General Biassou House
Here on this site, 42 St. George Street, stood the home of the nation's first Black general, Jorge Biassou, who came to St. Augustine from his native Haiti in 1796 as a member of the Spanish military.
Biassou was one of the original leaders of the 1791 slave uprising in Haiti, and for his service to the Spanish against the French he became a Spanish general and was sent to St. Augustine as the colony's second highest-paid official. In addition to his home here in the center of the city, Biassou had a plantation north of town.
In St. Augustine, Biassou was placed in command of the free Black militia that guarded the southern approach to the city at Fort Matanzas, and at the pioneer free Black settlement that formed the northern defense at St. Augustine at Fort Mose. Today Fort Matanzas is part of the National Park Service and Fort Mose is a Florida State Historic State Park.
General Biassou died in 1801 and was buried in the Tolomato Cemetery on Cordova Street following his funeral held in St. Augustine's Catholic Cathedral Basilica.
The building on this site is a reconstruction of General Biassou's home built in 1962 as part of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine.
Many delegations, including members of Haiti's international diplomatic corps and members of the Haitian American Historical Society, have made pilgrimages to St. Augustine to visit sites associated with our first Black general, Jorge Biassou.
Marker is on St. George Street, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
