Timeline Stories

Governor Don Felipe de Neve recruits 11 families to settle on the Porciuncula River–now Los Angeles. The settlers are all Catholic, a mix of Africans, Spanish, and American Indians.

Meanwhile, Maryland’s Black Catholic population grows to 3,000 as a result of Jesuit evangelization in the region, however, recent reports in the New York Times suggest the Jesuit order owned roughly 300 enslaved people, using the profits from sales to sustain the clergy and to finance the construction and the day-to-day operations of churches and schools.

In 1693 Spain offers freedom to the slaves who convert to Catholicism. These freed slaves establish a community northeast of St Augustine in 1738 and live there until 1763. Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, becomes the first free Black town in the U.S.

^{Public Domain – Rare Book and Special Collections Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.}

Black people, both slave and free, help to found this oldest town in the United States. In 1693 Spain offers freedom to the slaves who convert to Catholicism. Until 1763, these freed slaves live in a community northeast of St. Augustine. Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose, established in 1738, thus becomes the first free Black town in the U.S.