II - A multilingual fort and its rotating history

A multilingual fort and its rotating history

By Miguel Pérez

At first, you might think this is a fort with an identity crisis, undecided about its own name! But soon you realize that its four identities — Fort Louis, Condé, Charlotte and Carlota — depend on who was running the place and what language they spoke, in Mobile, Alabama.

The French built it in 1702 and called in Fort Louis, in honor of King Louis XIV of France. They moved it to the current site in 1711, and rebuilt it in 1723 under a new name, Fort Condé, in honor of King Louis XIV's brother.

When France lost all its possession in North America at the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, Britain took control of Mobile for 17 years, from 1763 to 1780, and during that time the fort was renamed Charlotte, in honor of Queen Charlotte, wife of England's King George III.

During the American Revolution, Spain fought Great Britain and captured the entire Gulf Coast in support of the 13 American colonies. According to the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, Spain then retained the Mobile region, where it ruled for 33 years, from 1780 to 1813, and the fort became Fuerte Carlota, a Spanish translation of Charlotte.

En español:
Un fuerte multilingüe y su historia rotativa

That Spanish period ended with the War of 1812, when 1,000 American army troops were sent to take possession of Mobile. "On April 13, 1813, the Spanish surrendered Fuerte Carlota.," an exhibit explains. "Mobile — a little wooden trading town with fewer than 2,000 residents and more than a century of frontier colonial history — now belonged to the United States of America."

And when the fort was occupied by U.S. troops, the Americans, apparently influenced by their British heritage, went back to calling it Charlotte.

In total, the fort guarded Mobile and its citizens, of rotating nationalities and languages, for nearly a century. Unlike other parts of the country where xenophobes fear a multilingual society, here you are reminded that you are in "a land of many languages."

"A person walking through Colonial Mobile would have heard a variety of languages," an exhibit explains, "including several Native American and African dialects, as well as French, English and Spanish."

Another exhibit paints a picture of life in Mobile when the Spanish ruled. "The streets of Spanish Mobile were filled with a variety of people: Tradesmen, Native Americans, sailors, women, children, free people of color, craftsmen, slaves, and soldiers," an exhibit explains. "New warehouses, taverns, eateries, homes, and churches dotted the landscape."

The current fort, built in 1976 and again called Condé, is a replica, almost one-third the size of the original brick fort built in 1723. But since it is now a museum, it takes you through the history of all its rotating periods.

The most impressive exhibit, illustrating the most significant event at the fort, is a scale model showing the battle that brought down British control of the fort and the region. It shows the time when Spanish forces laid a 14-day siege on Charlotte Fort and helped secure the independence of the United States during the Revolutionary War. Did you know that Hispanic soldiers covered George Washington's Gulf Coast flack during the American Revolution? (See photos).

"The British Colonial period on the Gulf Coast ended in spectacular fashion during the American Revolution," the exhibit explains. "In March 1780, Don Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, led more than a thousand troops to Mobile and laid siege to Fort Charlotte. It was the only time in its history that Mobile was directly attacked by enemy fire. For 14 long days, Spanish guns battered the old fort. Faced with the complete destruction of his ragtag army of 300 men, including armed slaves and volunteers from the town, Captain Elias Dumford surrendered Fort Charlotte."

From the cannons mounted on the roof of today's Fort Condé, now surrounded by modern high-rise buildings in downtown Mobile, it's hard to envision the time when it was under siege by Hispanic troops, especially because American history has a way of whitewashing the contributions made by Hispanics.

But for those who never saw this part of our Hispanic history in their American history textbooks, the battle scale model inside the fort illustrates the magnitude of the Hispanic fight for America's independence.

I have seen many impressive museum exhibits, but I can't recall one that marks a more significant moment in U.S. Hispanic history.

I have been here twice, 10 years apart, and very little has changed. Although not the same ones, they still have very knowledgeable "living history interpreters" who play the role of people who once lived here. I enjoyed chatting with them!

Across the street from the current fort, you can still see the remains of the one built by the French in 1723. The few dilapidated bricks that remain are the only architectural remains of colonial Mobile. They are surrounded by a monument with six wall sculptures (relief art), representing the diversity of colonial Mobilians. (See photos below).

"Galvez continued eastward toward Pensacola," a fort exhibit says. "Soon all of British West Florida was under Spanish control."

And soon my Hispanic history tour will be going that way. But first, the History Museum of Mobile is also across the street. Should we take a look? Stay tuned!