PLANTATION Zephaniah Kingsley, Slaveholder & Inhabitant of Florida TIMUCUAN ECOLOGICAL & HISTORIC PRESERVE from a Treatise on
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
"Power mayfor a while triumph over weakness and misfortune. But as all nature (from the eternal principle ofst if) takes KINGSLEY part with weakness against power, the re-action finally must be terrible and overwhelming." PLANTATION Zephaniah Kingsley, Slaveholder & Inhabitant of Florida TIMUCUAN ECOLOGICAL & HISTORIC PRESERVE from A Treatise on ... Slavery, 1828 In the early years of the nineteenth century changes. At a time when many slaveholders To escape what Kingsley called a "spirit of FREEDOM AND SLAVERY many people came to Spanish Florida. feared slave rebellions, oppressive laws were intolerant prejudice," Anna Jai and their sons OF PLANTATION-ERA FLORIDA Some, like Zephaniah Kingsley, sought to enacted and conditions for Florida's black moved to Haiti in 1837. There, Kingsley make their fortunes by obtaining land and population, free and enslaved, deteriorated. established a colony for his family and some establishing plantations. Others were forced Kingsley was against the restrictive laws, of his former slaves. In 1839, Fort George to come to Florida to work on those arguing that more humane treatment would Island was sold to his nephew Kingsley plantations, their labor enriching the men ensure peace and the perpetuation of slavery. Beatty Gibbs. Zephaniah Kingsley died in who owned them. Some of the enslaved In 1828, he published his opinions in A New York City in 1843. would later become free landowners, Treatise on The Patriarchal, or Co-operative struggling to keep their footing in a System of Society As It Exists in Some While Kingsley amassed land and wealth, dangerous time of shifting alliances and Governments ...Under the Name of Slavery. others strove for freedom. In 1806, Kingsley politics. All of these people played a part in sold an enslaved East African called Gullah the history of Kingsley Plantation. Jack, or Jack the Conjurer, in Charleston. Sixteen years later, Jack became famous as an In 1814, Zephaniah Kingsley moved to Fort important lieutenant of the Denmark Vesey George Island and what is known today as slave uprising-and was hanged. the Kingsley Plantation. He brought a wife and three children {a fourth would be born at fTl Somewhat less dramatic was the life of Fort George). His wife, Anna Madgigine Jai, Abraham Hanahan. Although a slave, was from Senegal, West Africa, and was Hanahan managed plantation operations and purchased by Kingsley as a slave. She was completely in charge in Kingsley's actively participated in plantation absence. When freed by Kingsley, Hanahan management, acquiring her own land and became a river pilot, trader, and farmer, who slaves when freed by Kingsley in 1811. With went by the name "Free Abraham Hanahan." an enslaved work force of about 60, the Fort He eventually joined those seeking a better life George plantation produced Sea Island in Haiti. cotton, citrus, sugar cane and corn. Kingsley continued to acquire property in north Florida Kingsley Plantation symbolizes a time and a and eventually possessed more than 32,000 place in history. More than that, Kingsley acres. Including four major plantation Plantation represents people, free and complexes and more than 200 slaves. enslaved, ordinary and extraordinary, and their efforts to survive in a changing land. The United States purchased Florida from The stories of these people, often heroic, and Spain in 1821. The Spanish had relatively their contributions to history can be explored liberal policies regarding issues of race, but at Kingsley Plantation. Kingsley Plantation, post-Civil War era American territorial law brought many Palmetto Ave., post-Civil War era .