250 to 250:128. Fort Mose, Narrated by Chip Storey

Heather Cox Richardson and 250 to 250: Fort Mose, Narrated by Chip Storey

Charles "Chip" Storey is a board member and historian for the Fort Mose Historical Society. The society advocates for public education and historical accuracy on the nation's first legally sanctioned free Black settlement. Storey tells the story of Fort Mose, the first legally sanctioned free Black community in America, founded by fugitives from slavery in Spanish Florida.

In 1693, Spain offered freedom to enslaved Africans who escaped to Spanish Florida.

• Many escaped from the British colonies and traveled to St. Augustine.
• They agreed to serve Spain and become Catholic.
• In 1738, they built a community called Fort Mose.
• Fort Mose was the first legal community of free Black people in what became the United States.
• The people built homes, farmed, and formed a militia.
• In 1740, they helped fight British soldiers at the Battle of Bloody Mose.
• Fort Mose continued until 1763, when Spain gave Florida to Great Britain.

POP Interview and Civics Quiz: 

• USCIS Part 4:02: Where else have you lived in the past 5 years?
• USCIS 100:60. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
• USCIS 128:75. What group of people was taken and sold as slaves?
• Read: What do people want?
• Write: People want freedom and independence.

Family Fun:

• ARC GIS: Couriers of Change: People who made a difference in St. Johns County, Florida story map (scroll for Katherine and Henry Twine of Fort Mose)
• Black Catholic Messenger: Reconstructed Fort Mose, first free Black settlement in America
• Bitter Southerner: First Foridians: Fort Mose
• Fort Mose Historical Society: website | Flight to Freedom Learning Resource KWL Chart | YouTube channel
• Florida State Parks: History of Fort Mose
• NPS: Fort Mosé | Story Time: Fort Mose and the Story of the Man who Built the First Free Black Settlement in Colonial America | Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and Fort Mose
• PBS: Fort Mose: America's First Free Black Community
• PBS Learning Media: Francisco Menendez and Fort Mose | Secrets of Spanish Florida: A Secrets of the Dead Special
• The Why of History: Why did Spain give up Florida?
• uscitizenpod: Fort Mose Walkway to Freedom coloring page