A Flagler College film is amplifying Florida's Black history through the lens of an early defender of liberty.
The Sunshine State's colonial history is complex because Florida was dominated by the Spanish, where the slavery of Africans was not the same as in the British colonies.
For example, Spanish officials authorized the first free Black settlement in North America, Fort Mose in St. Augustine, in the 1730s. This was decades before the American Revolution. The idea of a free and armed Black population became a beacon of hope for those enslaved in Georgia and the Carolinas.
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A key person at Fort Mose was Francisco Menéndez. He was born in West Africa, sold into slavery in the Carolinas and eventually escaped to Spanish Florida. He became a leader of Fort Mose and a hero in the fight against the British.
A Flagler College film, "A Book of Freedom: The Confessions of Francisco Mendez," explores his historical role. It's being showcased Monday at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.
On "The Florida Roundup," director Jim Gilmore and actor Zeus Xavier Scott discuss a need to recognize the state's "melting pot" history, what they learned about Menéndez and more.
The interview below was edited for clarity and brevity.
Why was it important to tell this story before the "Americans even came onto the scene?"
GILMORE: I think this story is so important because most of us in this country know nothing about it.
I was raised with the whole notion of the Underground Railroad and the heroes who worked to escape to the north. I just assumed that was always the way that the narrative unfolded.
So when I moved down to St. Augustine and wandered into this place called Fort Mose, which is not very far from downtown — it's not heavily marked, there's a small sign. And I'm looking around and kind of reading the signs and things and going, "Oh my God, where was this in any part of the American experience that I had ever heard?"
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So, when I was brought down to help launch the new Cinematic Arts program at Flagler, and they asked me, what story would I like to tell? I did sort of have this in the back of my mind. I had some colleagues that also knew of this story. And I said, "I think it'd be really interesting to do a docudrama around the idea of Fort Mose.
And then, from there, it really focused more on the story of one person — Francisco Menéndez — as this sort of heroicc figure of Florida history that nobody ever knows.
This film is a blend of documentary and live-action historical reenactments. Can you talk a bit about the historical record that does exist that underpins this remarkable story?
GILMORE: So the Spanish kept great records and through their whole time here in St. Augustine. A lot of those records still exist.
We found his [Menéndez's] petition to the king of Spain after the Battle of Bloody Mose when Fort Mose was destroyed. He's essentially begging for funds to allow them to rebuild and restore their community.
We found the British court of law records of his prosecution when he was recaptured by British sailors. Of course, there was less preserved for Black Americans, and certainly even less for Black women Americans at the time. But we did have these fragments and that's what the students used as we kind of figured out how to tell the story.
Zeus, I want to bring you into this conversation. Can you tell us a bit about what you learned looking at the world through his [Francisco Menéndez's] eyes?
XAVIER SCOTT: Everything that Francisco did, he did with intention and with compassion for not only himself but for the people around him.
I think just being in some of those situations he was in, and at least in terms of simulating them, you could just feel the courage that it would take to continue to be at bat.
In the film, Menéndez confesses to a father about committing acts of violence in defense of his own people, and it's obvious he's tormented by some of that violence. What do you hope that audiences take away from your performance as you wrestle with those ideas?
XAVIER SCOTT: There's a monologue he has where he says, "I feel like my spirit has been at war my entire life."
It's one thing to be physically in way — to be fighting someone or something. It's another thing for you to have an internal conflict. When everyone around you is doing one thing, and you're doing something else and there's all these opinions.
I think Francisco and his story is it's just true that he followed his heart in everything that he did. I think that's why he was able to be such a passionate person. I would hope that people watching it just see that any conflict he had with the world, the people — anything that's interacting with in the film — it's not out of a vindictive nature. It's genuinely him following his heart and doing what he believes is right.
Can you tell us a little bit about how this film came to be?
GILMORE: I want to make sure the students get credit for the collaborative nature of this vision. We were really debating and challenged and forced to think about how do we tell the story? How do we give a person like Francisco Menéndez the agency that he deserves?
Because here's a man who refused to be enslaved. No matter what happened to him, he found a way to freedom.
That's such an incredible story given the time frame. It's so incredible that we just don't know anything about it. We know the story of Harriet Tubman. Why don't we know the story of Francisco Menéndez, who is this colonial hero?
A lot of the reason for that is racism. It's not a story that America wanted to tell. I think the students really learned, and I'm so proud of them that it's important for us to find a way to tell these stories. I'm proud that Flagler College embraced the story of slavery at a time where a lot of people are running from these narratives.
Do you think there's an appetite for learning to wrestle with this messy but very unique Florida history?
GILMORE: I think we always struggle with deciding what is important — what is relevant to our histories.
I think Florida, in particular, because of the influence of the Spanish and the British and the Seminole nation, right? There's all of these histories that merge together.
St. Augustine is so built around the big fort — Castillo de San Marcos. The one that everybody comes to that they have tended to frame history just through that, through the Spanish eyes of that fort. And yet, if you just move out two miles, now you've got the story of the indigenous people living with the free Black slaves at Fort Mose.
Florida is so much more of a melting pot than I think it likes to recognize sometimes. So I'm hopeful that Florida will embrace that more. But I do think these are challenging times for telling stories that are a little bit outside the mainstream of some narratives.
You can find more information about the film on the Cinematic Arts at Flager College website. More details about Fort Mose can be found from the Fort Mose Historical Society.
This story was compiled from interviews conducted by Danny Rivero for "The Florida Roundup."
