USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In general they fled to Canada or to free states in the North, though Florida (for a time under Spanish control) was also a place of refuge. (See Black Seminoles.) From the very beginning of slavery in America, enslaved people yearned to escape from their owners and flee to safety.

Detailed explanation-2: -The network of safe house and anti-slavery activists stretched from the northern part of the United States to the southern tip of Florida. Escaped slaves would travel from the Carolinas and Georgia through Florida to Key Biscayne, where they would sail across the Atlantic Ocean to Red Bays, Bahamas.

Detailed explanation-3: -Competition between Spain and Britain made Florida a haven for colonial South Carolina’s fugitive slaves in the 18th century. To destabilize British colonization in the north, Spain encouraged British slaves to escape to Florida, where they could convert to Catholicism and become Spanish citizens.

Detailed explanation-4: -Most of them worked on large plantations established by wealthy “planters”, an elite class composed of farmers who owned at least 20 slaves and more than 500 acres. This planter class – 21 percent of Florida’s slaveholders – held more than 75 percent of Florida’s slaves.

Detailed explanation-5: -In 1539, slavery arrived in present-day Florida when the slave trader and Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto attempted to establish a permanent settlement and claim more territory for Spain.