A Return to Fort Mose: Exploring a Free African Town on the Spanish Frontier (1752-1763)

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)

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Keywords

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