Food Drive up at Fort Mose today

They posted that they had a food drive up at Fort Mose today, so I decided to raid the larder, got a bag full, and headed up- hadn't been here before, glad I went, not much to see, but very nice interpretive museum, and a .3 mile boardwalk out to the marsh- got 2 toy whirligig erector sets for my donatation.....

The islands are actually bird rookeries, and there were lots of wood storks, and herons about.

They have this site listed as a "precursor" site for the National Underground Railroad, meaning slaves may have very well taken off from here North.  This is a rendering of what the fort might have looked like-  There is nothing left building wise to tell- it was all trashed during the city of St Augustine's development- 

Fort Mose: Birthplace of Freedom

Hidden away in the marshes of St. Augustine, Florida is one of the most important sites in American history: the first free community of ex-slaves, founded in 1738 and called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose or Fort Mose (pronounced Moh-Say).

More than a century before the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves from the British colonies were able to follow the original "Underground Railroad" which headed not to the north, but rather south, to the Spanish colony of Florida. There they were given their freedom, if they declared their allegiance to the King of Spain and joind the Catholic Church.

Fort Mose was the northern defense of St.Augustine, the nation's oldest city.

The events that took place there should cause all American history textbooks to be rewritten.