St. Augustine became an important destination for fugitive slaves after 1693, when a royal edict was passed granting freedom to British-owned slaves who converted to Catholicism. The edict reflected both the more liberal manumission policies long-practiced by the Spanish and their political efforts to undermine the growing British presence in neighboring Carolina, which was heavily dependent on a slave economy.

The fugitive blacks who joined the community of free and enslaved blacks in St. Augustine found work in domestic occupations, as artisans and as valued members of the Spanish militia.

Pagus Hispanorum in Florida.
[View of St. Augustine]
Arnoldus Montanus, artist.
Dapper, 1673.
Historical Museum of Southern Florida,
1989-165-1