“It was a very diverse community, culturally and ethnically, in all kinds of ways,” said Regina Gayle Phillips, executive director of the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, located in St. Augustine. Housed in the region’s first black public high school, the museum’s exhibits span 450 years, from the empires of West Africa to the black presence in colonial Florida to the present day.
In 1752, Fort Mose was rebuilt in a slightly different location, and the Spanish government once again asked some black residents of St. Augustine to guard the outpost. When not policing the British, residents farmed, hunted, fished, and had the same rights as whites. But 11 years later, in 1763, the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in a peace treaty, effectively extinguishing this small island of freedom in what would become the American South.
“Everyone had to pack up and leave because they knew the English were going to come and establish this same type of harsh slavery, where they are only considered property,” Landers said. And they packed up and left, moving to Cuba, which was kept under Spanish rule in the treaty.
“Everyone in St. Augustine left, even the Native Americans,” said Kathleen Deagan, an archaeologist and assistant professor of anthropology and history at the University of Florida, who spent nearly half a century there. discover the past of Saint-Augustin. “The documents give us the impression that what they really didn’t want to do was live under Protestant rule… but they certainly didn’t want to live with the British, their former slavers.” As a result, Fort Mose fell into disrepair and was soon abandoned and forgotten.