Fort Mose, roughly one mile north of St. Augustine, has the distinction of being the first free Black settlement in what is now America. Despite that august history, the site remains little known inside or outside of Florida. Kathleen Deagan and Jane Landers have spent the last 40-plus years attempting to uncover and promote the history at Fort Mose. Their book, "Fort Mose: Colonial America's Black Fortress of Freedom," combines history and archaeology to provide as accurate an account of the Fort as exists.
Image: Florida Museum of Natural History.
Craig Pittman is the award-winning author of Oh, Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, The Scent of Scandal, Cat Tale, Manatee Insanity and The State You’re In, and co-author of Paving Paradise. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.
