National Landmark Fort Mose presents
Flight to Freedom
January 27, 28 & 29, 2022
9:00am - 3:00pm, Thursday to Saturday
Fort Mose HIstoric State Park 15 Fort Mose Trail
St. Augustine, FL
Watch this site for more information!
Event Highlights
As you step onto the wooded Freedom Trail, you enter the year 1738. You’re drawn into a dangerous world where men, women and children flee from enslavement on British plantations, hoping to find freedom at Fort Mose.
Share the freedom seekers’ hopes, fears and sacrifices. Experience their perilous journey of over 300 miles through unknown swamps, forests, and waterways—traveling by night to avoid capture. Witness formation of the original Underground Railroad forged through alliance with Natives. And feel the power of place as you enter Spanish Florida and the free Black settlement of Fort Mose, a culturally rich community located on Spanish St. Augustine’s northern border.
Join us for Flight to Freedom and honor those who risked everything in search of freedom, family, and future.
Did You Know?
Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, was:
- Destination of the original Underground Railroad, running south.
- First legal free Black community in North America!
Event Schedule & Details
The Flight to Freedom event is available at no cost to the general public. Donations and enrollment as a member of the Fort Mose Historical Society are welcomed.
There is no admission fee for Fort Mose Historic State Park. Admission to the Fort Mose Museum is $2. Children under 6 are admitted free-of-charge.
Event is weather permitting.
School Groups: Reservations
School Groups: ReservationsSchool groups are welcome to attend on Thursday and Friday.
Reservations are required. For more information please write:
connect@FortMose.org
We’re also grateful for invaluable assistance from our Partners including Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine Garrison and numerous reenactor groups who serve as ‘opposing forces’.
Visitor Parking
Watch this site for information on satellite parking.
Freedom At Fort Mose
In the late 17th century, astounding news reached Africans who were enslaved on British plantations in the Carolinas and Georgia. Freedom seekers who could complete a perilous 300 mile journey to St. Augustine would be granted sanctuary by the Spanish government.
The first freedom seekers arrived in St. Augustine in 1868. This group included 8 men, 2 women and a nursing child.
We have no idea how many freedom seekers attempted the perilous journey. Natives aided the travelers en route, thus forging the original Underground Railroad.
Upon their arrival in St. Augustine, the freedom seekers swore allegiance to the Spanish crown and adopted the Catholic religion. The men entered a required term of paid service in the militia.
By 1738, approximately 100 freedom seekers were living in St. Augustine. In March of that year, Governor Manuel Joaquín de Montiano founded Fort Mose as St. Augustine’s northern strategic outpost. The free Black Fort Mose militia protected the colony from British Invasion. And the skillful women of Mose performed critical tasks such as farming, cooking, sewing and childcare, for community support.
Fort Mose Historical Society
Incorporate June 26, 1996
25 Years of ‘Telling the Fort Mose Story’
Selected Awards & Honors
Site of Memory, UNESCO Slave Route Project
US National Historic Landmark
Site, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
Citizen Support Organization of the Year, FL Park Service