A black history Dynamo: “Do you
remember the days of slavery”?
Presented By
-Ital Iman
Taken in most parts from:
https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/kp_anna_manumission_will.htm
The Kingsley Plantation slave cabins are built of tabby — a
material made from cooking oyster shells in a kiln for lime and adding water
and sand. The 25 buildings housed 60 to 80 enslaved men, women and children.
Zephaniah Kingsley and his wife Anna Madgigine Jai, who
lived on the plantation from 1814 to 1837.
Zephaniah, a successful slave trader, merchant and planter
in Spanish Florida, bought Anna, who was born in Senegal, as a slave in Havana,
Cuba, in 1806. She was 13 years old. By
the time she turned 18, they were married and had three children. She, however,
was still a slave and so were the children. (Slavery is determined by the
mother’s status.) Zephaniah freed her and their children in 1811.
This family moved to the Kingsley Plantation in 1814, where,
still under Spanish rule, Anna was able to become her husband’s business
partner, own her own plantation and, strangely enough, own her own slaves.
In the “big house”
The view from the kitchen, which was a separate building,
looking toward the main house and waterfront.
The Spanish had a different attitude toward slavery than
Americans in the South at the time, who were worried about slave uprisings.
While evidence suggests they were no less cruel, the Spanish saw slavery as a
temporary status from which you could buy or earn your way free.
Zephaniah wrote widely about his philosophy of slavery and
campaigned for a system where people were judged by class not color. He
fervently defended slavery (which made him very rich) but also believed society
should recognize a class of free blacks, like his wife Anna.
We know little, however, about the attitudes of Anna, who
survived the brutal Middle Passage and slave markets. What we have of her are
official records – the manumission papers that freed her, records of land
grants from Spain and records showing she bought and sold slaves. (Here is the text of Anna Kingsley’s
manumission papers and her will, which lists as her property four slaves.)
When Spain lost control of Florida in 1821, the same laws
that stripped all liberties from American slaves started to apply to Anna and
their now four children. Eventually, the restrictions became intolerable
(Zephaniah Kingsley called them “a system of terror”) and in 1832, Anna, two
sons and 50 freed slaves moved to Haiti, a free black republic, to found a
plantation there.
Two of their daughters, however, stayed in Jacksonville and
married wealthy white men.
There’s more to the saga – I won’t spoil your visit by
telling you all the eye-opening twists. But if you got the idea that the slaves
were happy and well-treated on the Kingsley Plantation, the tour makes it clear
that slavery is slavery. There are stories, for example, of children being sold
away from their families on Kingsley Plantation and the harsh work regimen
required.
Walking around the beautiful plantation grounds thick with
live oaks, one spots two or three trees whose girth suggests great age.
You can stand under a live oak that is probably 400 years
old and look at those slave cabins, knowing this tree witnessed the whole saga.
Did slave children play here in the shade of the same tree under which you
stand? Where are their descendants now?
Anna Kingsley: A Free Woman
On the first day of March 1811, in the Spanish province of
East Florida, white plantation owner Zephaniah Kingsley put his signature on a
document that forever changed the life of a young African woman. The document
was a manumission paper which ensured her legal freedom. The young woman, a
native of Senegal whom Kingsley had purchased in a slave market in Havana,
Cuba, was his eighteen-year-old wife and the mother of his three children. That
paper not only marked the beginning of the young woman's freedom in the New
World, it was also the beginning of the written record of a remarkable life.
Her name was Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley.
A free woman, Anna Kingsley petitioned the Spanish
government for land, and land grant records show that in 1813 she was granted
title to five acres on the St. Johns River. The property was located across the
river from her husband's plantation, Laurel Grove, south of today's
Jacksonville. Anna purchased goods and livestock to begin a business--and she
purchased slaves. She became one of a significant number of free people of
African descent in East Florida. They included farmers, craftsmen, and members
of a black militia. Some of these people, like Anna, owned slaves. Although
slavery was supported, Spanish race policies encouraged manumission and
self-purchase and slavery was not necessarily a permanent condition. The free
black population held certain rights and privileges and they had opportunities
to take an active part in the economic development of the colony. Anna Kingsley
was determined to be an independent businesswoman, selling goods and poultry to
neighboring settlers.
Her blossoming business lasted only months. During an effort
to wrest East Florida from the Spanish, armed American forces entered the
province. Together with a number of rebellious Floridians, they looted and
occupied the homesteads of planters and settlers to obtain supplies and set up
bases. If these insurgents succeeded and an American system replaced the
comparatively liberal Spanish policies, what would become of the freed people
and their rights? When the Americans approached, Anna herself lit the fire that
consumed her house and property. Then she escaped with her children and slaves
on a Spanish gunboat. The insurrection later ended in failure and, as it turned
out, Anna's loss was not total. Although a Spanish commandant reported of
Anna's property "the flames devoured grain and other things to the value
$1,500," the governor rewarded her loyalty with a land grant of 350 acres.
Laurel Grove was also destroyed as a result of the conflict.
