In the early morning hours of June 26, 1740, the village of Gracia Realde Santa Teresa de Mose (mo-SAY), the first, legally sanctioned free black settlement in the continental U.S., became the site of the bloodiest battle in Florida’s part in the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
That day saw Florida’s Spanish soldiers, black militia and native Yamassee auxiliaries locked in a “clash of empires” with invading English and Scottish troops from Georgia, a battle that culminated in desperate, hand-to-hand fighting as Fort Mose, St. Augustine’s northern-most defense, burned around them.
The decisive Spanish victory at “Bloody Mose” was one of the factors that ended British Georgia’s invasion of Spanish Florida.
This month Florida Living History, Inc., along with Fort Mose Historic State Park , and the Fort Mose Historical Society, will host the fourth, annual Battle of Bloody Mose Commemoration.
The Battle of Bloody Mose historical re-enactment will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 22 at Fort Mose Historic State Park. White, black and Native American re-enactors and volunteers from across the state and the Southeast — including the Fort Mose Militia and living-historians from Fort Loudon State Park in Tennessee — will present heritage interpretations and demonstrations.
Admission to this heritage event is free of charge to the public.
There is a museum admission fee of $2 per adult; children, age 5 and younger, are free.
In addition to the Battle of Bloody Mose heritage Event, Florida Living History, Inc., Fort Mose Historic State Park, and the Fort Mose Historical Society, with Flagler College, will present The Birthplace of Freedom
■ June 19: 7 p.m. — James Bullock, actor and playwright, in “Two African Faces of Spain’s Exploration and Settlement of the New World” — Juan Garrido and Francisco Menendez, two first-person dramatizations of the lives of two prominent Africans in Spain’s colonization of Florida; in the Flagler Room, at Flagler College.
■ June 26: 7 p.m. — Sherry Johnson, director of academic programs /Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University in Miami, will speak on Life in St. Augustine in the 1730s and 1740s as a Remote Military Town on the Spanish Frontier; Johnson will review the factors affecting life in the presidio of San Agustín de la Florida as it responded to Britain’s colonial intrusion into the “Debatable Land” of present-day Georgia; in the Flagler Room, at Flagler College.
Admission to these presentations is free of charge to the public.
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The annual Battle of Bloody Mose heritage Event is sponsored by Florida Living History, Inc., by Fort Mose Historic State Park, and by The Fort Mose Historical Society, with the support of volunteers from the Fort Mose Militia and other historical re-enactment groups.
Financial support for this Event is provided, in part, by the Florida Humanities Council, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the ongoing generosity of NTE Solutions.
Founded in St. Augustine, Florida, in 2009, Florida Living History, Inc. (FLH), is a community based, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to educating the public about Florida’s colonial and territorial history, using living-history programs, demonstrations, and recreated portrayals of significant historical events.
FLH supports educational initiatives that promote a greater understanding and appreciation of Florida’s, and America’s, rich and diverse heritage.
For more information on Florida Living History, Inc., go to firstname.lastname@example.org or phone us, toll-free, at 1-877-FLA-HIST (1-877-352-4478)