Fugitive African slaves formed free self-governing communities under Spanish Florida

Evidence

We are unable to fix the precise time when the persons thus exiled constituted a separate community. Their numbers had become so great in 1736, that they were formed into companies, and relied on by the Floridians as allies to aid in the defense of that territory. They were also permitted to occupy lands upon the same terms that were granted to the citizens of Spain; indeed, they in all respects became free subjects of the Spanish crown. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 707

Categorization

• XREF: These free maroon settlements anticipate later documented fugitive-community formations such as Palmares in Brazil — an early instance of the self-constituted Black polity. — connects to: Seminole sanctuary for runaway slaves provoked the First Seminole War — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 156