1738 Gracia Real De Santa Teresa De Mose Named After Fort M 1816
First Free African-American Community established
U.S. National Historic Landmark (designated as such on October 12, 1994
Fort Mose Historic State Park St. John’s County, Florida (originally known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose) is a U.S. National Historic Landmark (designated as such on October 12, 1994), located two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida, on the edge of a salt marsh on the western side of the waterway separating the mainland from the coastal barrier islands. The original site of the 18th-century fort was uncovered in a 1986 archeological dig. The 24-acre (9.7 ha) site is now protected as a Florida State Park, administered through the Anastasia State Recreation Area. Fort Mose is the “premier site on the Florida Black Heritage Trail.”
Toward the end of the 17th century, as the Spanish pondered the fate of their North American holdings, they did not want to see a repeat of the Jamaican situation. Spain had founded the first European settlement in North America, at St. Augustine in 1565, but by the 1690s, Spanish power was in the midst of a long, steady decline. After 140 years, St. Augustine was still just a distant outpost of empire. Florida as a whole was thinly populated, poorly defended, and extremely vulnerable to British attack. The English colonies, meanwhile, were growing vigorously, thanks in large measure to a dramatic increase in the importation of African slaves.