Fort Mose Above and Below: Terrestrial and Underwater Excavations at the Earliest Free Afro-Diasporic Settlement in the United States

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Fort Mose Above and Below: Terrestrial and Underwater Excavations at the Earliest Free Afro-Diasporic Settlement in the United States," at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

First constructed in 1738, Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, was the earliest legally-sanctioned Afro-Diasporic settlement in the modern United States. Enslaved Africans escaping from the British colonies to Florida were recognized as free Spanish subjects if they accepted Catholicism and participated in the defense of the colony at St. Augustine. Fort Mose was the northernmost defensive line for the city until the Spanish evacuation in 1763. In the 1980s, archaeologists identified the second fort, built in 1752, and extensive historical and archaeological research revealed much about lifeways at Mose. In 2019, researchers with Flagler College and the University of Florida reopened terrestrial investigations at the site, and in 2021 the first underwater excavations were undertaken by the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program. This research seeks to better understand the site and its people in the face of problematic coastal erosion which threatens its long-term survival.