Slavery and Sanctuary in Colonial Florida
by Jean M. West

From the time of Columbus’ voyages, Spanish colonizers relied on slave labor to make their American empire profitable. Initially, they enslaved indigenous natives of the Caribbean. However, the decimation of Native American populations by disease, war, and slavery fueled the African slave trade to a great degree after 1520.

The Spanish were part of the economy’s demand side in the Atlantic African slave trade, while the Portuguese monopolized the supply side from 1440 to 1640. The Portuguese dominated the African Atlantic slave trade due to their exploration of Africa at the earliest years of the "age of discovery" and due to the papal line of demarcation, confirmed by the Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494), that divided land and trade routes discovered by Catholic nations along an imaginary line approximately 50° W longitude. African slaves began working in mines in the Spanish Antilles as early as 1505.

First Spanish Period (1565-1763)

On Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida) in 1513, Juan Ponce de León claimed and named new North American lands for Spain--Florida. Settlement proved difficult due to Native American resistance (de León died of wounds from a 1521 encounter in Florida), climate, and terrain. It was not until 1565, when Pedro Menéndez de Avilés established San Agustín (St. Augustine), that the Spanish had a permanent settlement in Florida. Under the terms of the asiento (agreement to settle Florida) issued by Philip II, Menéndez had three years to import 500 Africans slaves to the new colony to cultivate and mill sugar, as well as to assist in constructing towns and performing agricultural work. Evidence suggests that enslaved African artisans and agricultural laborers from Cuba arrived with Menéndez in 1565; a second phase of settlement in 1568 records one female slave and one male slave among 200 new settlers.

From its settlement, St. Augustine required defensive works against the French Huguenots of Fort Caroline, and subsequently the Timucuan confederation of tribes. Beginning around 1582, King Philip II sent slaves, first from the Caribbean and later on from Africa, directly to supplement the meager European workforce and to help build and maintain St. Augustine’s walls and fort. By 1683, Florida boasted a militia company formed of black and mulatto members, who supplemented the Spanish regulars of the presidio (military base) of St. Augustine. When the crown decided to build a coquina fortress in 1672, the Castillo de San Marcos, African slaves worked on it as masons and metalworkers. As with all major forts of Spanish Florida, slaves helped to construct seawalls, bridges, and other public buildings.

In addition to slaves owned directly by the Spanish government, individuals purchased slaves to work in their households. While the transaction commonly took place on the steps of the Government House in St. Augustine, private transactions were conducted at the town market as well (now Plaza de la Constitucion). Catholic diocese records from 1606 further document the presence of slaves in St. Augustine: enslaved parents named Augustin and Francisca baptized their son (also a slave) according to the Catholic sacrament under the name Augustin.

During the First Spanish Period (1565-1763), the Spanish used ladinos (slaves brought from Spain who had been trained in a craft or as domestics), Native American slaves as agricultural workers, and bozales, (Africans who performed heavy labor in field and mines). Ladinos could live and work away from their owners for pay under an arrangement called jornal. Spanish haciendas during this period used Native American slave or encomienda (tribute) labor rather than African slaves in large numbers. For example, the inventory of Governor Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla’s hacienda, where Native American workers raised corn, wheat and swine, reveals a single Angolan slave and a mulatto overseer. This in itself is unusual since the Spanish preferred to keep Native American and African slaves apart and even more rarely allowed Africans to supervise Native American workers.

By the mid-1600s, Protestant nations, beginning with the Netherlands (1600), and rapidly followed by France (1640), Sweden (1650) and England (1660), broke the Portuguese Catholic monopoly on the Atlantic slave trade. European monarchs, nobles, and merchants supported slavery because they profited from it and because they believed the closed mercantile system, by which American colonies supported their European rulers, insured national power and wealth. No European nation was able to recruit enough settlers (or even deport enough debtors or other "undesirables") to provide as much labor as the profitable sugar and tobacco economies required. So, all of them continued to participate in the international slave trade until the 19th century.

