brochure 8 25 05 - nps.gov

KINGSLEY PLANTATION Department of the Interior
National Park Service

Timucuan Preserve

FREEDOM AND SLAVERY During the eighteenth and nineteenth Plantation House, post-Civil War era
IN PLANTATION-ERA FLORIDA centuries, many people came to Florida.
Some, like Zephaniah Kingsley, sought to major plantation complexes and more than
Kingsley Plantation Slave Quarters, make their fortunes by obtaining land and 200 slaves.
post-Civil War era establishing plantations. Others were forced
to come to Florida to work on those Changing Times
plantations, their labor providing wealth to
the people who owned them. Some of the The United States acquired Florida from
enslaved would later become free Spain in 1821. Radical political, economic,
landowners, struggling to keep their footing and social reforms swept in along with the
in a dangerous time of shifting alliances and new government. The Spanish had relatively
politics. All of these people played a part in liberal policies regarding issues of race, but
the history of Kingsley Plantation. American territorial law brought many
changes. At a time when many slaveholders
The Kingsley Family feared slave rebellions, oppressive laws were
enacted and conditions for Florida’s black
In 1814, Zephaniah Kingsley moved to Fort population, free and enslaved, deteriorated.
George Island and established a plantation.
He brought a wife and three children (a Kingsley was against the restrictive laws,
fourth would be born at this plantataion). arguing the importance of free blacks in
His wife, Anna Madgigine Jai, was from society. He advocated Spain’s three class
Senegal, Africa, and was purchased by system, where enslaved people existed at
Kingsley as a slave. She actively participated the bottom tier, free blacks the middle, and
in plantation management, acquiring her
own land and slaves when freed by Kingsley
in 1811.

With an enslaved work force of about 60,
the Fort George plantation produced Sea
Island cotton, citrus, sugar cane, and corn.
Kingsley continued to acquire property in
northeast Florida and eventually possessed
more than 32,000 acres, including four

white people as the top class. His pleas “Few, I think will deny that color and The Slave Community
were ignored, and over the next two condition, if properly considered, are two
decades, laws were enacted that severely very separate qualities… our legislators… A fifth of a mile from the plantation
restricted the civil liberties of free blacks. have mistaken the shadow for the home of Zephaniah Kingsley are the
substance, and confounded together two remains of 25 tabby cabins. Arranged in
Despite the danger of being ostracized, very different things; thereby substantiating a semicircle, there were 32 cabins, 16 on
Kingsley crusaded to alter the views of by law a dangerous and inconvenient either side of the road.
southern law makers. He wrote a series of antipathy, which can have no better
editorials, speeches, and addresses, which foundation than prejudice.” This area represents the slave
became public and widely circulated. He community, homes of the men, women,
became best known for a series of Zephaniah Kingsley, A Treatise on…Slavery, 1829 and children who lived and worked on
Treatises published in four editions Kingsley Plantation more than 170 years
between 1828 and 1834. His words were ago.
read throughout the North and the South.
Kingsley’s writings warned of the dangers Slave labor on this Sea Island cotton
of a society based on racial prejudice, but, plantation was performed according to
at the same time, advocated the the “task system.” Under this system,
continuance of slavery. each slave was assigned a specified
amount of work for the day and upon
Frustrated that his words were falling on completion of this task, the slave was
deaf ears, and to escape what he called a permitted to use the balance of the day
“spirit of intolerant prejudice,” Kingsley as he or she chose.
moved his family to Haiti, the only free
black republic in the hemisphere, in 1837. Under the task system, it was assumed
There, Kingsley established a colony for that slaves would raise a variety of crops
his family and some of his former slaves. in their own gardens. These products
could supplement the slaves’ plantation
In 1839, Fort George Island was sold to his rations, or be traded or sold through the
nephew Kingsley Beatty Gibbs. plantation owner.
Zephaniah Kingsley continued to own
slaves until his death in 1843.

Slave Daily Life Unidentified slave woman and George Gibbs Visiting Kingsley Plantation

Most aspects of slave family life were double meanings and secret religious Kingsley Plantation is a 60-acre unit of the
influenced by the needs and attitudes of the services. 46,000-acre Timucuan Ecological and
plantation owner. Legally, slave marriages Historic Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida,
were not recognized; the law dealt more Many aspects of American culture are which is managed by the National Park
with the issues of ownership. Children of directly linked to the plantation period. Service.
enslaved parents belonged to the mother’s From southern cooking to popular music,
owner. Financial difficulties or death of the aspects of African culture survived slavery Visitors can explore the grounds, which
owner could prompt sales of slaves, and are present today. include the oldest standing plantation house
separating families. in Florida, the kitchen, barn, and waterfront.
The still-standing remains of 25 slave cabins
Medical attention for slaves varied from offer perhaps the most graphic evidence of
home remedies to physicians hired by the slave living quarters and daily life experiences
plantation owner – and could depend on the in the state.
economic impact of the disability.
Kingsley Plantation is open seven days a
Tasks often brought slaves into close contact week, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except
with their owners. One example is a slave’s Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New
task to care for the owner’s child on a daily Years Day. Admission is free.
basis, spending more of the day with that
child than her own. The plantation is located off of Heckscher
Drive/A1A north of the St. Johns River ferry
Some aspects of slave life were not landing.
controlled by the plantation owner. Within
their community, slaves created a culture For more information, contact:
that included elements of their African
heritage. Slaves expressed themselves in Kingsley Plantation
music, dance, and religious practices that Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve
were their own and did not reflect the National Park Service
customs of their owners. Frequently these 11676 Palmetto Avenue
expressions were hidden, as in lyrics with Jacksonville, Florida 32226
904.251.3537
http://www.nps.gov/timu