2.11 - The Stono Rebellion and Fort Mose
Spanish Florida as a Place of Asylum
St. Augustine, founded in Florida in 1565, holds a striking distinction: it's the oldest continuously occupied settlement of African American and European origin in the entire United States. Starting in the seventeenth century, enslaved people fleeing Georgia and the Carolinas began escaping to St. Augustine, seeking asylum in Spanish Florida. Spain offered a real incentive here, freedom to any enslaved person who converted to Catholicism, a policy that made Florida a genuine destination for people trying to escape British colonial slavery.
That policy eventually led to something even more significant. In 1738, the governor of Spanish Florida established a fortified settlement under the leadership of Francisco Menéndez, an enslaved Senegambian who had fought against the English in the Yamasee War before finding refuge in St. Augustine. This settlement, known by its full name Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, but commonly called Fort Mose, became the first sanctioned free Black town anywhere in what is now the United States.
The Stono Rebellion
Spain's policy of offering freedom to escaped enslaved people didn't just create a haven, it directly inspired resistance elsewhere. This promise of emancipation helped spark the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739. Jemmy, an enslaved man from the Angola region, led a group of nearly 100 enslaved African Americans in the uprising. They set fire to plantations and began marching toward the promise of sanctuary in Spanish Florida.
The rebellion began on Sunday, September 9, 1739, near the Stono River, about 20 miles southwest of Charleston. The rebels broke into a store to take guns and ammunition, killed white colonists along their route, and marched south with drums beating and a flag flying, calling out "Liberty." Later that day the colonial militia caught up with them, and in the fighting and executions that followed, dozens of the rebels were killed. Some escaped and were hunted down over the following weeks and months.
Many of the people involved in the rebellion came specifically from the Kingdom of Kongo, in what's now Angola, and were Portuguese speakers who were already familiar with Catholicism, which likely made Spanish Florida's offer feel especially reachable and meaningful to them. It's also worth noting that names like Francisco Menéndez and Jemmy weren't necessarily names these men were born with, they reflect the names imposed on them as enslaved people within Spanish and British colonial systems.
The Aftermath
The rebellion triggered a swift and harsh response. In direct reaction to the Stono Rebellion, the British province of South Carolina passed a much more restrictive slave code in 1740 (see 2.7). Soon after, British colonial forces led by James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, invaded Florida and seized Fort Mose. Menéndez and the free Black militia helped Spanish troops win it back in a surprise attack remembered as "Bloody Mose," but the fort was wrecked in the fighting. Its residents lived in St. Augustine until Mose was rebuilt in 1752, and when Spain handed Florida over to Britain in 1763, they left with the Spanish for Cuba.
Required Sources
Letter from Governor of Florida to His Majesty, 1739
This letter was written in 1739, the same year as the Stono Rebellion, by Manuel de Montiano, the governor of Spanish Florida, to King Philip V of Spain. Montiano had carried out the Spanish Crown's policy of offering freedom to people escaping slavery in the British colonies, and he had founded Fort Mose the year before. The letter gives the Spanish side of this story. Spanish officials welcomed freedom seekers partly for religious reasons (they had to accept Catholicism) and partly for strategic ones, since free Black settlers and militiamen strengthened Florida's defenses and weakened the British colonies next door. Reading it alongside the British account of Stono shows how the same events looked from both sides of the border.
Manuel de Montiano, Governor of Spanish Florida, letter to King Philip V of Spain (1739)
Montiano's letter gives the Spanish side of the story told in the Stono account. As governor, he carried out Spain's policy of freeing people who escaped slavery in the British colonies and became Catholic, and the year before he had set up Fort Mose, a town of free Black settlers and militiamen north of St. Augustine. The letter shows how differently the two sides saw the same events: Spain saw freedom seekers as new subjects and defenders, while British colonists saw the policy as a threat.
Excerpt from An Account of the Stono Rebellion, 1739 (first paragraph)
An Account of the Negroe Insurrection in South Carolina was written in 1739, within weeks of the rebellion. Historians are not sure who wrote it, but James Oglethorpe sent it to London in October 1739 and asked that it be printed in newspapers, so its audience was British readers and it reflects the views of British colonists. Its first paragraph does not start with the uprising itself. Instead, it blames Spanish Florida: it describes a proclamation published in St. Augustine promising freedom and protection to enslaved people who escaped from the British colonies, and it reports that people who fled there were taken in and not sent back. That framing shows how British colonists understood Stono, as a rebellion encouraged by Spain's offer of freedom, and it connects directly to the asylum policy described above.
Sometime since there was a Proclamation published at Augustine, in which the King of Spain (then at Peace with Great Britain) promised Protection and Freedom to all Negroes Slaves that would resort thither. Certain Negroes belonging to Captain Davis escaped to Augustine, and were received there. They were demanded by General Oglethorpe who sent Lieutenant Demere to Augustine, and the Governour assured the General of his sincere Friendship, but at the same time showed his Orders from the Court of Spain, by which he was to receive all Run away Negroes. Of this other Negroes having notice, as it is believed, from the Spanish Emissaries, four or five who were Cattel-Hunters, and knew the Woods, some of whom belonged to Captain Macpherson, ran away with His Horses, wounded his Son and killed another Man. These marched f [sic] for Georgia, and were pursued, but the Rangers being then newly reduced [sic] the Countrey people could not overtake them, though they were discovered by the Saltzburghers, as they passed by Ebenezer. They reached Augustine, one only being killed and another wounded by the Indians in their flight. They were received there with great honours, one of them had a Commission given to him, and a Coat faced with Velvet.
Amongst the Negroe Slaves there are a people brought from the Kingdom of Angola in Africa, many of these speak Portugueze [which Language is as near Spanish as Scotch is to English,] by reason that the Portugueze have considerable Settlement, and the Jesuits have a Mission and School in that Kingdom and many Thousands of the Negroes there profess the Roman Catholic Religion. Several Spaniards upon diverse Pretences have for some time past been strolling about Carolina, two of them, who will give no account of themselves have been taken up and committed to Jayl in Georgia. The good reception of the Negroes at Augustine was spread about, Several attempted to escape to the Spaniards, & were taken, one of them was hanged at Charles Town. In the latter end of July last Don Pedro, Colonel of the Spanish Horse, went in a Launch to Charles Town under pretence of a message to General Oglethorpe and the Lieutenant Governour.
Anonymous, An Account of the Negroe Insurrection in South Carolina (1739), first paragraph, printed in Allen D. Candler, ed., The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, vol. 22, part 2 (1913), pp. 232 to 233. Source: Internet Archive (scan of the 1913 volume), matching the Oxford University Press transcription the CED links