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Kingsley Plantation:
Welcome to Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island. Plentiful resources have drawn people here for several centuries. Inhabitation brought conflict and interaction between cultures -- native societies, European colonial powers, African and American pioneers. Because of its strategic location near the mouth of the St. John's River, Fort George Island changed hands many times.
Starting in 1791, this island became an agricultural area, beginning another harsh cultural conflict. A succession of owners became wealthy through the sale of Sea Island cotton, grown by enslaved African people. The complex social issues of the time eventually led to regional conflict and civil war.
Today, Kingsley Plantation represents some of the most important people in these struggles, not the powerful political leaders of a nation, but people who lived daily with the institution of slavery. Their stories are here... |