Rita Mendoza*

An enslaved woman in the household of Don Pedro Mendoza. Don Pedro was a pulpero (which can be described as “grocer” or “tavernkeeper”) born in Mexico.

Born around 1790. Race is recorded as Negresse.

Appears in Pedro Mendoza’s 1818 claim for a land lot. He obtained the land in a sale from Don Vicente Ordozgoity that included Rita, described as a Negresse aged about 27 years. Don Vicente aquired Rita by purchase from Don Cayetano Garcia (no date given for this sale).


SOURCES:

Moreno, Fernando J., Billie Ford Snider, and Janice B. Palmer. Spanish Plat Book of Land Records of the District of Pensacola, Province of West Florida: British and Spanish Land Grants, 1763-1821. Pensacola: Antique Compiling, 1994, p. 39.

Coker, William S. and G. Douglas Inglis. “Census of Pensacola, 1820.” The Spanish Censuses of Pensacola, 1784-1820: A Genealogical Guide to Spanish Pensacola. The Perdido Bay Press, 1980, pp. 93-126