Francisco Menéndez: An Unsung Hero

While many of the African American colonial heroes are little known today, records do tell of a Mandingo man from West Africa by the name of Francisco Menéndez.

In 1715, Menéndez and other enslaved Africans joined the Yamassee Indian War against English colonists in South Carolina. When the war turned in favor of the English, the Yamassees and their African allies fled south to Spanish Florida.

Why did Menéndez choose Spanish Florida for their new home? Spanish colonists held slaves, just as the English colonists to the north did, but Spanish law recognized slaves as human beings as well as property. Under the Spanish, slaves could buy their freedom or win it by brave deeds, such as military service. Spain’s state religion, Roman Catholicism, also encouraged non-Christians to convert to the “true faith.” This is why, in 1687, a group of slaves stole a canoe and escaped from Carolina to Florida. Once in St. Augustine, they requested Catholic baptism. Other slaves soon followed, and Florida’s governor asked Spain what to do. In 1693, King Philip II issued a decree “giving liberty to all... the men as well as the women... so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same.” This decree changed Spanish policy and shaped the politics of the Southeast and the Caribbean for years to come. 

This decree gave Menéndez and his followers hope that they, too, could be free in Spanish Florida. Even before Menéndez was officially freed, the Spaniards named him captain of the Black Militia. Menéndez led his men in several battles against English forces that repeatedly attacked Spanish Florida. He also led expeditions back to Carolina to rescue other Africans from slavery. In 1738, Florida’s governor freed Menéndez and authorized him to establish a town named Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose.

Menéndez and the new homesteaders of Mose wrote to the king of Spain to express their gratitude and vowed to be “the most cruel enemies of the English.” They also promised to risk their lives and spill their “last drop of blood in defense of the Great Crown of Spain and the Holy Faith.” Shortly after, England declared war on Spain, and, in 1740, English troops invaded Florida and occupied Mose. Menéndez’s troops helped retake Mose and the governor recognized their bravery in reports to the king. Menéndez, who was literate in Spanish (and probably in Arabic) wrote the king two letters recounting his military services. Hoping to travel to Spain to seek his reward in person, Menéndez became a corsair — a state-sponsored pirate. On one voyage, Englishmen captured him and sold him into slavery in the Bahamas. But by 1759, the unconquerable Menéndez had regained his freedom and the leadership of Mose. 

After Spain ceded Florida to England in the peace treaty of 1762, Menéndez and the people of Mose, along with other Floridians, relocated to Cuba. Once in Cuba, the Spanish gave each refugee land, food, tools, and an African slave. Menéndez and other black Floridians then helped establish a new town called San Agustín de la Nueva Florida (Spanish for: St. Augustine of New Florida). Harsh conditions on the Cuban frontier eventually drove Menéndez and his family back to the city of Havana, where he ended his days.

Menéndez spent more than 50 years fighting for freedom and more than 40 years serving the king of Spain who had freed him. As more historians begin to track black history through Spanish documents, the stories of more unsung colonial heroes with stories similar to Francisco Menéndez’s will be uncovered.