Dear Researchers:

I hope that you can shed some light on the listing of Fort Mose as part of the Underground Railroad. The US Parks Services includes it on their site. Their explanation for its inclusion is puzzling.

Its website reads:

"A National Historic Landmark, Fort Mose is a precursor site of the Underground Railroad, demonstrating that resistance to slavery was both early and fierce, and that it arose decades before abolitionism became organized and influential. The fort, established as part of the northern defense line for Spanish St. Augustine during the mid-18th century, was the earliest known legally sanctioned free black community in the present United States. Its site contains archeological evidence of Native American occupations and the later British, second Spanish, and American presence."

Great! Fabulous! As a native Floridian, I'm delighted that Fort Mose is finally getting the press that it deserves. However, to include it as part of the Underground Railroad only serves to confuse people as to its place in history. A greater concern is that the mislabeling of Fort Mose will bring out critics who will use this as another example of how Blacks exaggerate their contribution and place in American history.

Am I nitpicking? You bet. Why should we like lemmings accept buzzwords that are inappropriate to history and our experience? Fort Mose not only "predates" the Underground Railroad, but its timeline clearly shows that these early Floridians were not citizens of the United States. (Florida became a state in 1845) I salute the Parks Service for its support of Fort Mose, but I am very concerned about its bandwaggoning description of Colonial Florida history.

For information about Fort Mose and its historical place in Florida history please see the urls below: The Project Director for “Fort Mose: America’s Black Colonial Fortress of Freedom” is Dr. Jane Landers, author of “Black Society in Spanish Florida.”

http://www.oldcity.com/sites/mose/