A Return to Fort Mose: Exploring a Free African Town on the Spanish Frontier (1752-1763)
Author(s): James Davidson; Lori Lee; Mary Elizabeth Ibarrola
Year: 2020
Summary
This is an abstract from the session entitled "African Diaspora in Florida" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, was a fortified settlement established in 1738 by the Spanish governor of Florida, and populated by recently self-emancipated Africans as a defensive element to the town of St. Augustine. The earliest free African town in what is now the United States, Mose was attacked and destroyed by the British in 1740, but a second fort was built in 1752. It was abandoned in 1763, when Florida was ceded to the British. When evacuated to Cuba, the colony consisted of 87 souls. Rediscovered archaeologically in 1971, the fort saw field excavations in 1987-88. In 2019, researchers from Flagler College and the University of Florida began a multi-year archaeological research program at Fort Mose, with a focus on the domestic life of the African community, who risked everything to maintain this space for a few short years.
Cite this Record
A Return to Fort Mose: Exploring a Free African Town on the Spanish Frontier (1752-1763). James Davidson, Lori Lee, Mary Elizabeth Ibarrola. 2020 ( tDAR id: 456794)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
African Diaspora
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Military
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Spanish Colonial
Geographic Keywords
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
18th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 927