Escape & Flight

In 1693, Spain’s King Charles II proclaimed that any English slave who reached Spanish Florida would be granted freedom upon converting to Catholicism. By sea and land, Africans fled to St. Augustine on a dangerous journey with a strong chance of recapture and punishment. Many joined Native American allies and fought the English in frontier wars and raids. Francisco Menéndez fought in the Yamasee War (1715-16) that almost destroyed the young English colony of Georgia. Another survivor of that war, Francisco Garzia fled Carolina with his Native American wife, Ana. Three generations of their family lived in St. Augustine and Fort Mose. Several family members fought in the militia, protecting the frontier against the English and their Indian allies. They served knowing that capture would likely lead to enslavement. Spain granted runaways freedom in part based on its medieval slavery practices. Black Africans first came to Spain via the trans-Sahara trade during the Muslim occupation of Spain from 711 to 1492. More Africans arrived in the 15th century when Portugal began a systemic African slave trade. Medieval Spanish slavery was not race-based; Muslims, white Christians, Jews, Canary Islanders, and American Indians were also enslaved. Spanish law, based on Roman law, offered many ways out of slavery, and most southern Spanish cities had a small but significant free-black population. Spain continued this pattern of multi-racial slavery in the Americas. Although English-style chattel slavery also took root, the medieval model endured in colonial cities such as St. Augustine well into the 19th century, with important implications for African resistance in the Spanish Caribbean.

St. Augustine, Florida · United States