Francisco Menendez
Leader of the fort and town of Mose.
Francisco Menendez
After being transported and purchased as chattel in the Carolinas, he escaped enslavement during a raid by members of the Yemassee Tribe on his "owner's" plantation.
When Fort Mose was founded in 1738, Francisco Menendez was made Captain of the militia by Governor Manuel de Montiano. He was also noted to be leader of the people there, despite the town being assigned a Spanish official and Franciscan priest living onsite.
During the Battle of Bloody Mose in 1740, Captain Menendez led the militia in a brutal fight against the troops of General James Oglethorpe. Fort Mose was destroyed that day, but the British retreated from St. Augustine.
Resources
Online Resources
- Tap here to read a biography of Francisco Menendez from Enslaved.org.
- Tap here to read “African Americans in St. Augustine (1565-1821)” from the Castillo de San Marcos website.
- Tap here to visit the Fort Mose Historical Society website.
Further Reading
- Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida, by Jane Landers, 1992.
- Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions, by Jane Landers, 2011.
- “The Atlantic Transformations of Francisco Menendez,” by Jane Landers, within Biography and the Black Atlantic (The Early Modern Americas), 2014.
