1763 Vanni Map of St. Augustine, Florida

This is a c. 1763 Violante Vanni map of St. Augustine, Florida. Oriented to the east, St. Augustine appears above center with its walls and fort depicted. Two Native American settlements appear to the to the north and south of St. Augustine. Fort Mose, the first free Black settlement in what became the United States, is illustrated to the right (north) of St. Augustine, here labeled as 'Forte Negro'. Depth soundings with measurements appear along the 'Canale Meridionale' with several banks are illustrated.

Fort Mose

Fort Mose was the first free Black community in what is now the United States. Established in 1738 by order of the governor of Spanish Florida, Manuel de Montiano, Fort Mose housed fugitive slaves seeking freedom in Spanish Florida. King Charles II of Spain issued a 1693 decree that that any escaped slaves willing to convert to Catholicism and submit to four years of militia service would be granted asylum in Florida. Fort Mose was built two miles north of St. Augustine, Spanish Florida's capital, and served as a front line against potential British invasion. In 1740, during the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739 - 1748), British forces under Savannah founder James Oglethorpe invaded Florida and attacked St. Augustine. The Fort Mose militia fought alongside Spanish regulars, defeating Oglethorpe's force. They then participated in the unsuccessful 1742 Spanish counterattack into Georgia. When East Florida was ceded to the British following the 1763 Treaty of Paris, most residents of Fort Mose emigrated to Cuba with the evacuated Spanish.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Violante Vanni, engraved by Giuseppe Pazzi, and published c. 1763 in Il Gazzettiere Americano. Another edition was published c. 1777 in Atlante dell' America. We note nine examples of the present map cataloged in OCLC: Library of Congress, Florida State University, the University of Michigan, the Newberry Library, the Jacksonville Public Library, the University of California Berkeley, the British Library, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar / Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. This map appears on the private market from time to time.