FREEDOM FORT.

The article focuses on the story of Francisco Menéndez, a Mandinga man from West Africa who escaped enslavement in the English colonies and militia of enslaved people defending St. Augustine, the capital of Spanish Florida, against English invasions in the 18th century. Topics include Menéndez's journey to freedom, the Spanish policy of welcoming escaped slaves, and the establishment of Fort Mose, the first legally sanctioned free Black town in what would become the U.S.