WARNING: You will need Adobe Flash Player 6 or above to view this website. Click here to download it or here if you know you already have it. Copper Sun Resources You will need Adobe Acrobat to open some of these files. Click the button to the left to download for free. Author's Notes If you had been a slave in 1738 in the south, your life would have been quite miserable. You would have had no rights, no freedoms, and no choices. You would have been made to work from dawn to dusk for no pay under very harsh conditions. If given the chance you probably would have tried to run away as Amari did. A slave was the absolute property of the slave owner and had to do anything their master asked. Slaves had no right to education, health care, or religious instruction. They could be beaten any way their master saw fit. It was common for them to be whipped until their skin was raw and have salt rubbed into their wounds. Some slave owners developed other methods of torture . Slaves had no right to traditional family ties, as their spouses and kin could be sold to another owner at any time. If you had been an indentured servant, you had the possibility of freedom after your term of service had been fulfilled, but your life was still full of hard work and few freedoms. An indentured servant needed the master's permission to leave the plantation, to perform work for anyone else, or to keep money for personal use. An unruly indentured servant was whipped or punished for improper behavior. Due to poor living conditions, hard labor, and difficulties adjusting to new climates and native diseases, many servants did not live to see their freedom. Often servants ran away from their masters. Since they often spoke English and were white, runaway servants were more difficult to recapture than black slaves. If runaway servants were captured, they could be punished by increasing their time of service, or by having to wear metal hardware around their necks. In 1738, there was no such thing as the United States. All that existed were a series of loosely connected colonies, most of which were ruled by England. The area known as Florida, however, was controlled by Spain, which made for some lively clashes and political posturing between the two countries. Although this is a work of fiction, the facts of the story are true. Fort Mose was a real place. Following the establishment of Charles Town, South Carolina, by the English in 1670, enslaved Africans began making their way down the Atlantic coast to the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, where they were offered liberty and religious sanctuary. The Spanish promised freedom to any escaped English slave who became Catholic and promised to fight with the Spanish against the English. As early as 1681, African and African American runaways established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, the first free black town within the present-day borders of the United States. Located two miles north of St. Augustine, "Fort Mose" was a frontier community of homesteaders who incorporated incoming fugitives, slaves from St. Augustine, and Indians from nearby villages into a complex family network. Officially established as a Spanish settlement in 1738, Fort Mose gave sanctuary and created a frontier community which drew on a range of African backgrounds blended with Spanish, Native American and English cultural traditions. It was the first free African settlement to legally exist in the United States. The fort was destroyed twice-once in 1739, and again in 1752. Residents of Fort Mose came from diverse cultures in the Caribbean and West Africa, and their skilled labor, technology, art, music, ideas and traditions served as valuable resources to the Spanish residents of nearby St. Augustine. Formerly enslaved in Carolina, Francisco Menendez arrived in St. Augustine, Florida around 1724. He became Captain of the Black Militia of St. Augustine and fought to ensure the promises of the king of Spain. The black militia was well-known in the area for their bravery. Captain Menendez was well respected by people in both Fort Mose and in St. Augustine and had a reputation as a fierce fighter. Due to Francisco Menendez's dedication, success, and request for freedom, the Fort Governor Manuel Montiano granted lands two miles north of St. Augustine to Africans formerly enslaved in the Carolina's if they vowed to "shed their last blood in defense of the Spanish Crown" and also to convert to Catholicism. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994, Fort Mose is now an important designation on the Florida Black Heritage trail. Although the actual site is now under water off the coast of Florida, it remains a tangible reminder of the people who risked and often lost their lives in their struggle to attain freedom.