In 1814 Zephaniah and Anna Kingsley, along with their children and slaves,
moved to Fort George Island, a sea island near the mouth of the St. Johns
River. On this thousand-acre island with palm-fringed beaches, birds of every
description, and ancient Indian mounds of oyster shell, they restored an
abandoned plantation. In a fine, comfortable house with views of the tidal
marsh and ocean beyond, Anna spent the next twenty-three years of her life.
During the years at Fort George, Zephaniah Kingsley's
Florida landholdings increased to include extensive timberland and orange
groves, and four major plantations producing sea island cotton, rice, and
provisions. He also owned ships that he captained on trading voyages. Kingsley
had managers at his various properties to whom he entrusted his business
operations when he was away. At the Fort George plantation, Anna took this
responsibility and, Kingsley later declared, "could carry on all the
affairs of the plantation in my absence as well as I could myself." These
"affairs" included overseeing the lives of about sixty men, women,
and children who lived on Fort George Island in slavery. The labor of the
Kingsley slaves provided the wealth of the Kingsley family.
Conditions for all of Florida's people of color, free and
enslaved, changed drastically when Florida became a territory of the United
States in 1821. An influential planter, Zephaniah Kingsley was appointed to the
1823 territorial legislative council. He tried to persuade lawmakers to adopt
policies similar to those of the Spanish, providing for liberal manumission and
rights for the free black population. He published his opinions in A Treatise
on the Patriarchal, or Co-operative System of Society As It Exists in Some
Governments, and Colonies in America, and in the United States, Under the Name
of Slavery, with Its Necessity and Advantages in 1828. But Kingsley's arguments
did not convince Florida legislators. Legislative councils used fear of slave
rebellion to justify policies that were increasingly oppressive. Legislation of
the 1820s and 1830s reflects racial discrimination that blurred the distinction
between freeman and slave until there was virtually no difference.
The cession agreement between the U.S. and Spain was
supposed to protect the status of free people of color living in Florida in
1821, but the Kingsleys had reason to be concerned. Parish records reveal that
a fourth child was born to Zephaniah and Anna in 1824. Their new son was
subject to the harsh enactments that Zephaniah Kingsley called "a system
of terror." Even Anna and her older son and two daughters were not
necessarily secure as racism increased. Anna decided to leave Florida and go to
Haiti. Slave revolution had made Haiti the first independent black republic of
the New World, the "Island of Liberty" as Kingsley called it. Anna
and her sons intended to start a plantation on the northern coast of the
island. Their work force would consist of more than fifty of their former
Florida slaves, freed to work as indentured servants to comply with Haitian law
which prohibited slavery. In 1837 Anna Kingsley left Florida and sailed to
"Mayorasgo De Koka," her new home in Haiti.
Zephaniah Kingsley described Mayorasgo De Koka as
"heavily timbered with mahogany all round; well watered; flowers so
beautiful; fruits in abundance, so delicious that you could not refrain from
stopping to eat..." Roads and bridges were built and the Kingsleys planned
a school for the community, but they did not live happily ever after in their
tropical colony. In 1843, in his seventy-eighth year, Zephaniah Kingsley died.
With an estate worth a fortune at stake, some of Zephaniah
Kingsley's white relatives contested his will and sought to deny Anna and his
children their inheritance. After much dispute, courts upheld the rights of the
black heirs, but the family suffered another loss. Anna's older son, George,
was returning to Florida in 1846 to defend land interests, when the ship in
which he was traveling was lost at sea. Her younger son, John Maxwell Kingsley,
took over management of Mayorasgo De Koka and Anna Kingsley, for unknown
reasons, returned to Florida. She could not return to Fort George Island--that
plantation had been sold years before. She settled near her daughters who had
married and stayed in Florida. Once more Anna lived on the St. Johns River,
this time in a young town called Jacksonville.
When the Civil War divided the country, Anna and her
daughters' families supported the Union. With Florida's secession and hostility
from Confederates intensifying, Anna had to leave her home again. In 1862, she
traveled with relatives to New York. They returned to Florida later that year,
but lived in Union-occupied Fernandina until the end of the conflict. In 1865
Anna Kingsley returned to the St. Johns River for the final time.
Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley died in 1870. No intimate
letters, diaries, or other personal reflections on her life are known to exist.
No portrait or photograph of any kind remains of her. Even her grave is
unmarked. Her story, however, endures. In the legal petitions and official
correspondence, probate and property records, the details of her life emerge.
And on Fort George Island, near the mouth of the St. Johns River, the house
where she lived for twenty-three years still stands.
Anna's Manumission and Will
Manumission Paper
1 March 1811
St. Augustine, Florida
In the name of Almighty God, Amen: Let it be known that I,
Zephaniah Kingsley, resident and citizen of the St. Johns River region of this
province hereby state: That I have as my slave a black woman named Anna, about
18 years old, who is the same native African woman that I purchased in
Havana...
