Anna Kingsley

Who was Anna Kingsley?

Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley was a West African slave turned slaveholder and plantation owner in early 19th century Florida. At 13 years old, she was captured and sent to Cuba where she was purchased by and married to Zephaniah Kingsley, a slave trader and plantation owner. They had four children together. Kingsley freed Anna in 1811 and gave her responsibilities for his plantations in East Florida. For 25 years, Kingsley's unusual family lived on Fort George Island in modern-day Jacksonville, where Anna managed a large and successful planting operation. After gaining freedom, Anna was given a Spanish land grant for 5 acres and held 12 slaves. She later was awarded a land grant of 350 acres by the Spanish government.

After the United States took control of Florida and American discriminatory laws threatened the multi-racial Kingsley family, most of them moved to Haiti. Kingsley died soon after, and Anna returned to Florida to dispute her husband's relatives' contesting Kingsley's will; they sought to exclude Anna and her children from their inheritance. The court honored a treaty between the United States and Spain, and Anna was successful in the court case, despite a political climate hostile toward blacks. She settled in the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville, where she died in 1870 at 77 years old. The National Park Service protects Kingsley Plantation, where Anna and Kingsley lived on Fort George Island, as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.