Existing comment:
A Successful Planter Fails:
When merchant and trader Zephaniah Kingsley came to Florida in 1803, Spain had territorial control. On a plantation south of here, Kingsley assembled 100 slaves and grew cotton and oranges. Three years later, Kingsley purchased -- and married -- a 13-year-old African slave.
In 1814, the Kingsley family moved to Fort George Island, and their slaves began to grow Sea Island cotton. Twelve hundred feet from the plantation house, the slaves were directed to build a semi-circle of 32 tabby concrete cabins to live in.
In Spanish history, slavery was defined by class, and slaves were able to better their condition, even find freedom. That changed when Florida became and American territory in 1821, and harsh new race laws threatened the liberties of Kingsley's wife, children, and all free people of color. Now a rich and respected planter, Kingsley strongly advocated tolerance of freed blacks and persons of mixed race. But he failed to sway lawmakers, who enacted ever-more-repressive laws. By the mid-1830's, he acknowledged his failure, and moved his family to Haiti, a free black republic.
"Our laws to regulate slaves are entirely founded on terror. Few will deny that color and condition are two separate qualities... but our Legislators have confounded together two very different things... with no better foundation than prejudice." -- Zephaniah Kingsley, "Treatise", 1829. |