After being transported and purchased as chattel in the Carolinas, he escaped enslavement during a raid by members of the Yemassee Tribe on his "owner's" plantation.When Fort Mose was founded in 1738, Francisco Menendez was made Captain of the militia by Governor Manuel de Montiano. He was also noted to be leader of the people there, despite the town being assigned a Spanish official and Franciscan priest living onsite.During the Battle of Bloody Mose in 1740, Captain Menendez led the militia in a brutal fight against the troops of General James Oglethorpe. Fort Mose was destroyed that day, but the British retreated from St. Augustine.
Bibliography & Resources
Landers, Jane. Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida. St. Augustine, FL: St. Augustine Historical Society, 1992.
Landers, Jane. "The Atlantic Transformations of Francisco Menendez." Biography and the Black Atlantic (The Early Modern Americas), edited by Lisa A. Lindsay and John Wood Sweet. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.
The National Park Service & National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. "Fort Mose Site — Florida." American Latino Heritage: Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary. USA: National Parks Service Heritage Education Service, 2014.
