In Search of More
Than 'Roots'

By Vincent F.A. Golphin

If you know slavery only from watching "Roots," check out the Kingsley Plantation. It's on the outskirts of Jacksonville on the coastal Fort George Island, north of Mayport. You'll need a car. Drive north of Mayport Ferry Landing on Route A1A. Turn at the sign and follow the road three miles to the plantation. A visit to this unique remnant of 19th century life is not a day trip, but at every turn you'll be surprised. This is not the usual story.

Kingsley Plantation boasts Florida's oldest existent plantation house, which, by the way, looks nothing like the kind seen in "Gone with the Wind." There are remains of 23 slave huts, samples of the crops once grown on the island, chances to see some of the most pristine nature preserves in the state. It's a sea island paradise, and you'll find a tale of bondage with a twist. The Kingsley saga is a patchwork woven from Europeans and Africans, free and slave, saints and scoundrels. Overall, owners Zephaniah and Anna Kingsley's stories are a part of U.S. history you might not know.

Zephaniah Kingsley, an Englishman who did not want to die as poor as he was born, knew there was money in land and crops. The markets for both in Florida boomed. So, he bought land, sold crops and, to grease the wheels of enterprise invested in slaves. By the early 1800s, he owned as many as 60. Most were from Cuba, high grade in the late 18th century, compared to the less desirable cargoes palmed off in Annapolis, St. Augustine, Savannah, New Orleans and other U.S. ports. Then, to put a spin on Lee Iaccoca, one day Zephaniah found such a love for the company, he bought the product. Around 1806, the 40-plus adventurer bought and married Anna Madigigine Jai. She was from Senegal, West Africa. She was 13.

Kingsley was familiar with the slave-selling areas, so it's not such a stretch to imagine he might have gotten the word from a slave ship captain or two when something (slaves were considered property) extraordinary was about to land. Historians say he met the ship that carried his soon-to-be bride. That's just where the story begins.

Kingsley's first Florida plantation was Lower Grove, somewhere near today's Orange Grove, south of Jacksonville. It was moderately successful, but Anna would change that. She was from a wealthy family, and determined to help her husband afford the life to which she was accustomed. With her aid and insight, Zephaniah and Lower Grove prospered.

Kingsley signed Anna's freedom papers in 1811. She bought her own land and slaves. They gained riches, but the story is not about cruelty.

Sea island slaves suffered much of the brutality and deprivation encountered in the southern United States, but Florida was Spain. The U.S. annexed the area in 1821. Some slave laws were different. As in the Deep South, slave marriages were not respected. Masters raped slave women. Parents or children were sold at whim. Some were starved and beaten. Yet, other parts of life were different.

Slaves preserved African music, dance and religion, although guides will tell you they often sneaked into the woods under moonlight to do so. They worked on the task system, bound by the job rather than the sun.

"There is a rule on Sea Island plantations fixing the tasks required each day to be done," Kingsley Beatty Gibbs, who bought the place from Zephaniah in 1839, explains in an 1841 diary. "The hand is generally done his task by 2 p.m., often sooner, so they have abundance of time to work their own crop, fish, etc., etc."

The system differed greatly from the popularized image of slavery. Yet, in the end, as in all forms of the "peculiar institution," many people's labors only benefited a few.

In 1814, a by-then-richer Kingsley moved with Anna and three children to the already established and larger Fort George Island farm. Later, a fourth child was born. With 60 slaves the Kingsleys grew cotton, citrus, sugar cane, corn and indigo. The profits bought more land and slaves. In the end, Anna Kingsley, the business manager, ran a 32,000-acre, four-plantation complex with more than 200 slaves. There's more, but you'll have to visit to find out. The National Park Service, which manages the island estate as part of the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, provides a great tour.

You'll see the main house, whose unusual floor plan includes a two-story central area and four, square corner rooms. The kitchen is in a separate building in back of the house, as a means of fire prevention. There's a barn and garden with samples of Sea Island cotton, lighter than the variety from the Deep South, and indigo, which was used for dye. All of those are dwarfed by the slave quarters.

The ruins of 23 cabins made from tabby, an oyster shell-concrete, fan out through the surrounding woods. The layout resembles a West African village, a circle with the chief's home at the top. The site is, in a word, awesome. You might not notice the cabins along the long drive that leads to the main complex. They tend to blend. Yet, you can feel their spirits.

The grounds and exhibits are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except on Christmas. For information, call 904-251-3537, or write the National Park Service, Kingsley Plantation, 11676 Palmetto Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32226.