On the recordFebruary 9, 2022
In honor of Black History Month, I would like to recognize a special place in my district, Fort Mose. Near St. Augustine, Florida, it was the first legally sanctioned, free Black settlement in what is now the United States. As early as the late 1600s, freedom seekers escaped enslavement in the English colonies and made their way to St. Augustine, then under Spanish rule. An estimated 100 Africans were then given freedom in exchange for adopting Catholicism and declaring allegiance to Spain. In 1994, the Fort Mose site was designated as a historic national landmark. Fort Mose embodies the fight for freedom by Black Americans in the early days of our country, and it highlights a piece of Black history that is dramatically different from the more familiar story of slavery and oppression. ____________________
