The History of Florida (40 page)

Free and Enslaved · 187

In 1738, slave runaways from Carolina and Georgia received civil and religious sanctu-

ary in Spanish Florida. With support from Governor Manuel de Montiano, they estab-

lished the legally sanctioned free community of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose.

Two miles north of St. Augustine, Mose is shown as “Negroe Fort” (
right
) on this 1762

plan by English cartographer Thomas Jefferys (1699–1775).

into East Florida, the last Loyalist haven in North America. The colony’s

population grew by about 12,000 persons, over half of whom were black,

making the black-white ratio approximately three to one. Although a small

number of these blacks were free—for example, those who had performed

military service for George III—most were not. British Floridians restricted

proof

the movement of free blacks, adopted a slave code based on that of South

Carolina, and often subjected slaves to brutal punishments.

At the conclusion of the North American revolution, Florida was ret-

roceded to Spain, and many slaves took advantage of the chaos of war and

the subsequent colonial transfer to escape British control. Untold num-

bers found sanctuary among the Seminole nation, which had established

flourishing vil ages in the central plains of north Florida. Others, however,

claimed a refuge among the incoming Spaniards on the grounds of reli-

gious conversion; although the Spanish governor doubted their religious

motivation, the 1693 sanctuary policy was still in effect, and he was forced

to honor it. After appearing before notaries to be documented and to show

proof of work, at least 251 individuals were manumitted under the sanctuary

provisions.

Prince Witten, his wife, Judy, and their children, Pol y and Glasgow, were

among those presenting themselves to be manumitted, and their lives dem-

onstrate how ambitious persons were able to maximize the benefits of free

status in Spanish Florida. Prince and Judy were Guinea-born slaves who es-

caped from Georgia. Runaway notices reported that Prince had fled to Flor-

ida “to avoid a separation from his family to which he is much attached.”4

188 · Jane Landers

Once Witten and his family were granted sanctuary in Florida, they adapted

to the civil, religious, and military expectations of successive Spanish gov-

ernments and prospered. The family’s freedom was dependent upon reli-

gious conversion, and the children were baptized within a year of entering

the province. Adult baptism required religious instruction and usual y took

somewhat longer to accomplish, but in 1792 Prince and Judy were also bap-

tized. Later they had their marriage of twenty-one years legitimized by the

Catholic Church and became favored godparents for the black community,

free and slave. Prince served as godfather to twenty-three children, and Judy

was godmother to thirty-one children, including the child of her own slave.

When Pol y and Glasgow grew older, they, too, were popular godparents.

Witten was a skilled carpenter and hired himself out to a variety of em-

ployers. He also earned money working on government construction proj-

ects, and by 1793 he and his family were living between prominent white

neighbors in the city. By the fol owing year, Judy, a laundress and cook,

proof

Some escaped slaves found ref-

uge among the Seminole villages

of Florida and later joined in three

wars against U.S. forces bent on

removing the Seminole from

their lands (see chapter 13).

Free and Enslaved · 189

owned a female slave. Prince joined the free black militia and defended St.

Augustine on numerous occasions, including the French-inspired invasion

of 1795, the State of Muskogee’s war against Spain from 1800 to 1803, and

the Patriot War of 1812, in which he earned heroic status and the rank of

lieutenant.

While the free black population grew during the second Spanish rule of

Florida (1784–1821), so did the enslaved African population. Englishmen

who accepted Spanish dominion in Florida and Spaniards alike operated

plantations and cattle ranches with sizable labor forces of 50 to 200 slaves.

One large planter, Zephaniah Kingsley, credited his success to a moder-

ate view of race relations, the task system, and the employment of highly

skil ed slaves in management positions on his diversified estates. Other

successful operations such as the plantations of Francisco Xavier Sánchez

were devoted to cattle, which required a mobile and fairly autonomous work

force, as did Sánchez’s timbering operations. A black overseer, Edimboro,

managed Sánchez’s enterprises when Sánchez was in Cuba. The corporate

establishments of the Panton, Leslie trading company, which included trad-

ing stores, agricultural plantations, and cattle ranches, employed African

work forces of up to 250 laborers, as well as black linguists and black Indian

traders.

proof

On both corporate and privately owned plantations, it was common for

several generations of slave families to live and work together. The paternal

model of slave management was reinforced by religion, law, and community

norms. Slave masters were often linked to their slaves as godparents, which

further underscored paternal obligations. Slaves used these intangible but

real assets to improve their conditions, petitioning the courts when they

were ill treated, were not material y provided for in the required manner,

or wished to change owners. They also went to court to effect self-purchase

arrangements. Even slaves on remote plantations were linked to urban in-

stitutions and networks through economic activities, the mobility of free

blacks, and visits of the parish priest and other city dwellers.

