Source: Amy Notes (ID702)
Author: Howard, Amy (ID633)
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Content id: 26596
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align this with American immigration laws: get legal or give up your freedom
align this with American immigration laws: get legal or give up your freedom
Cross references
Menendez was received by St. Augustine
Date Created: 2023-10-12 20:56:17
Source: Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions (ID 101)
Author: Landers, Jane (ID 70)
Content_id: 3141
The Whittens found a multicultural world in Florida... The largest group of non-Spaniards were the remnants of New Smyrna... In St. Augustine they became fishermen and merchants or raised produce on rented lands to sell at the public market; these were all occupations which free persons of African descent commonly held. ...many of those slaves approached Spanish government officials to request the religious sanctuary that Francisco Menendez and other runaways had earlier claimed. Although Florida's incoming governor, Manuel de Zespedes, doubted their religious motivation--he charged that "not one of them has manifested once here the least inclination to be instructed in and converted to our Holy Faith"-- he was forced to honor his Crown's century-old offer to shelter any slaves of the Protestants who sought the "True Faith." It was the governor's belief that the fugitives were simply seeking liberty or escape from a cruel master, and although he may well have been correct, he was obligated to receive all who sought religious sanctuary. To protect potential converts, the governor required all non-Spaniards to present themselves and declare their intentions to remain or depart the province. Anyone wishing to remove a slave from the province also had to obtain a license bearing the governor's signature. Any of the English settlers who planned to remain also had to register any blacks or mulattoes, either free or slave, "in their control." Finally, "every vagrant Negro without a known owner or else a document that attests to his freedom" had to report to the authorities within twenty days to clarify his or her status and obtain a work contract. Those failing to report would forfeit their freedom and be enslaved by the Spanish King. (Landers' note: royal slaves worked on public works such as mines and in the galleys.) AN329 …more than 250 blacks hoping to legitimate their free status came forward to be registered. Among these 250 former slaves was Prince Whitten. In the fall of 1788 Prince presented himself at the governor's office on the town square and dictated a statement to the Spanish notary about how he had come to Florida, initiating what would be a long paper trail in the Spanish records. As previous governors of Florida and Cuba had done, Governor Zespedes set an example by taking some of the black refugees into his own home. The rest he parcled out among townspeople and plantation owners who were able to shelter them, at least temporarily. This was the beginning of many subsequent connections between the townspeople and the former slaves. Because the black freedmen and women lived and worked among the townspeople daily, it was almost inevitable in this Spanish community that other social relations would follow. African and Spanish views of family and society were highly compatible, and each group surely recognized the value the other placed on kinship. A central feature of Mandinga culture along the Gambia River was the adoption or assimilation of children or other strangers through relationships of trust, protection, patronage, and reciprocity. Aided by their early contacts and patrons, their rapid adoption of Catholocism, their "respectable" behavior, and their valuable militaryand occupational skills, refugees from Anglo slaverylike the Whittens became important members of the free black community in Spanish Floirda. They worked hard, defended their community when called upon, and made free lives for themselves, acquiring property and intermarrying with other successfulrunaways. The Whittens and their fellow freedmen proved to be avaluable source of skilled labor and militaryreserves for the Spanish community, and despite attempts by some of their former owners to recover their chattel through legal channels, the once skeptical Govenor Zespedes consistently supported these blacks' right to liberty. [1764 Watercolor: View from the governor's window of the counting house and the royal treasury, St. Augustine] (Landers: Atlantic Creoles)