Kingsley Plantation

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Kingsley Plantation
IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape)

Location:	Duval County, Florida, USA
Nearest city:	Jacksonville, Florida
Established:	September 29, 1970
Governing body:	National Park Service

The Kingsley Plantation (also known as the Zephaniah Kingsley Plantation Home and Buildings) is a historic plantation in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is located at the northern tip of Fort George Island at Fort George Inlet, and is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. On September 29, 1970, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

[edit] History

Zephaniah Kingsley settled on Ft. George Island in 1814. The plantation grew sea island cotton, citrus, corn and sugar cane worked by approximately 60 slaves. The slaves and the plantation were managed by Kingsley's wife, Anna Magjinine Jai, an enslaved Senegalese woman whom he had purchased and eventually freed. They had three children together, and Zephaniah freed her in 1811. Later, he also married two other formerly enslaved women, and they also bore him children. He legally recognized all of them and wrote them into his will.

While Kingsley prospered on Ft. George Island, Florida was under the control of Spain, a country with more liberal attitudes towards race and marriage. In 1821 however, control of Florida was given over to the United States, a country that considered interracial marriage illegal. To avoid difficulties with the new government, Kingsley sent his wives, children, and a few slaves to Haiti and sold the plantation to his nephew, Kingsley Beatty Gibbs. However, before Zephaniah could join his family in Haiti, he died in 1843, while in New York City working on a land deal. Anna returned in 1860 to settle an inheritance dispute with some of her husband's white relatives; the court ruled in her favor and control of the Kingsley Plantation remained with her and her descendants.

Kingsley Plantation currently showcases the remains of 23 original slave houses located approximately a quarter of a mile from the main owner's house, attached kitchen and walkway, barn and garden. One of the slave houses has been refurbished to appear as it did in the early 1800s. The slave houses were constructed out of tabby, a mixture of burned oyster shells, dirt, sand, lime, and water. The material made the houses remarkably durable, and the layouts of the houses can still be seen today. The main house is unfurnished and currently closed for structural rehabilitation. One room of the kitchen house is open daily and contains historical exhibits. Work on the main house and remaining room of the kitchen house is slated to be completed late 2007 to early 2008. Kingsley Plantation is open 9-5 every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.