African-Americans in Spanish Florida and the Declaration of Independence

This episode explores the complexity of Florida's colonial history, its relationship to African-Americans, and its importance during the War of Independence. Our expert guest is Prof. Jane Landers (Vanderbilt University), who is also the Director of the Slave Societies Digital Archive. Topics include: -The importance of remembering African-American history in Spanish America -An overview of Spanish colonial history, which is much older than Anglo-American history that began in Jamestown in 1619 -Spain's religious sanctuary policy, which granted African-American slaves freedom in Florida as far back as 1687 -The first Underground Railroad for enslaved Blacks, which led south to Spanish Florida not north -The different models of slavery in Spanish colonies and the different ways enslaved people could free themselves -The complex political, religious, economic, and military structures in Spanish colonies -Indigenous migration from Anglo colonies to Spanish Florida -The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748) and the Battle of Bloody Mose (1740) near St. Augustine, during which free Africans fought with Spain to protect their freedom -Spanish Florida during the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War) -The cession of Florida to Britain at the end of the War in 1763 and the subsequent migration of Carolina farmers with roughly 9,000 enslaved African-Americans to Florida and then the later transfer of additional enslaved Africans from Africa -The exile of free Blacks from Florida to Cuba in 1763-64 -Spain's support of American Patriots in the War of Independence -The deployment of exiled free Blacks, who had left Florida for Spanish-Cuba in 1763, to fight the British in Pensacola in 1777 -The return of Florida to Spain in 1784 -The drive by the US both to eliminate free black culture in Florida and also to institute a slave economy there -The transfer of Florida to the new United States in 1821 and the second exile of free Blacks from Florida to other Spanish colonies -An analysis of the phrase "all men are created equal" through the lens of the free inhabitants of Spanish Florida