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Francisco Menendez (1609 hits)

Born a Mandinga, Francisco Menendez was sold by Muslim traders to the English on the Gambia River in 1709, and brought to the Carolina colony when he was 5 years old.

He joined the Yamasee to fight against the English in the Yamasee War, and came with them to St. Augustine in 1718 seeking freedom, but was betrayed by Chief Perro Bravo, who sold him to the acting governor of Florida, Juan de Ayala y Escovar, for corn and liquor. In 1729 he was bought at public auction by the royal accountant, Don Francisco Menendez Marquez.

In 1738 Francisco Menendez and 30 other slaves, including his Mandinga wife, Ana Maria de Escovar, successfully petitioned the Florida governor, Manuel de Montiano, for their freedom, as guaranteed by the edict issued by the Spanish Crown in 1693, and reiterated in 1733. He was supported by Chief Jorge, the leader for whom he had fought in the Yamasee War. The Crown agreed with Governor Montiano, and to ensure that in the future all fugitives from the English colonies should be granted freedom, ordered that the royal edict be publicly posted.

http://tulane.edu/calendar/loader.cfm?csMo...

Posted By: Steve Williams
Saturday, October 25th 2014 at 12:12AM
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Mandinka or Mandinke if you like.
Saturday, October 25th 2014 at 12:04PM
Steve Williams

Born a Mandinga, F r a n c I s c o M e n e n d e z?

and Mandinga wife, A n a M a r i a de E s c o v a r?

OH --- GOT it

------Mandinga is an Romanian latin-influenced Balkan folklore band from Bucharest, Romania

OR is Mandinga ---- a Brazilian album by Projeto Mandinga.

you might want to use GoldenSeal and AloeGel in your weed THCDetoxification......

sorry for the mistake,

AND of COURSE I can find the descendants of Marquez in Mandinga State, Brazil

Saturday, October 25th 2014 at 12:11PM
powell robert

Francisco Menendez had been named Captain of the black militia in 1726, and in the following years he led his men in raids against the English, freeing slaves and returning with them to St. Augustine. He and his forces were an effective defense when Colonel John Palmer led a retaliatory attack on St. Augustine in 1728, and in 1733 the Spanish Crown commended him and his men for their bravery in that action. After he was declared free in 1738 he was commissioned by Governor Montiano to establish Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), a settlement of 38 free black militiamen and their families, at the headwaters of Mose Creek, a northern outpost against English incursions on St. Augustine. Early in 1740 the English attacked, under the command of General James Oglethorpe, and the Fort Mose residents retreated to the safety of St. Augustine's fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos. Seven Royal Navy warships sailed up from Jamaica, and began the bombardment of St. Augustine. Francisco Menendez and his men joined with Indian militias to harry the attacking English forces. On June 14, 1740 they joined with Spanish and Indian forces to retake Fort Mose, and subsequently reinforcements from Cuba arrived and the Royal Navy returned to Jamaica, fearful of the hurricane season. General Oglethorpe was forced to withdraw.

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 9:59AM
Steve Williams

Do LEARN someday at BIA, an African American Family site, some African Asian Centered History, Scholarship and Science

your evilDNA seems to always comment using EUROCENTRIC nonsense Fraudulent History.-you write...

".. Mandinga, Francisco Menendez ......He joined the Yamasee to fight against the English in the Yamasee War..."

Posted By: Steve Williams
Saturday, October 25th 2014 at 12:12AM
*********************************************************

1. NO Mandinka Muslim EVER had a SPANISH NAME>>>>>>unless enslaved by Spanish/Portugese

2. YOU and your racistHistory do NOT even KNOW what YAMAASSEE--or JAMAASSEE mean......

YAMASEE TRIBE
These Moors were the people who built the great pyramids all over South America, Peru, Canada, Alaska, and Georgia that scattered all throughout North America along the Mississippi River and it's tributaries are found mounds built out of tons and tons of earth.

The people who built them were called the Mound Builders and they were the descendants of the Malian Moor Olmecs.

These Moors eventually became Wa****aw, Yamasee.

The Wa****aw Moors called "Jamassi" ---- migrated to an area of Georgia and Florida.
The Jamassi or "Yamassee" were a gentle tribe of Native Americans who practiced their Moorish religion of Islam. The word "Yamasee" means "Gentle

In 1715 the Yamasee rose in rebellion against the English Carolina rapists, torturers and murders of African Asians.