I recognize [her children] as my own; this circumstance, and
as well considering the good qualities of the already referred to black woman,
and the truth and fidelity with which she has served me, impels me to give her
freedom graciously and without other interest, the same accorded to the
aforementioned three mulatto children whose names and ages are for the record:
George, three years and nine months old; Martha, twenty months old; and Mary, a
month old...I remove my rights of property, possession, utility, dominion, and
all other royal and personal deeds which I have possessed over these four
slaves. And I cede, renounce and transfer [my rights] to each of them so that
from today forward, they can negotiate, sign contracts, buy, sell, appear
legally in court, give depositions, testimonials, powers of attorney, codicils,
and do any and all things which they can do as free people who are of free will
without any burden...
Excerpted from document in Escrituras, Reel 172, Bundle 378,
17A-B, 18A-B, of the East Florida Papers, Library of Congress (microfilm copy
at P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History, University of Florida). Document is
in Spanish; this version was translated by Caleb Finnegan.
Will
Know all men by these presents, that I Anna M. Kingsley of
the County of Duval and State of Florida being of sound mind and memory but
feeble in strength, do hereby, and by these presents constitute and appoint my
daughter Martha B. Baxter my true and lawful attorney in fact and trustee...And
I have and hereby place in her hand the full and undisturbed possession of the
following amount of money and property, viz: three thousand dollars in cash and
four Negro slaves viz: Polly a woman aged about 17 years, Joe a boy about 14,
Elizabeth a girl about 12, and Julia a girl about 9 years. Also all my right
title and interest in and to a certain claim I have as one of the Legatees of
and under the will of Zephaniah Kingsley late of East Florida in which he the
said Kingsley bequeaths and devises to me, one twelfth part of an amount or sum
of money that shall be allowed his heirs by the government of the United States
for losses sustained by him during the War of 1812 and 1813 by the operations
of the American Army, the principal having been allowed, the interest money is
now pending before the Congress of the U.S....Given under my hand and seal this
24th day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Anna M. Kingsley
Excerpt from trust/will of Anna Kingsley. Typescript of
complete document in NPS files at Kingsley Plantation (made from Duval County
probate file 1210-D).
Rosewood
Massacre (1923)
On January 1, 1923 a massacre was carried out in the small,
predominantly black town of Rosewood in Central Florida. The massacre was
instigated by the rumor that a white woman, Fanny Taylor, had been sexually
assaulted by a black man in her home in a nearby community. A group of white men, believing this rapist
to be a recently escaped convict named Jesse Hunter who was hiding in Rosewood,
assembled to capture this man.
Prior this event a series of incidents had stirred racial
tensions within Rosewood. During the
previous winter of 1922 a white school teacher from Perry had been murdered and
on New Years Eve of 1922 there was a Ku Klux Klan rally held in Gainesville,
located not far away from Rosewood.
In response to the allegation by Taylor, white men began to
search for Jesse Hunter, Aaron Carrier and Sam Carter who were believed to be
accomplices. Carrier was captured and
incarcerated while Carter was lynched. The white mob suspected Aaron's cousin,
Sylvester Carrier, a Rosewood resident of harboring the fugitive, Jesse Hunter.
On January 4, 1923 a group of 20 to 30 white men approached
the Carrier home and shot the family dog.
When Sylvester's mother Sarah came to the porch to confront the mob they
shot and killed her. Sylvester defended
his home, killing two men and wounding four in the ensuing battle before he too
was killed. The remaining survivors fled to the swamps for refuge where many of
the African American residents of Rosewood had already retreated, hoping to
avoid the rising conflict and increasing racial tension.
The next day the white mob burned the Carrier home before
joining with a group of 200 men from surrounding towns who had heard
erroneously that a black man had killed two white men. As night descended the mob attacked the town,
slaughtering animals and burning buildings. An official report claims six
blacks killed along with two whites.
Other accounts suggest a larger total. At the end of the carnage only two
buildings remained standing, a house and the town general store.
Many of the black residents of Rosewood who fled to the
swamps were evacuated on January 6 by two local train conductors, John and
William Bryce. Many others were hidden by John Wright, the owner of the general
store. Other black residents of Rosewood
fled to Gainesville and to northern cities.
As a consequence of the massacre, Rosewood became deserted.
The initial report of the Rosewood incident presented less
than a month after the massacre claimed there was insufficient evidence for
prosecution. Thus no one was charged
with any of the Rosewood murders. In
1994, however, as the result of new evidence and renewed interest in the event,
the Florida Legislature passed the Rosewood Bill which entitled the nine
survivors to $150,000 dollars each in compensation.
Sources:
"Documented History of the Incident Which Occurred at
Rosewood, Florida, In January 1923." The Rosewood Report History, December
22, 1993. http://www.displaysforschools.com/rosewoodrp.html;
"Marking Rosewood History." The Real Rosewood. 2007.
http://www.rosewoodflorida.com/.
Contributor:
Goodloe, Trevor
University of Washington
- See more at:
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/rosewood-massacre-1923#sthash.dIAniDFc.dpuf
A black history Dynamo: “Do you remember the days of slavery”?
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