Indeed, over 200 years of Spanish colonization, Florida remained a marginal enterprise. When the Spanish lost Florida to Britain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War (Seven Years War), there were only 3,104 subjects to evacuate. Of the refugees who left St. Augustine on eight transport ships and arrived in Cuba in March 1764, Spanish officials noted that 420 (13.5%) were of African origin. Within the group, 350 were slaves and 80 (almost one-fifth of them) were free.

Florida: Sanctuary for Slaves

The first eleven fugitive slaves from Charleston, South Carolina arrived in Spanish Florida in October 1687. Don Diego de Quiroga reported that eight men, two women, and a three year-old child arrived in a boat in his colony. Governor Cendoya granted them refuge in San Agustín (Saint Augustine). They were baptized as Catholics and housed in the town. Six worked on the construction of the Castillo de San Marcos and evidently received wages. The Spanish assigned the two remaining men to work at a blacksmith’s shop, and the women served in the governor’s household as cooks and laundresses; all were paid workers. They also served in the militia, unlike Native American converts whom the Spanish refused to arm. When an English official tried to claim the fugitives a year later, Governor Quiroga denied his claim.

On November 7, 1693, Spanish King Charles II issued a cedula (proclamation) promising that any English slave (maroon) that came to Spanish territory would be free and saying he was "giving liberty to all…the men as well as the women…so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same." Initially, Spanish officials did not enforce the decree uniformly, returning some fugitive slaves to their English owners and selling others into new slavery. Consequently, in November 1733, the King reaffirmed that English slaves would be guaranteed freedom in Spanish Florida. The proclamation was read at the docks of St. Augustine, and news spread on northbound boats. Slaves fled by foot, horse, and boat to the sanctuary of Florida. By 1736, according to the records of the church of Nuestra Senora de la Leche in St. Augustine, 143 Africans (free and slave) had been confirmed into the Catholic faith. When Governor Antonio de Benavides (1734-1737) ignored the royal cedula to sell fugitive slaves back to the English to profit himself, the king replaced Benevides and issued new rules prohibiting such sales while also requiring runaways to perform four years of military service to obtain their freedom.

The black militia distinguished itself during English and Native American raids, and Francisco Menéndez, a Mandingo from Africa, petitioned Governor Manuel de Montiano for land. In 1738, Montiano authorized a settlement for the runaways called Gracia Reál de Santa Terésa de Mosé. Approximately 100 free blacks, including men, women and children, moved onto homesteads granted by the governor, about two miles north of St. Augustine. They came from all along the West African coast, including Congo and Guinea. Most married fellow fugitives, but some married slaves from St. Augustine or Native Americans. They cleared the land, built palm-thatched homes, raised crops, and built a wooden church; most importantly, they built a fort with supplies and materials provided by the Spanish colonial government. Fort Mosé guarded the northern land and water approaches to St. Augustine. Francisco Menéndez served as both leader of the community and captain of the militia for the next 30 years. The free black militiamen pledged to "spill their last drop of blood in defense of the Great Crown of Spain and the Holy Faith, and to be the most cruel enemies of the English."

In 1739, South Carolina countered by offering whites and "free Indians" rewards for raiding south of the Savannah River to return fugitive African slaves (ten-40£) or scalp them (20£). Part of the impetus was the Stono Rebellion, a slave revolt that broke out in South Carolina on September 9, 1739. Early that morning, about 20 slaves from Stono River armed themselves and began marching south proclaiming "Liberty!" Led by an Angolan named Jemmy, they attracted 80 more slaves, some of whom were probably Native American. As the slaves marched, they burned homes and killed 23 white South Carolinians. A militia force of 120 caught up with the group late in the afternoon. In the battle that followed, the militia killed 30 slaves outright, while another 30 escaped. Over the next months, Indian agents assisted in capturing the remainder, most of whom were executed. Contemporaries such as Colonel Miles Brewton asserted, "That the Negroes would not have made this Insurrection had they not depended on St. Augustine for a Place of Reception afterwards, was very certain; and that the Spaniards had a Hand in prompting them to this particular Action, there was but little room to doubt."