Rather than risk further problems with these evil, barbaric English they moved into the French colonized areas of Indiana and Illinois.

Once the United States of America added these territories in the Louisiana Purchase these Tribes were classified as Negros to strip them of their Native Indigenous rights.

steveORadamOR justLYING or JUST racistlyIGNORANT

--- just READ and do not write your 'whiteSupremist' NONSENSE at this African American Family Site....

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 12:42PM
powell robert

Robert,

I appreciate the information, but it would be very helpful if you would provide sources. I went looking for Musa Creek on Friday, and turned up several interesting sites, but nothing about Musa Creek except that it is now called Robinson Creek. Also that the Spanish pronunciation is Mousa or Mossa, and coincidentally that there is also a Moses Creek in St. Augustine.

P.S. I am well aware that Francisco Menendez had a Mandinka name before he was enslaved, but it is not to be found in the historical record. Could you suggest one? Historical fiction does have its uses.

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 1:48PM
Steve Williams

And I am not being facetious.
Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 1:50PM
Steve Williams

So your subject is Francisco Menendez

the enslaved, raped, torture slave of a portugese or spanish Master of slaverAmericana 1492-1864?

-----------AND then

You, steveOrAdam 10/206/2014---are the Blogger of Philosophy of Language?

1. Either you are NOT, the real steve left LONG ago

2. You have just REVERTED to the selfProfessed 'whiteMan' supremacy racistNONSENSE

3. The Marijuana you smoke daily is making you dumber than the 68IQ retardant biaWriter

You write

"....Spanish pronunciation is Mousa or Mossa, and coincidentally that there is also a Moses Creek in St. Augustine.

P.S. I am well aware that Francisco Menendez had a Mandinka name before he was enslaved, but it is not to be found in the historical record.

Could you suggest one?

Historical fiction does have its uses.

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 12:48PM
Steve Williams

And I am not being facetious. "

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 12:50PM
Steve Williams

englishTRANSLITERATION or spanishTRANSLITERATION or chineseTRANSLITERATION is NOT the CORRECT pronunciation............

for the Genocider, Colonizer and racistlyIgnorant it is TORTURE............

our----above--- Muse, Musa, Mousa, Mosies, Moshe IS THE SAME --european fiction

-- and is NOT

a PRONOUNCIATION in Hebrew or other AfricanAsian Language that are WRITTEN right to left with NO europeanAlphabet.

A good Mandinka Name is KUNTA KINTE

I believe you are always facetious --- and racistlyIgnorant

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 7:09PM
powell robert

Robert,

Marijuana is not legal in the state of Pennsylvania.

I am a law-abiding resident of the state of Pennsylvania since September 20, 2014.

Back to the subject, the Mandinga warrior, Francisco Menendez.

What name do you prefer Robert?

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 8:10PM
Adam Fate

The Mandinka warrior Musa.

Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 8:52PM
Steve Williams

Now it all ties together doesn't it Robert? Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Musa.
Sunday, October 26th 2014 at 8:57PM
Steve Williams

Speaking of historical fiction, I've had a lifelong interest in North American Indian history, and this was fueled when I was 14 by the book by Allen W. Eckert, The Frontiersman, which I highty recommend. I do have some interesting information on the Yamasee, but first I need to finish the story of Francisco Menendez.
Monday, October 27th 2014 at 5:43AM
Steve Williams

The Mandinka boy Musa, as a man in Spanish Florida, took the name Francisco Menendez not because it was forced on him as a condition of enslavement, but to advance his freedom. As Jane Landers has noted, "Even the first-generation Africans at Mose must have drawn on several sources when constructing new identities for themselves. Their freedom was dependent upon Catholic conversion and political enmity toward the English; the privilege to live autonomously under their own leaders was tied to Spanish corporatism and concepts of social organization; and the ability to protect both was guaranteed by Spanish legal constructs of community and citizenship, and the expectations of military vassalage."

Monday, October 27th 2014 at 8:02AM
Steve Williams

....Their freedom was dependent upon Catholic conversion.......

Since this blag is Fiction, can I rewrite a MORE truthful Sentence

....Their Lives were dependent upon Catholic conversion.......

