(intro music)
- [Speaker] In July of 1821, after nearly 300 years,
Spanish soldiers marched out of the Castillo
for the last time as the Adams-Onis Treaty ceded Florida
to the United States.
Although this treaty recognized the rights of free blacks,
most of the black militia and their families moved to Cuba,
only those who felt themselves protected
by owning substantial property,
stayed in the new US territory.
Eventually laws were passed
that severely limited the rights of free blacks.
They could be whipped for misdemeanors
and even forced back into slavery to satisfy debts or fines.
Interracial marriage was prohibited and children
of such previous marriages could not
inherit their parents' estates.
Under such restrictions,
several mixed-race families evacuated Florida
Some free blacks left to live with the Seminole Indians.
Those who could afford it,
immigrated to other Caribbean countries.
Although by 1850, it's estimated
that roughly a thousand free blacks remained in Florida,
it was clear that the new society
would be primarily composed of only two castes,
free whites and enslaved blacks.
The nation was divided over the issue
of slavery and war ensued.
At the start of the Civil War, Fort Marion,
as the US Army had renamed the Castillo,
was occupied by Confederate forces.
But by 1862, the Union had gained control
and operated a recruiting office
for United States Colored Troops from within the fort.
On January 1st,
1863 Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation came
into effect.
But celebrations of freedom and the end
of the Civil War were soon eclipsed by another 100 years
of segregation, enforced both by laws and social customs.
Some of the Black soldiers that served
in the US Colored Troops would provide leadership
in the newly-found black community of Lincolnville,
known originally as Little Africa.
African-Americans worked in the Ponce de Leon Hotel
and other Henry Flagler properties as service wait staff.
Several played on the first professional black baseball team
known as the Ponce de Leon Giants or Cuban Giants.
And they labored on projects in town,
including preservation work on Castillo de San Marcos.
Despite these and other community connections,
St. Augustine remained widely segregated.
Highly restrictive "Jim Crow" laws affected every aspect
of daily life in the South.
The Great Depression and World War II
brought these inequities and violent racism,
such as lynching to the attention of the nation.
But the birth of the Civil Rights Movement would empower
and inspire African-Americans in the years that followed.
Today, the Fort remains remarkably unchanged
from the times of tenuous transitions
between powers and more restrictive social policies.
For some, the Castillo symbolizes continued resilience
in the face of adversity.
What does it mean to you?
(birds chirping)