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Fort Mose

Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom

Kathleen Deagan Darcie MacMahon Jane Landers

$62.99

Paperback

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English
University Press of Florida
02 September 2025
The illustrated story of the history and groundbreaking discovery of an important historical site, fully updated on the 30th anniversary of its first publication

Awards and praise for the first edition:

Florida Historical Society Charlton Tebeau Book Award

American Association for State and Local History Award of Merit

""Tells the story of Fort Mose . . . as well as the story of the Black experience in the American Spanish colonies.""--Washington Post

""A very important chapter of the U.S. national story.""--Colonial Latin American Historical Review

""An excellently researched and presented book. . . . Deagan and MacMahon have done a splendid job of bringing a little known story of African American struggle,

courage and success to the public.""--Public Archaeology Review

More than 300 years ago, enslaved people of African descent risked their lives to escape from slavery on English plantations in South Carolina. Hearing that Spaniards in Florida promised religious sanctuary, they made their way south to St. Augustine, Florida. The Spanish established the fort and town of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first legally sanctioned free Black community in what is now the United States. This book tells the story of Fort Mose and the people who lived there.

Fort Mose traces the roots of this eighteenth-century free Black town from Africa through Iberia and Hispanic America to the colonial southeastern United States. It also tells how archaeologists, historians, local residents, teachers, and politicians worked together in the late twentieth century to bring the rich but neglected history of free Black people in the Spanish colonies to the public. The site of Fort Mose is now a major point on the Florida Black Heritage Trail and has been designated a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO Site of Memory. Research continues at the location to the present day.

This second edition is updated with new information uncovered about Fort Mose, its inhabitants, and its historical significance. It reflects recent developments in community involvement and preservation at the site. And as the first edition did, it challenges the idea that the American Black colonial experience was only that of slavery, offering a story of a courageous group of people of African descent who realized their vision of self-determination before the American Revolution.
By:   , ,
Imprint:   University Press of Florida
Country of Publication:   United States
Edition:   Second Edition
Dimensions:   Height: 254mm,  Width: 178mm, 
ISBN:   9780813081007
ISBN 10:   0813081009
Series:   Florida Humanities Partnership Publications
Pages:   160
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Kathleen Deagan is Distinguished Research Curator of Archaeology Emerita and the Emerita Lockwood Professor of Florida and Caribbean Archaeology at the University of Florida. Her many books include En Bas Saline: A Taíno Town before and after Columbus. Darcie MacMahon is director emerita of exhibits and public programs at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. She is the coauthor of The Calusa and Their Legacy: South Florida People and Their Environments. Jane Landers is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of History and Director of the Slave Societies Digital Archive at Vanderbilt University. Her many books include Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions.

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