60199616-flight-to-freedom-african-runaways-and-maroons-in-the-americas

122 Flight to Freedom
the attention of the Spanish imperial government through dispatches by
colonial officials who granted them asylum on the basis that they had sought
to become Catholics. They had baptized several of them and given them land
on which to settle. In 1693 the imperial government translated these ad hoc
arrangements into official policy by decreeing that such fugitives should not
be returned to their overlords (Landers 1998, 362). In 1704 Governor José de
Zuniga y Cerda declared, in respect of the Apalachee Province, that any Black
people in South Carolina, regardless of religion or status, who found their way
into the province would be given certificates of freedom and would even be
allowed to move on to other places without hindrance (Mulroy 1993, 8).
The British colonists in South Carolina complained of their loss of property
and also alleged that the Spaniards used the runaways, along with
Indians, to plunder their plantations. The situation continued unresolved
well into the nineteenth century, with increasing numbers of runaways finding
refuge in the Spanish borderlands. In fact, especially after the imperial
government renewed its decree in 1733 against the extradition of runaways
(Landers 1998, 365), the situation became worse as far as the British settlers
were concerned. Groups as large as twenty fled South Carolina, sometimes
killing Whites on the journey. In one incident in 1739, a group of fugitives
sacked that colony and burnt the armoury in Stono. They made their way
towards Florida, attacking all the plantations on the route and killing twenty
or thirty Whites before a militia company routed them (Blassingame 1979,
206–7). Only occasionally, depending upon the disposition of a particular
Spanish governor, did disgruntled settlers receive either the runaways or
financial compensation for their loss (Landers 1998, 362–65).
The situation was exacerbated when the Spanish colonial governors,
unable to deploy enough of their regular forces, began to use the Maroons as
military allies. In 1726, for instance, the government made the fugitive
Francisco Menéndez head of the Black militia, and in 1738 created a new
town for them called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, at which they
built Fort Mose. It is known as “the first legally sanctioned free Black community”
in the United States. The Maroons’ commitment, bravery and great
service, both on land and at sea, in the wars that followed fully confirmed for
the Spanish the wisdom of the policy that they had embraced. The settlement
came to an end when the British captured Florida in 1763. The Spanish
did not regain control over the territory until 1784. Meanwhile, the imperial
government resettled a number of the Maroons in Matanzas, Cuba, but a