The Longest War

Logline

Fort Mose to Nacimiento — 120 years of armed Gullah resistance and the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history.

What the episode covers

• Fort Mose, Spanish Florida, 1738 — first free Black settlement in North America, garrisoned by escaped Gullah under Captain Francisco Menendez.
• The Negro Fort at Prospect Bluff, 1816 — U.S. Navy destroys a maroon fort, killing 270 in the largest single-day Black massacre of the 19th century.
• John Horse and the 1850 exodus — 300 Black Seminoles walk across Texas to Nacimiento, Coahuila, Mexico, where descendants still live and speak Afro-Seminole Creole today.

Production notes

Community-attributed traditional music only, no post-1928 material. All primary sources public domain (Library of Congress, National Archives, community archives) or community-controlled oral history. Screenplay filed with U.S. Copyright Office as part of the Gullah Geechee Biz Season 1 deposit.

Attribution

Written & Directed by Darryl Elliott Brown
Produced by Darryl Elliott Brown
A Gullah Geechee Biz Production
© 2026 Darryl Elliott Brown