Existing comment:
An Enslaved Woman Finds Success:
The 13-year old Senegalese slave whom Zephaniah married was named Anta Majigeen Njaay -- known in Florida as Anna Kingsley. When freed at age 18, Anna became eligible to petition the Spanish government for her own property. After receiving 50 acres, she acquired her own slaves and managed her own plantation. Later, her land holdings increased substantially. When the Kingsley family moved to Fort George Island, Zephaniah relied on Anna to manage this plantation, as well as other business affairs.
Because of repressive new laws that virtually the liberties of free blacks, Anna moved to Haiti in 1837, where free blacks were welcome. Other Kingsley family members also moved to Haiti, including Anna's sons and Kingsley's other children and their mothers. The land was worked by former Kingsley slaves.
After her husband's death in 1843, Anna returned to Florida in 1846 to fight in court for what Kingsley bequeathed his wives and mixed-race family in his will. She won the case, proving that her family was legally entitled to the considerable inheritance left to them. Until her death in 1870, she lived comfortably in what is now Jacksonville's Arlington section, near her two daughters and their families. |