Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley : African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner
By Daniel L SchaferAnna Kingsley's life story adds a dramatic chapter to histories of the South, the state of Florida, and the African diaspora. Working from surprisingly extensive records, including information and photographs from extended-family members and descendants, Daniel Shafer reconstructs and documents one slave's remarkable story. Both an American slave and a slaveowner - and possibly an African princess - Anna was a teenager when she was captured in her homeland of Senegal in 1806 and sold into slavery. Zephaniah Kingsley, Jr., a planter and slave trader from Spanish East Florida, bought her in Havana, Cuba, and took her to his St. Johns River plantation in northeast Florida, where she soon became his household manager, his wife, and eventually the mother of four of his children. Her husband formally emancipated her in 1811, and she became the owner of her own farm and twelve slaves the following year. For 25 years, life on her farm and at the Kingsley plantation on Fort George Island was relatively tranquil. But when Florida passed from Spanish to American control, and racism and discrimination increased in the American territories, Anna Kingsley and her children migrated to a colony in Haiti established by her husband as a refuge for free blacks. Amid the spiraling racial tensions of the antebellum period, Anna returned to north Florida, where she bought and sold land, sued white people in the courts, and became a central figure in a free black community. Such remarkable accomplishments by a woman in a patriarchal society are fascinating in themselves. To have achieved them as a woman of color is remarkable.
Book details
- Hardcover
- 177 pages
- English
- 0813026164
- 9780813026169
About Daniel L Schafer
More Books By Daniel L Schafer
Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley : African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner
Used Book
People who bought this also bought
Never Split the Difference : Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
New Book
Small Stocks Big Profits: Gerald Perritt on Investing in Small Companies
Used Book
Be Wise: 1 Corinthians: Discern the Difference Between Man's Knowledge and God's Wisdom
Used Book
"Stilettos on Gridiron" Women Getting a Feel for the Game with Former NFL Player Reginald "Reggie" Jones
Used Book
The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide: How We Beat the Stock Market
Used Book
The Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence
Used Book
If Only I Knew: Gentle Reminders to Help You Treasure the people in your life
Like New
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Teams (with featured article The Discipline of Teams, by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith)
New Book
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different: A Biography by Karen Blumenthal
New Book
Once a Wolf : The Science Behind Our Dogs' Astonishing Genetic Evolution
Used Book