[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 9, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RECOGNIZING FORT MOSE IN HONOR OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH

  (Mr. RUTHERFORD asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. RUTHERFORD. Mr. Speaker, in honor of Black History Month, I would 
like to recognize a special place in my district, Fort Mose.
  Near St. Augustine, Florida, it was the first legally sanctioned, 
free Black settlement in what is now the United States.
  As early as the late 1600s, freedom seekers escaped enslavement in 
the English colonies and made their way to St. Augustine, then under 
Spanish rule.
  An estimated 100 Africans were then given freedom in exchange for 
adopting Catholicism and declaring allegiance to Spain.
  In 1994, the Fort Mose site was designated as a historic national 
landmark.
  Fort Mose embodies the fight for freedom by Black Americans in the 
early days of our country, and it highlights a piece of Black history 
that is dramatically different from the more familiar story of slavery 
and oppression.

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