Visit to the Kingsley Plantation in northern Florida

The Kingsley Plantation near Jacksonville, Florida - License our images here.

This is the oldest plantation in Florida with remains of slave houses. Kingsley Plantation is at the northern tip of Fort George Island. It had various owners, but the most interesting was British born Zephaniah Kingsley. He settled here in 1814 and lived in the plantation for 25 years. This slave owner wrote in defense of slavery and, at the same time, defended the rights of free people of color. For this, he claimed Florida laws from the time of the Spanish rule - The Spaniards encouraged slaves to purchase their freedom under the belief that slavery was not a lifelong condition. Some free blacks owned businesses and slaves. 

Zephaniah Kingsley's wife was a former slave - this may explain his views about free slaves. Her name was Anna Madgigine Jai and was born in Africa and purchased by him at age 13 in Havana, Cuba. He married and freed her, and their children were free blacks with good education. 

In 1842, the abolitionist Lydia Child - author of An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans - asked Zephaniah if his work as a slave trader was not akin to piracy. 

He answered without remorse:

Yes; and I am glad of it. They will look upon a slaveholder just so, by and by. Slave trading was a very respectable business when I was young. The first merchants in England and America were engaged in it. Some people hide things which they think other people don't like. I never conceal anything.

Anna was the matriarch and was in charge of sixty slaves - her husband had other slave wives. Slave work was assigned by tasks and once completed, the slaves were free to do as they chose. This was different from the methods used in the plantations of northern states where the slaves had to work all day under the supervision of an overseer - who was often another slave. 

Interestingly, Mr. Kingsley armed his slaves for protection. Most of them were from Africa. Some were Igbo, others came from the Nigerian Calabar, from Guinea, and a few from the faraway Zanzibar - one of the largest slave ports in the Indian Ocean.

 

When Florida became part of the US in 1821, rights that the free blacks enjoyed under the Spanish Crown were removed. Foreseen future problems with his family, Zephaniah Kingsley sent them to Haiti. 

His house in the plantation was built at the end of the 18th century at a beautiful spot facing the Fort George River. A nice deck on the roof was used by the family to enjoy sunsets and the night skies. The houses of the slaves were laid in a big arch across the main road of the plantation. These homes were built with tabby, a mix of lime, shells, gravel, and stones.

We visited the Kingsley Plantation while camping at Little Talbot Island State Park.