Monday, October 27th 2014 at 8:15AM
powell robert

In the aftermath of the victory at Mose in 1740, Francisco Menendez directed a petition to the Spanish king in which he outlined his lengthy and loyal service to the Crown and asked for remuneration for "the loyalty, zeal, and love I have always demonstrated in the royal service, in the encounters with the enemies, as well as in the effort and care with which I have worked to repair two bastions on the defense line of this plaza, being pleased to do it, although it advanced my poverty, and I have been continually at arms, and assisted in the maintenance of the bastions without the least royal expense, despite the scarcity in which this presidio always exists, especially on this occasion."

Menendez reminded the king that he had served as the captain of the black militia since 1726 and said his "sole object was to defend the Holy Gospel and the sovereignty of the Royal Crown." He asked the king to reward him with the proprietorship of the militia captaincy and whatever salary the king saw fit, to enable him to live "decently" (meaning in the style expected of an officer of the militia). He concluded that he hoped to receive "all the consolation of the royal support...which Christianity requires and your vassals desire," and closed with the standard, "I kiss the feet of Your Majesty," signing with a flourish.

Jane Landers, Black Society in Spanish Florida

Monday, October 27th 2014 at 9:56AM
Steve Williams

your title...............

Francisco Menendez

....Their Lives were dependent upon Catholic conversion.......

SO WHAT DO WE really have here----selfProfessed 'whiteMan' at BIA, an African American Family site

If all their lives were based ON CAPITAL punishment ---- THEIR lives were NOT a continuation of the rape, torture and murder of paganChristian European slaverAmericana 1492-1864

THERE were NO free Africans til the 14th Amendment 1868

Monday, October 27th 2014 at 8:32PM
powell robert

Robert,

Did Muslims ever sell slaves to Europeans?

Monday, October 27th 2014 at 8:51PM
Steve Williams

So your subject is Francisco Menendez

the enslaved, raped, torture slave of a portugese or spanish Master of slaverAmericana 1492-1864?

Robert,

Did Muslims ever sell slaves to Europeans?

Monday, October 27th 2014 at 7:51PM
Steve Williams

I do not have 'whitePrivilidge' LIKE you to NEVER answer a question on an African American Family Site

SO

NO, NO Muslims NEVER sold anyone in Africa Asia, America, or Oceania to EUROPEANS for transport to the Generational rape, torture, pedophilia and murder for slaverAmericana 1492-1864(1964)

Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 8:17AM
powell robert

Assuming your double negative is not intentional, then explain what Selim Aga was doing in the Cairo slave market.
Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 8:50AM
Steve Williams

By this time, Muslim merchants were already well-established in the Senegambia region, often living in their own villages strategically placed near existing indigenous villages. Muslim traders introduced Arabic, Islam, and Koranic education and literacy into Senegambia, along with trade. Muslim holy men known as marabouts gained status as local healers and sold amulets or gris-gris containing protective Koranic prayers. Some Muslim converts along the Gambia were noted for their strict observance of law, while others practiced a fairly relaxed form of Islam; many drank, for instance, and in this ecumenical locale, some non-Muslims also attended Koranic schools.9

The Mandinga, to whom Francisco Men�ndez claimed connection, were the most powerful of the many African groups living along the Gambia River, and most were Muslims. They were ruled by noble lineages which acquired that status by having founded towns, as Men�ndez would later do in Florida. Mandinga rulers established a series of small kingdoms along the Gambia River and collected tribute in the form of cattle, poultry, rice and other agricultural produce from their weaker Fula and Sereer neighbors. 10

In the seventeenth century English and French traders began appearing in the region, looking to purchase elephant �teeth,� beeswax, cattle hides, and slaves from Mandinga merchants. Mandinga mansas charged them land-use taxes as they had other weaker African groups, and in addition, they charged head taxes on each foreign resident and for each ship entering their ports. In 1661 the Royal Adventurers of England Trading in Africa occupied a small island in the middle of the Gambia River and in 1670 the Royal African Company won a government monopoly over the Gambian trade and built Fort James on that island. Then, in 1681, French competitors representing the Compagnie du Senegal established Albreda on the northern bank of the Gambia River, almost directly across from Fort James. Mandinga rulers grew wealthy on tribute and trade and English and French observers reported that like the Luso-Africans, some of them also lived in European-style houses and wore elaborate mixes of African and European clothing. They also held slaves. 11

In Mandinga society, as in the Iberian world, a person might be enslaved for debt or crimes, or, in cases of dire necessity, they might sell themselves or their children and thereby be consigned to the jongo caste. It is unknown how the young man who would become Francisco Men�ndez was enslaved or by whom. Although the Mandinga considered slaves as property that could be sold, or even killed by their masters, they could not be sold or killed without a public trial and they might also be allowed to work some days for their own gain. Should they remain in a household for several generations, they would be given the surname of their owner and a second name denoting their slave origins. 12 Urban slaves in the Spanish world might also be regarded as part of the extended family and were permitted to work for their own profit at their owner�s discretion and accumulate property (peculium).13

http://tulane.edu/calendar/loader.cfm?csMo...

Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 9:56AM
Steve Williams

Thereafter, Men�ndez wrote several eloquent letters to the King of Spain detailing his military services and requesting a proprietary captainship. He argued that he had worked with �loyalty, zeal and love� and had �been continually at arms, and assisted in the maintenance of the bastions, without the least royal expense...to defend the Holy Evangel and sovereignty of the Crown.� And he signed with a flourish. In cover letters Governor Montiano highly recommended Men�ndez to the King and supported his requests. When the monarch failed to respond, Men�ndez took to the seas as a Spanish corsair, seeking, he said later, to make his way to �Old Spain� and discuss the matter with the King in person.77

As a corsair Men�ndez took part in the capture of several English ships loaded with valuable cargoes and also an attack on the English settlements at Okracoke, but in 1741 he had the misfortune to be captured by the English corsair Revenge. Some of the English sailors on board had recently witnessed �Spanish Negroes� being burned at the stake in New York for supposedly plotting to take the city.78 When they discovered that Men�ndez had captained Florida�s black militia at the Battle of Mose, they tied him to a gun, gave him 200 lashes, �pickled� his wounds and threatened him with castration in retaliation for atrocities committed against the English. Finally, the English captain who claimed Men�ndez as a prize sold him back into slavery in the Bahamas. After only three years of freedom, Men�ndez was a slave once more. It is still unknown how he regained his freedom�whether by escape or by Spanish ransom�but by 1759 he was again the leader of Mose.79

Shortly thereafter, shifting geopolitics would once again alter Men�ndez�s life. In the course of the Seven Years� War (1759�1763) the British captured Havana. In the peace treaty that concluded that war the following year, Spain gladly ceded Florida to the English in order to recover the �pearl of the Antilles.� The beleaguered population of Florida�Spanish, Indian and African�was evacuated to other still Spanish locales. In that exodus Men�ndez led his freed �subjects� into exile in Cuba.80

Initially, Captain Francisco Men�ndez and eight other free black families were settled at the small fishing village of Regla, across the bay from Havana. 81 All the exiled Floridanos, Spanish, Indian and African alike, received government subsidies and Captain Men�ndez and his wife received double that of the other Mose residents. Men�ndez and his community stayed at Regla for approximately one year before being granted new homesteads and relocating to the Matanzas frontier. In the newly created town of San Agust�n de la Nueva Florida, they began their lives anew. 82

As I have written about earlier, life on the Cuban frontier proved difficult, and after at least one murder and much disaster, many of the free blacks of Mose gave up their land grants and disappeared from our view. In subsequent research, I found that other Mose militia men, like Antonio Eligio de la Puente and Tom�s Chrisostomo, left their frontier homesteads and moved their families into the nearby city of Matanzas. While less developed than Havana in the eighteenth century, Matanzas did have a free black Catholic brotherhood of the Rosary and probably enough other urban institutions that some would have stayed on and made lives for themselves there. Spanish officials in Cuba generated records on the Floridanos as long as they supported them and I continue to track them. After repaying much of the cash advance Spain gave the new homesteaders (that covered the cost of an African slave for each, tools and seed), Men�ndez, also gave up his land. It seems likely that being a literate and urban individual with military and sailing experience, he would have probably returned either to Regla or Havana, where his opportunities were greater. I am tracking what became of him in my current book project. The arc of Men�ndez�s fascinating life, during which he reshaped his identity and circumstances multiple times, demonstrates how enslaved persons learned about and acted on possibilities to regain lost liberty. The polyglot and literate Men�ndez personified Ira Berlin�s cosmopolitan Atlantic Creole�someone with �linguistic dexterity, cultural plasticity and social agility.�83 There is a good likelihood that he may have already demonstrated these characteristics on the African coast. In the Americas he simply added to his repertoire.

Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 10:16AM
Steve Williams

So your subject is Francisco Menendez

the enslaved, raped, torture slave of a portugese or spanish Master of slaverAmericana 1492-1864?

-----------AND then you write....