Treasury accounts, census returns, notarized instruments, and civil peti-

tions provide insights into the lives of St. Augustine’s black community. Al-

though censuses are inconsistent and must be used with caution, they show

that the black population of the Second Spanish Period in Florida ranged

from 27 percent of the total recorded population in 1786 to 57 percent in

1814. Whatever the limitations of the counts, it is obvious that Spanish Flor-

ida had a sizable and growing population of African descent. A variety of

economic opportunities existed in this Atlantic port city, and as they had

190 · Jane Landers

in the First Spanish Period, many black males worked for the government,

on fortifications projects, in the royal armory, unloading ships at the wharf,

delivering the mails, cutting timber, and as pilots and oarsmen on govern-

ment boats. Although in some major cities of Spanish America blacks were

forbidden to compete with whites in the marketplace, no such restrictions

operated in St. Augustine. Free blacks were cartwrights, jewelers, shoemak-

ers, tanners, butchers, and innkeepers, to name a few of their varied occu-

pations. Antonio Coleman was a skilled tailor who also supported himself

by playing the fiddle at dances. Manuel Alzendorf fished for turtles when

he was not barbering. One black entrepreneur, Juan Bautista Collins, had

mercantile links to South Carolina, Havana, New Orleans, Pensacola, and

the Seminole nation in the heart of Florida. He bought and sold everything

from butter to large herds of cattle, acquired property, and, like other am-

bitious free men of color in St. Augustine, observed the Catholic faith and

joined the black militia.

Although the lives of women are more difficult to document, records

show that free black women in St. Augustine were laundresses or cooks

or had smal businesses, selling crafts or foodstuffs. Others, like Nancy

Wiggins and Anna Madgigine Jai, advanced themselves through unions

with, and sometimes marriages to, white men of property. They managed

proof

homesteads and even sizable plantations, bought and sold property, in-

cluding slaves, and entered into business agreements with both black and

white townspeople. Miscegenation was a common and accepted feature of

life in St. Augustine, and although most white fathers did not marry black

women, they routinely acknowledged their children at baptism and in their

wil s. Children of interracial unions in St. Augustine often received educa-

tion, training, or property from their white fathers. Free black parents also

left more modest properties to their children. They tried to arrange good

marriages for their daughters and sought to advance their sons by enroll-

ing them in St. Augustine’s parochial school or by apprenticing them to

tradesmen.

But while some of their former slaves went about creating new lives for

themselves, Georgian slave owners complained bitterly about the provoca-

tion inherent in Florida’s sanctuary policy. Final y, in 1790, Spain bowed to

the pressures of the new U.S. government delivered through its forceful sec-

retary of state, Thomas Jefferson, and abrogated Florida’s religious sanctuary

policy. But all escaped slaves who had already claimed freedom in Florida

remained free.

Free and Enslaved · 191

Enslaved people could no longer utilize Florida’s religious sanctuary pro-

vision to achieve freedom, but they still had the possibility of purchased or

granted freedom. Military service to the Crown was another avenue out of

bondage. During the slave revolt in Saint Domingue, thousands of former

slaves al ied themselves to the Spanish Crown and were organized into a

force known as the Black Auxiliaries of Carlos IV. Among its leaders was

Jorge Biassou, who commanded an army of 40,000 men and outranked the

famous Toussaint Louverture. When Spain concluded a peace treaty with

the Directory of the French Republic, the Black Auxiliaries were disbanded

and dispersed to various locations in the Caribbean and Spain. The deco-

rated and well-pensioned Biassou, and his “family” of kin and dependent

troops, chose relocation in St. Augustine, where they were absorbed into the

polyglot black community.

Despite major language and cultural differences, Biassou’s “family”

quickly blended into the free black community. Within three months of

their arrival in St. Augustine, Biassou’s brother-in-law and heir apparent,

Jorge Jacobo, married Prince Witten’s daughter, María (Pol y) Rafaela, effec-

tively linking the leading families among the North American and Haitian

refugee communities.

The Spanish governors were not pleased by the “proud and vain char-

proof

acter” and “high temper” Biassou displayed and worried about the bad ex-

ample he and his band might set. Stil , they had no choice but to receive him.

Biassou and his men were quick to remind Florida’s governors and the cap-

tain general of Cuba of their service in various campaigns in Hispaniola, of

the promises made them by the Spanish king, and of their status as his loyal

and free vassals. Biassou retained the title of caudillo in St. Augustine, and

Florida’s governors employed him and his battle-hardened men in guerril a

operations against hostile Indians who terrorized Spanish Florida from 1800

to 1803.

The violence of the Saint Domingue slave revolt and the establishment of

Haiti’s free black government had hemispheric implications, and Florida’s

dependence upon black military forces was a continuing and grave con-

cern to Anglo planters on its borders. Governor David Mitchell of Georgia

warned President James Monroe that the Spaniards “have armed every able-

bodied negro within their power. . . . Our southern country will soon be in

a state of insurrection.” In 1812, with the covert support of the U.S. govern-

ment, John McIntosh led the so-cal ed Patriot rebels to try to overthrow

Spanish rule in Florida. He echoed Mitchel ’s sentiments in his own letter to

192 · Jane Landers

Monroe, complaining that Florida was a refuge for fugitive slaves and that

its emissaries “wil be detached to bring about the revolt of the black popula-

tion of the United States.”5

Violations of Spain’s territorial sovereignty in Florida were a regular fea-

ture of U.S. foreign policy for the remainder of the decade: the Patriot War of