Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

by Michael Harriot

The South was surprisingly also a viable option for some slaves who were infected with this ailment. There, entire communities were built that are still being discovered today, including Bas du Fleuve, a vast area between the mouth of the Mississippi and New Orleans that was controlled by runaways for most of the 1770s. During the colonial period, the all-Black town of Fort Mose in the Spanish-held Florida territory was a popular destination for those who wanted a permanent vacation from slavery. Spain had abolished slavery in the territory, and after the War of 1812, a fully armed British “Negro Fort” in Florida became the center of the Black resistance against the institution of slavery, forming its own army. The British Corps of Colonial Marines was made up of free Blacks and fugitive slaves who fought alongside Native Americans to protect the kind runaways who quarantined themselves to protect others from their contagious virus.