BREAKING BARRIERS IN SPANISIH

COLONIAL FLORIDA

Kathleen Deagan

Florida Council for History Education Conference

St. Augustine, Florida

August 3, 2019

SO MANY BARRIERS....

Race Language

Economic Family Class Origin

Gender Health

Religion Nationality

Appearance Education

Age

Barriers to opportunity (today and in history) Stereotypes, uninformed assumptions, overt prejudice

1968: YOU’LL NEVER GET A JOB! OR A HUSBAND!

YOU ARE A GIRL!

1970: GRADUATED WITH A B.A. IN ANTHROPOLOGY

....AND COULDN’T GET A JOB!!!

Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1969

THE HELP AND INSPIRATION

OF TEACHERS

FORT MOSE(SANTA TERESA DE GRACIA

REAL DE MOSE)

Breaking barriers to freedom

Charleston ca. 1680

“The Old Plantation”, John Rose (Attrib), late 18th century

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, Museum, Williamsburg

Resistance and Escape

First arrivals: 1687 8 men, 3 women

and a 3 year old child

Thomas Jeffries Map of St. Augustine, ca. 1740

Florida Museum of Natural History

22 households37 men

15 women

15 children

Marriages5 men married to enslaved

black women in St.

Augustine

At least 4 men married to

Indian women

Origins in Africa

Arara

Carabali

Congo

Gamba

Ganga

Guinean

Lecumi

Mandingo

Mina

Samba

1759 Census

Benjamin Enzenfelter http://benjamin711.blogspot.com/

African languages

Spanish

English

Native American languages

Soldiers

Farmers

Hunters

Guides

Translators

Watermen

Cowboys

ScoutsCourtesy of the Florida Agricultural Museum

FRANCISCO MENENDEZ: SOLDIER, SLAVE, CORSAIR, EDUCATED MAN

Captured or sold into slavery in the Carolinas

Fled to the Yamasee Indians and fought with

them against the English

Came to Florida with Yamasees, who

betrayed him and sold him as a slave

Regained his freedom through written petitions

Served as the Captain of the Mose militia

Signed on as a corsair on Spanish vessels

preying on the English

Was captured by the English, tortured and re-

enslaved

Escaped again, returned to St. Augustine to

lead Mose militia

To understand Ft. Mose Notions of slavery and race were different

in the Spanish world and the Anglo world

--Slavery was a consequence of a “Just (meaning Christian)War”

--Was not race-based

--Slaves were not property

--Enslaved people had rights to buy freedom, marry, sue their master

s

--Our North American experience of slavery was not typical

of experiences elsewhere

Until 1789, Laws regarding slavery in Spanish colonies were governed

by the 13th century “Siete Partidas” of King Alfonso X of Castile

(who was Moorish)

SPANISH MARRONAGE

A different story for those of African heritage

in American history

“Zambo Chiefs in Ecuador” 1598, Museo de Américas, Madrid

Castas: A “race” and a place for everyone

Not egalitarian...but inclusive... and a way of

breaking the barrier of race

Mother: Free Timucua

Father: Carabali slave

1st husband: Guale Indian

2nd husband. Free mulatto

3rd husband: White creole

Juan, Maria’s father,

remarried a Carabali woman,

Gained his freedom, and in

1750, joined the Mose regiment.

Maria Magdalena Crisóstomo Balthazar

Juan Ribera, Native American Soldier and Vecino

Juan was a Guale Indian, and a Cavalryman

in the Spanish Regiment

A second-generation “urban” Indian

Married a Spanish woman from the Canary Islands

Owned a large 2 story stone house on St. George Street

Was a member of the third order of St. Francis

Nanci Wiggins, Slave, plantation owner and business woman

Enslaved in Senegal and purchased by a

Florida plantation owner

Married her master (a Protestant Englishman)

As a widow, ran a 1,400-acre plantation with cattle,

horses and 14 slaves

Did business in St. Augustine

Juan Triay, Mutinous Indentured Servant

Juan Triay was born in Minorca in 1754,

and came to Florida at 14 as an indentured

farmer in Alexander Turnbull’s New Smyrna

Colony.

Along with 600 other angry people, he

abandoned the harsh conditions there in 1777,

and walked to St. Augustine.

He farmed land just north ot the City, and

married a Minorcan woman. Within 10 years

Juan had four sons, a large farm and two

slaves.

Isavel de los Rios, woman entrepreneur

In 1695 Isavel de los Rios was 54 years oid,

which was elderly for anyone then. She was also

a free woman of color.

We don’t know much about her life, but she must

have broken several race- gender- and age-

related barriers. It was very unusual for a woman

to support herself, let alone an elderly woman

She had a business making and selling very

popular sweet cakes called “rosquetes”. She sold

them- as well as honey- to homes and shops in

the town

Juan Merino, Convict and Blacksmith

Was a convict in Havana, sent to St. Augustine in 1679

to serve out his sentence as convict laborer burning

charcoal

By 1683 he had opened his own forge,

making and repairing weaponry.

He became a lieutenant in the Black militia.

The Governor later wrote that if they had not

gotten “a Black convict from Havana” who

knew something of blacksmithing, the town

would have been in dire necessity

(for every one hundred soldiers in Florida, only twelve could sign their

names and eight could read) The rate was even lower for others. .)

Francisco Pareja, Breaking the language barrier

Friar Pareja came to Florida in 1587 and worked among the

Timucua Indians. He was a linguist, and both learned Timucuan

and taught Spanish – speaking, reading and writing - to the

Timucuans.

He trained Timucua acolytes to help him translate Catholic

catechisms and religious texts into Timucua. Scholars are learning

that many of these works were actually done by the

Timucuans themselves

Thanks to missionaries like Pareja, the Native people of colonial

Florida had a much higher literacy rate than the Europeans.

Breaking Barriers in colonial times and today:

Recognizing opportunities

Working and sometimes sacrificing

to realize potential.

Sadly, sometimes being in the right

place and time...but

that’s never enough alone..

Having help and a teacher.