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Parker's description of a runaway slave accepted into SA
Source: Runaways, Renegades, and St. Augustine's Towns People #113
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Tomás From the 1680s until the Spanish turned over Florida to the British eighty years later (1763), enslaved blacks ran from the British colony of Carolina to Spanish Florida in hope of freedom. A Spanish royal decree in 1693 had encouraged the runaways by offering the possibility of freedom. Perhaps Tomás talked to himself in this way. "I started life in Africa, was captured by slavers, carried across the ocean and after a few years working in the fields of Barbados, then found myself moved to Carolina. There, everyone knew about the offer made by the Spanish that those who ran to Florida would be freed. Once in Florida I agreed to be baptized and took the new name of Tomás." Many runaways arrived in St. Augustine, were baptized and were given freedom or provided with the possibility of freedom after a period of service. But sometimes, the runaways were returned to men from Carolina, especially when tensions between the British and the Spanish were an issue. “At first things went well for us who succeeded in escaping to Florida. We were paid to work on defense projects. Women worked in the well-to-do households. The runaways married local black slaves and free blacks. But the Spanish governors were more concerned about keeping things peaceful with the British. So it was never certain for a runaway what the course of action would be when he arrived in Florida and St. Augustine.” The attitude and actions of the Spanish changed with the international political situation and also with the defensive strength in Florida itself. Spain's King Carlos II “invited” slaves to run from Carolina with the promise of refuge and freedom in Florida, but that was not a consistent policy. Some runaways were returned to the masters who came from Carolina to retrieve them. At other times runaways were sold to Spanish owners and from the sales some monetary compensation was offered to the owners in Carolina. “The governor here is concerned that the British might attack in order to take back us runaways. Another time the crown decided that four years of royal service would have to be completed before we could be freed. And then, I sometimes wonder what the slaves who have been in Florida all along think about the offer of freedom made to those who ran from Carolina, but there is nothing similar for them.” The monarchy of Spain offered freedom to black runaways, but not at the expense of the interests if the crown. In St. Augustine runaways from Carolina established families as they married among themselves. Others married blacks already living in St. Augustine: free men married enslaved women, free women married enslaved men, and all the possible combinations of backgrounds and birth places. The parish records include blacks of the African "nations" of Caravali, Congo, Guinea, Mina, as well as those from Jamaica, Mexico, Brazil, Curaçao, New York and New England. (Parker RR)
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