ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. For David Nolan, watching the nation commemorate the 400 year anniversary of the first arrival of slaves from his home here in the United States' oldest city is frustrating.

Nolan, a local historian, author and civil rights activist, insists it only advances a false, racist belief that Englishmen founded America and created the system of slavery that defined this country.

"It makes me want to scream," says Nolan. "You’re robbing black history."

The truth is Spaniards settled in St. Augustine, Florida, with enslaved blacks more than a half-century before any arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619 aboard a ship captured by English pirates.

Historical records document the presence of black slaves dating back to their arrival in what was known as Spanish Florida in 1565. They built military forts, hunted food, cut wood and later even created a settlement for freed blacks, Fort Mose.

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But the influence and significance of the Spanish on the country's founding was ignored and lost as English laws, language and culture established a stronghold in the new nation.

Historians and other interested parties challenged writers in the 19th and 20th centuries and tried to spread the story of Spanish settlers and slaves in St. Augustine through exhibits, lectures and books. Still, the 1619 narrative carried on in history books and popular culture.

Kathleen Deagan, a professor of archaeology at the University of Florida, said people have spent their careers trying to correct the erroneous belief.

"It just doesn't resonate," Deagan said. “I don’t know whether it’s just ingrained English-Anglo attitudes, that anybody who isn’t like us can’t really be American.”

Seeds of slavery

European settlement of what would become the United States began Sept. 8, 1565, when Spanish AAdm. Pedro Menendez de Avilés founded St. Augustine on the northeast Florida coast. He arrived with ships filled with soldiers, wives, children and Africans, who were mostly slaves.

Records show Spain’s King Philip II contracted with the admiral to take 500 slaves to establish sugar plantations in the new colony. It's unknown if the Africans were previously enslaved in Spain, said local historian Susan Parker, or exactly how many made it to the settlement. Records show there were 56 slaves in St. Augustine by 1602.

Historian Susan Parker points to a map of early St. Augustine on the wall at the St. Augustine Historical Society. Craig R. Bailey, USA TODAY Network

The king's dreams of thriving plantations took hundreds of years to materialize and the Spanish struggled for control of the city with the British throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. From 1672 to 1695, black slaves and Spanish mission workers were used to build the Castillo de San Marcos as a barrier for enemies. The military fort is now a tourist attraction in St. Augustine.

Eventually, the city became a safe haven for enslaved people fleeing their British owners in South Carolina and Georgia. In 1693, Spain's King Charles II issued a proclamation freeing slaves who escaped to St. Augustine if they joined the militia or converted to Catholicism.

For the next several decades, different nation flags would fly above the city, according to historical records. The Spanish sold it to the British in 1763 in exchange for Cuba, and later took it back before ceding all of Florida to the United States in 1819.

Andrea White, archaeologist for the City of St. Augustine, and her team dig for possible remains near what used to be Los Remedios, the first parish church of St. Augustine. This open air pavilion in St. Augustine's Plaza de la Constitucion is called The Slave Market. Andrea White, archaeologist for the City of St. Augustine, and her team dig for possible remains near what used to be Los Remedios, the first parish church of St. Augustine. This open air pavilion in St. Augustine's Plaza de la Constitucion is called The Slave Market. Andrea White, archaeologist for the City of St. Augustine, and her team dig for possible remains near what used to be Los Remedios, the first parish church of St. Augustine. This open air pavilion in St. Augustine's Plaza de la Constitucion is called The Slave Market. CRAIG R. BAILEY, USA TODAY NETWORK

Parker said many slave records – of marriages, baptisms and burials – typically kept in local churches were lost in the move to Cuba. Today, many are stored in the archives of the Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. Parker cited one set of documents on lace-thin paper that showed slave marriages of one couple in 1604 and two couples in 1605.

“We know that Africans were here because they show up in reports, they show up in parish records," she said.

Slave burials also have shown up during excavations in St. Augustine. City archaeologist Andrea White said excavators have documented 60 burial sites in the last four years. Many bodies were wrapped in shrouds fastened with straight pins.

Tourists wander the grounds of the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the U.S. Craig R. Bailey, USA TODAY Network

Modern St. Augustine

Today, St. Augustine attracts some 3 million tourists a year who gravitate to the beaches and landmarks that span its 454-year history.

On any given day, trolley tours circle downtown. Families walk through the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. Some tourists visit Fort Mose Historic State Park – the nearby 40-acre site that honors the free black slave settlement and includes a museum and other activities.

Actors host reenactments of historic events at various sites, including the firing of cannonballs – sending a loud "boom" along the beachfront.

The town maintains its historic charm, with narrow brick-paved streets and Spanish and English colonial-style buildings.

The "Slave Market" — an open-air pavilion that sits in the Plaza de la Constitución park downtown is another attraction. It has been documented as a place where slaves were sold in the 19th century, according to Nolan.

Show caption Hide caption Bernadette Reeves holds photos during the civil rights era marches in St. Augustine as she talks about life in the city. Behind her is the... Bernadette Reeves holds photos during the civil rights era marches in St. Augustine as she talks about life in the city. Behind her is the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers, a monument to the people who marched during that period in the 1960s. Behind that is an open pavilion known as The Slave Market. Craig R. Bailey, USA TODAY Network

Bernadette Reeves, a black historian and tour guide for Black Heritage Tours in St. Augustine, said slaves were dragged into the market – some locked to chains – whipped and sold.

Other historians, however, dismiss the idea slaves were sold at the pavilion. Parker said the market sold food and clothes.

The pavilion is surrounded by vestiges of other more recent historical events, including the Andrew Young Crossing, depicted by several bronze footsteps that memorialize the 1964 attack of the civil rights leader by a white mob as he led a march through the city.

There also is a "St. Augustine Foot Soldiers" monument honoring other participants of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as a Confederate memorial remembering those from St. Augustine who died in the Civil War.

"There is so much history here," said Reeves said, who leads most of her tour groups through the plaza. “Here in St. Augustine, I don’t let people forget about it."