Fort Mose: First Free Black Town in North America

In 1738 the Spanish colonial governor of Florida officially established Fort Mose (Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose) near St. Augustine as a settlement for escaped slaves from English colonies, making it the first legally sanctioned free Black settlement in what is now the United States. Its residents, led by Francisco Menéndez — himself a formerly enslaved Mandinka man — formed a militia and defended the settlement against British attack in 1740. Fort Mose represented a powerful statement about the possibility of Black freedom and self-governance in colonial North America.