In 1687, a group of eight men, two women and a child traveled by dugout seeking freedom from enslavement in a Carolina colony. They found it in St. Augustine.
Four years later, the Spanish King Carlos II issued the first official crown position on runaway enslaved people that made their way to Spanish Florida. In the royal cedula, called‘ Cedula Real de Gracia de 1693’, the king granted“ liberty to all … so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same.”
The grant of freedom, however, was not without a price. The former enslaved were required to swear an oath to the Spanish crown and convert to Catholicism. While the Spanish may have been motivated by“ liberality” in recognizing the essential humanity and rights of formerly enslaved people, the policy of granting runaway enslaved people their freedom was also a political and military necessity for a nation competing for colonial lands in the New World.
SEPTEMBER 2025 | 21 |