Flight to freedom
It's Black History Month. We went to Fort Mose, the first free African-American town in what became the United States, for their "Flight to Freedom" experience. I wrote about this last year, but it was impressive all over again. The first Underground Railroad went south, not north. Slaves in the Carolinas knew there were routes to Spanish Florida, where slaves were welcome, with help along the way. The Spanish didn't exactly put out open arms and a Welcome Wagon, but they needed to flesh out the meager population of farmers, artisans--and cannon fodder. So yesterday's Fort Mose experience was a simulation intended to give us a sense of what the trek would have been like, complete with padres, friendly indigenous people (which is a whole other story), and others. We first met escaped slaves, who told about their difficult journey and begged us not to betray them to bounty hunters. The Yamasee chief (who really is the current Yamasee chief). Then the