Francisco Menendez
Francisco Menendez, born around 1700, was a Mandingo from West Africa who helped establish Fort Mose. His escape from South Carolinian bondage, aided by Yamasee Indians, led him to St. Augustine in 1724. Upon which, he was granted freedom, but then re-enslaved because of problems with English colonists. When liberated, in 1738, he commanded the Mose militia, wrote letters to the Spanish King, and managed the residents. "Governor Montiano referred to the inhabitants of Mose as Menendez's 'subjects,' and he probably exercised considerable autonomy over his village" (Montiano, Landers, 29). In 1741, on a Spanish privateer ship, he was captured by the British ship, Revenge, and re-enslaved. "His captors gave him two hundred lashes, soaked his wounds in brine, and commended him to a doctor 'to take care of his Sore A-se'"(Landers, 13-15; Wood, 239-98, 304-7, 310). "What happened to him between the years of 1741 and 1751 is a mystery, but somehow by 1752 he was back in charge of Fort Mose" (Turner, 28).