"........Assuming your double negative is not intentional, then explain what Selim Aga was doing in the Cairo slave market. .............Muslim merchants were already well-established in the Senegambia region, often .....Muslim traders introduced Arabic, Islam, and Koranic education and literacy into Senegambia, along with trade.

The Mandinga, to whom Francisco Men�ndez claimed connection......................................................

.....In 1661 the Royal Adventurers of England Trading in Africa...."

Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 7:50AM
Steve Williams
***************************************************************

ALL HUMAN beings know that a LIAR must CONTINUE to LIE if she/he/it is-- EVIL in NATURE..DNA......

as you selfProfessed 'whiteMan' steveORadam OR justPlain LIAR has proven in the content of this blag..

1. there is no such thing as Mandinga ------ Kunta Kinte was a Muslim Mandinkaa

2. franciscoMenendez is a spanish/portugese slave -- tortured into paganChristianity in 1700s

And your New LIES above mention

1. selimAgaCairo------NOTHING!---- NONEXISTANT LIE ---- Fiction

2. 'Muslim' traders in Atlantic Coast AfricaAsia 1661-1770

---TRUTH is Atlantic Coast AfricaAsia WAS A Great Muslim Empire since 800

---from Mediterranean to Angola-------800 YEARS before your LIES start

you ebolaLike racistMonster SHOULD be QUARINTINED from BIA an African American Family Site

Leave you racistlyIGORANT drug addict......

Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 7:10PM
powell robert

Cairo slave market:
http://www.eonimages.com/media/665c6022-3e...
Tuesday, October 28th 2014 at 7:46PM
Adam Fate

Published in London, 1846-1849.

Image keywords: 1800s, 19th-century, Africa, Business-Industry, Cairo, Egypt, Eon3769, EonBudget, Illustrations, Mondern-Industrial, People

another of your kingJames Version of History, Scholarship and Science

you ebolaLike racistMonster SHOULD be QUARINTINED from BIA an African American Family Site

Leave you racistlyIGORANT LIAR......

Wednesday, October 29th 2014 at 8:22AM
powell robert

The Arabs preferred female slaves, why Robert?
Wednesday, October 29th 2014 at 8:40AM
Steve Williams

The Arabs preferred female slaves, why Robert?
Wednesday, October 29th 2014 at 7:40AM
Steve Williams

NO Arab(Christian/jewish/yazidhi/zorastrian) EVER had slaves NEVER knew anything about slaverAmericana Generational rape, torture and murder.......

but since you are a London European selfProfessed 'whiteMan' and a Fictional racist Writer

because you the ignorant n*gga that called me an old racist.....

Thursday, October 30th 2014 at 6:50PM
powell robert

...in 1699 Captain W. Rhett imported the first known shipment of slaves from the African coast in the ship Providence. Soon, Carolina planters were importing larger lots of enslaved people from Africa, primarily from the Gambia.23 By 1709 Governor Edward Randolph reported to the Board of Trade that there were �four negroes to one white man� in Carolina.24 The Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyages Database lists no voyages from Africa to the North American mainland for the years 1670�1720, but reports such as Randolph�s indicate a larger volume of Africans imported into Carolina than earlier supposed, with a significant increase in slave imports between 1709 and 1711.25 It is probable, then, that the Mandinga youth who became Francisco Men�ndez arrived to the Carolina frontier during this period of heavy African importation.26

Thursday, October 30th 2014 at 8:50PM
Steve Williams

A census of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose was conducted by Gines Sanchez on Feb. 11, 1759. Francisco Menendez is listed as age 55, of the Mandinga nation. His wife, Ana Maria de Escovar, as age 39, also of the Mandinga nation. If he was born in 1703 he would have been 12 at the start of the Yamasee War and 15 at the time of his sale in 1718 to the Spanish. Chief Jorge testified that Menendez had fought for him for "several years". At the time of his capture by the English in 1741 he would have been 38; Benjamin Norton, the captain of the Revenge, who had captured Menedez, described him as "the old Negro Capt."

In the map of St. Augustine in 1764 drawn by Juan Joseph Eligio de la Puenta, Francisco Menendez is shown as the owner of a 10.5' by 17.5' stone house. The land grant he received at Ceiba Mocha, Cuba is shown in another map by de la Puenta.

Finally, there is no conclusive evidence that Francisco Menendez ever left Ceiba Mocha, and he may very well have ended his days there. He was not a man to let circumstances defeat him.

Thursday, October 30th 2014 at 9:09PM
Steve Williams