Mark Smith, a historian at the University of South Carolina, said the slave leaders were from what is now Angola in Africa. They were Catholic, because their homeland was at the time a Portuguese outpost. And they are thought to have been soldiers in their native land.
They would have known about the rumor of freedom in Spanish Florida and decided to start the revolt on Sept. 9, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“They have a white flag, which is not a flag of surrender. It’s a flag of celebrating Mary, and they shout ‘Liberty.’ They are not revolting just as slaves, but as Catholic slaves,” Smith said.
At least 20 whites were killed in the rebellion. The militia later caught up with the slaves and 34 of them were killed. Some who escaped were found and executed later, although some apparently made it to safety in Florida because there are reports of more slaves arriving in St. Augustine in the ensuing days, Landers said.
Gullah creole is still spoken in churches in northeastern Florida, Landers said.
Hankerson, who grew up with stories of the Underground Railroad, said escaped slaves got help from American Indian tribes including the Creeks, the Cherokees and the Yemassee. They also advanced deeper into Florida and found refuge with the Seminoles.