In May 1740, the British governor of Georgia, General James Oglethorpe, launched an invasion of Florida. Fort Mosé’s troops fell back to protect the civilians, but once they were safely in St. Augustine, they regrouped. On June 26, a 300-man force of Spanish troops, black militiamen, and Yamasee breached the fort, killed 68 of Oglethorpe’s men, and took another 34 prisoner. Only a few dozen British escaped from "Bloody Mosé." Unfortunately for the black residents, the fire destroyed the fort and settlement. Menéndez rebuilt the community in 1752. By the time of the 1759 household census, there were again 22 homes housing 37 men, 15 women, seven boys and eight girls.

The militia continued to thwart British-inspired Indian attacks until the evacuation of Spanish Floridians upon the turnover of Florida to Britain. At that time, the Spanish abandoned Fort Mosé. When the transports left St. Augustine in 1764, among the passengers was Francisco Menéndez who received a caballeria (lot #40, 33 acres) in San Agustin de la Nueva Florida (or Ceiba Mocha) and a stipend of 60 pesos, tools, and a newly imported African slave to assist in homesteading.

British Colonial Period (1763-1783)

The British aggressively imported slaves to Florida during their 20-year rule until they lost Florida under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the American Revolution. British colonial slave traders, such as Georgia’s John Graham and South Carolina’s Henry Laurens, supplied many slaves to East Florida even though they had to secure permission from Spanish officials and bring the slaves through customs. Scotsman Richard Oswald brought hundreds of slaves directly from Bance Island (off Sierra Leone) to St. Augustine; some worked his plantation, and he sold the rest. The preponderance of Florida’s slave population shifted from the households of St. Augustine to remote rural areas, for example along the Mosquito Coast (near modern Daytona Beach), where plantation owners introduced labor intensive but profitable crops, including indigo (blue dye), sea-island cotton, and rice. They also expanded existing sugar production. Recently imported Africans joined "seasoned" slaves born in the West Indies, Carolinas, and Georgia on Florida’s plantations. By 1775, Florida’s slave population jumped to 3,000.

During the American Revolution, Spanish forces, led by Bernardo de Gálvez, recaptured the port of Pensacola in British West Florida; black soldiers served in this Spanish force, and some settled in Pensacola as "free men of color." However, during the closing days of the American Revolution in 1782, Tories fled from the Carolinas to the mouth of the St. Johns River in Florida, bringing with them 13,000 slaves. An undetermined number of these slaves escaped during the relocation from the settlement of St. John’s Bluff, and prior to relocation in the Bahamas. Many fugitive slaves headed for Seminole settlements in interior Florida. Additional British Tories brought slaves to West Florida, including Pensacola and areas farther west.

Second Spanish Period (1784-1821)

Upon their return to Florida, the Spanish reinstated their 1693 fugitive slave policy and declared 250 slaves to be free because they had accepted baptism into the Catholic Church. Most of these free blacks lived in St. Augustine: many were skilled craftspeople, including tanners, barbers, butchers, and trader-translators between the Seminole and Spanish merchants. St. Augustine’s 1789 census revealed of a total population of 1,592 residents, 483 slaves (30.3%) and 102 free blacks (6.4%). In the same year, the Spanish crown reaffirmed its liberal stand on the "education, treatment, and occupation of slaves."

Florida’s demand for African agricultural workers was much higher during the second Spanish period due of the emergence of the plantation economy. Records from between 1785-1800 indicate that nearly 70% of slaves sold in West Florida (Baton Rouge) were African-born. Priests ministering in rural Florida baptized slaves, and, from their records, it was clear that Florida’s plantations remained small-scale compared to those farther north; in 1787, half of the plantations had fewer than four slaves. Most slaves worked according to the "task system," wherein, once slaves completed daily assignments, they were free to work in their own garden plots, hunt or fish, or work in their own households sewing or cooking. However, task loads could be heavy, and free time was scarce.

