Fort Mose

The

illustrated story of the history and groundbreaking discovery of an important

historical site, fully updated on the 30th anniversary of its first publication



Awards

and praise for the first edition:



Florida

Historical Society Charlton Tebeau Book Award

American

Association for State and Local History Award of Merit



"Tells

the story of Fort Mose . . . as well as the story of the Black experience in

the American Spanish colonies."--Washington Post



"A

very important chapter of the U.S. national story."--Colonial Latin

American Historical Review



"An

excellently researched and presented book. . . . Deagan and MacMahon have done

a splendid job of bringing a little known story of African American struggle,

courage and success to the public."--Public Archaeology Review



More

than 300 years ago, enslaved people of African descent risked their lives to

escape from slavery on English plantations in South Carolina. Hearing that

Spaniards in Florida promised religious sanctuary, they made their way south to

St. Augustine, Florida. The Spanish established the fort and town of Gracia

Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first legally sanctioned free Black community

in what is now the United States. This book tells the story of Fort Mose and

the people who lived there.



Fort Mose traces the roots of this eighteenth-century free

Black town from Africa through Iberia and Hispanic America to the colonial

southeastern United States. It also tells how archaeologists, historians, local

residents, teachers, and politicians worked together in the late twentieth

century to bring the rich but neglected history of free Black people in the

Spanish colonies to the public. The site of Fort Mose is now a major point on

the Florida Black Heritage Trail and has been designated a National Historic

Landmark and a UNESCO Site of Memory. Research continues at the location to the

present day.



This second edition is updated with new information

uncovered about Fort Mose, its inhabitants, and its historical significance. It

reflects recent developments in community involvement and preservation at the

site. And as the first edition did, it challenges the idea that the American Black

colonial experience was only that of slavery, offering a story of a courageous

group of people of African descent who realized their vision of

self-determination before the American Revolution.