Florida's Governor Montiano establishes a fortified town…
1738 CE
Florida's Governor Montiano establishes a fortified town for escaped enslaved Africans from the South Carolina Colony, granting them citizenship and freedom in return for their serving in the militia.
Established on March 15, 1738, Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose becomes the first free black settlement legally sanctioned in North America and a haven for escaped slaves from all the British colonies to the north.
Here, the freedmen will cultivate the ground and learn the Catholic religion.
Manuel de Montiano, born in the city of Bilbao, in the Basque Country in northern Spain, is the older brother of Agustín de Montiano, a dramatist and noted historian who had founded the Real Academia de la Historia in 1735 and become its first director.
While still a young man, Montiano had joined the Royal Spanish Army, and served for three years in the Aragon Regiment.
From there he was transferred to Darién in Panama.
He was by 1719 a captain of grenadiers and was sent to Oran, in what is now Algeria, where he had fought in the defense of the city against the Arabs.
Montiano on April 29, 1737, had been named Governor of La Florida.
Shortly after his taking possession, he had written to the Governor of Cuba notifying him of a forthcoming British invasion, and requesting supplies to ward off the danger.
People
Groups
Commodities
Subjects
Regions
Northern North America
View →Subregions
