Page 5 - THE FORTRESS OF FREEDOM
P. 5
By 1738 there were 100 blacks, mostly runaways from the Carolinas, living in what became
Fort Mose. Many were skilled workers, blacksmiths, carpenters, cattlemen, boatmen, and
farmers. With accompanying women and children, they created a colony of freed people that
ultimately attracted other fugitive slaves.
At the time East Florida was ceded to the British in the 1763, the black population at St.
Augustine and Fort Mose totaled about 3,000.
