The St. Augustine Distillery announced today it is a founding sponsor of the inaugural Fort Mose Jazz and Blues Series, which is designed to raise funds for the reconstruction of the first legally sanctioned Black settlement in America. 

“Supporting arts culture and local history has been central to our mission since opening  in 2013,” St. Augustine Distillery CEO Philip McDaniel said in a news release. “We are excited to support  and promote this live music series, while bringing the incredible Fort Mose story to a wider  audience.”

The Distillery is partially Black-owned. 

As early as late 1600s, freedom seekers escaped enslavement in the English colonies to  the north and made their way to St. Augustine, then in Spanish Florida (an early  underground railroad South). Under a Spanish royal decree, they were given freedom in  exchange for adopting Catholicism and males serving in the militia. 

In 1738, the Spanish governor ordered Fort Mose to be constructed to house an estimated  100 predominately Africans who sought sanctuary and liberation. In 1994, Fort Mose site was designated as a National Historic Landmark. After extensive archaeology and historical research, the site authenticated and today a small museum sits near the location  in Fort Mose State Park. 

Performing this week at the Park is two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz artist Gregory  Porter (Feb. 24); New Orleans’ deep-groove R&B and jazz group Tank and the Bangas  (Feb. 25); and the legendary Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (Feb. 26).  

In a floor statement for Black History Month, Congressman John Rutherford (FL-04) said,  “Fort Mose embodies the fight for freedom by Black Americans in the early days of our  country, and it highlights a piece of Black history that is dramatically different from the  more familiar story of slavery and oppression.”