From Biography and the Black Atlantic. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2014.
MacMahon, Darcie and Kathleen Deagan. “Legacy of Fort Mose.” Archaeology , September/October 1996, Vol. 49, No. 5 (September/October 1996). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41771187
Proenza-Coles, Christina. “Freedom Seekers.” Lapham’s Quarterly. 3/19/2019. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/freedom-seekers
Wasserman, Adam. “Forming a nation: the free black settlement at Fort Mose.” From A People’s History of Florida. Via Libcom.org.6/28/2009. https://libcom.org/article/forming-nation-free-black-settlement-fort-mose
Weiss, Daniel. “Freedom Fort.” Archaeology. Mar/Apr2024, Vol. 77 Issue 2, p36-41.

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