Spanish Slavery versus English Slavery

Their experiences fighting the Muslims in the 1400s shaped the Spanish view of slavery, which they viewed to be accidental and unnatural rather than a hereditary condition. Following the Moorish Wars, the Spanish and Portuguese imported 100,000 slaves to the Iberian Peninsula. These African slaves assimilated into the Iberian population, and, consequently, the peninsulars (Spanish-born settlers) who colonized Florida typically had at least one African great-great grandparent.

Both the law of the Catholic Church and the Spanish legal code, the 13th century Siete Partidas of King Alfonso X, regarded slaves as humans rather than property. Although Spanish officials assessed slaves on inventories (compiled for wills, lawsuits, and estate settlements) and priced them for sale, they still viewed slaves as moral and legal entities rather than mere commodities (or, as the Dred Scott case would define them, property). The Partidas protected slaves from abusive masters or freeman, and even provided for the removal of slaves from heinous masters. It also allowed slaves to testify in court against their masters.

Because marriage is a holy sacrament of the Catholic Church, it conferred sanctity upon the family unit and prevented the breakup of families. A study of 150 slave sales in West Florida between 1785 and 1800 revealed no instance of a mother being separated from children under the age of 12. However, slave children did cross a legal threshold around age six when assessors assigned them monetary value independent of their mothers.

The cedula (royal proclamation) of 1526 provided that any slave could purchase his or her freedom or coartación. Because church law required that slaves be given holy days off, and there were many such days on the Catholic Church’s calendar, slaves had the opportunity to earn money during this free time. Since the average freedom price was around 400 pesos and daily wage rates were between one-two pesos, it took a long time for slaves to purchase their freedom. Although rare, manumission occurred more frequently under Spanish law than British law.

In contrast British, and subsequently U.S., law viewed slavery as a permanent, hereditary, and eventually race-defined condition. Enforcement of slavery and slave codes largely rested with each slave’s owner. There were no laws comparable to those of the Spanish Crown or Catholic Church that encouraged lenient treatment of slaves or discouraged brutal or arbitrary treatment of slaves. Much like their approach to their colonial economies, the British-American approach to slavery was far more laissez-faire or autonomous than that of Spain. While the colonial government would intervene in cases of crime, accused slaves did not have the same rights as white defendants. For instance, slaves’ testimony was not admissible in court. In the case of slave rebellion, colonial assemblies responded with "Negro Acts," prohibiting slaves from growing food, assembling, earning money, or being educated. Because slavery was race-linked, English colonies passed additional laws punishing interracial marriages (miscegenation) and relegating all persons of mixed blood to second-class status, even if they were free.

Spanish law defined slavery as form of labor in the colonial economy rather than in racial or ethnic terms. Unlike the English, the Spanish used white European slaves and imposed slavery as a sentence for crimes committed by whites. Notwithstanding this distinction, Spanish administrators were not entirely color-blind. They endeavored to separate Native Americans from African slaves; divided militia units based on racial mixture; and tended to punish petty criminals of African background more severely than those of Spanish heritage. While the life of a slave in colonial Florida was not necessarily better than the life of a British slave in Virginia, the institutions of government and church offered them better legal protection and far greater opportunity for freedom.

This essay was written by Jean M. West, a social studies education consultant in Port Orange, Florida.

Books
Bannon, John Francis. The Spanish Borderlands Frontier: 1513-1821. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.

Deagan, Kathleen and Darcie MacMahon. Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995.

Henderson, Ann L. and Gary Mormino, ed. Spanish Pathways in Florida. Sarasota: Pineapple Press, 1991.

Landers, Jane. Black Society in Spanish Florida. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

TePaske, John J., ed. Three American Empires. New York: Harper and Row, 1967.

Articles
Ingraham, Lori. "Fort Mosé: Passage to Freedom." Cobblestone, 16:9 pp. 14-17.

Johnson, Ralph B. "Freedom’s Trail: The Florida Cuba Connection." Conference paper for Places of Cultural Memory: African Reflections on the American Landscape, 2001.