History Most Interesting

Daniel L. Schafer's splendidly researched book, Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner, surprised me with its specifics and with its sweep. I learned so much about my home state, the terrible institution of slavery, and the apparent adroitness with which the woman known as Anna Jai navigated everything that fate threw at her.  

This is history, not historical fiction, so her story appears via facts and records; we have to try and imagine what she thought and felt. She would be a fitting subject for the "Hamilton" treatment, though. What an incredible life.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for the portrait it paints of Anna, a woman of beauty, talent, courage, and substance, and of the casual tragedy of slavery. I learned so much, and I am eager to visit the places where Anna lived and honor her memory.

Here are a few of the many things I learned: 

Anna was captured and transported across the Atlantic from Senegal in 1806. She was 13 years old and a princess in a royal household. 

Newly arrived in Cuba, Anna was purchased in September of that year by Zephaniah Kingsley, Jr., a planter and maritime trader who owned property along the Atlantic Ocean and the St. Johns River in northeastern Florida, between Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

We know the details of Anna's transport and sale because meticulous records were kept of her as "cargo."  

In March of 1811, Kingsley emancipated Anna, along with her three children, aged nearly 4, 20 months, and one month. Anna was 18. Kingsley acknowledged the children were his. A fourth child was born later and Anna and Kingsley remained together, though in separate residences (a common West African custom), until Kingsley's death in 1843. 

Kingsley had at least one other "wife" and fathered other children, but Anna was his principal "wife," in charge of the household and the enslaved Africans who worked there. Kingsley Plantation is now a National Park and can still be visited. The plantation house and other structures still exist, including slave cabins modeled on the layout of an African village. Kingsley allowed his Africans to buy freedom for themselves and their families by paying him one-half of their monetary value. They could hire themselves out for wages in order to earn the money to purchase freedom.     

When Florida transitioned from Spanish to English rule in 1839, conditions became more oppressive for free Africans. The English were much less tolerant of the Spanish concept of three social classes (white, free black, and enslaved black) and any misstep -- such as failing to yield the sidewalk when a white person was passing by -- could send a free black back into slavery. Kingsley arranged for Anna and her household to move to Haiti during this especially dangerous time. 

When Kingsley died in 1843, his sister challenged his affairs, attempting to disinherit the heirs who were of African ancestry. Anna returned to Florida and the courts eventually upheld the will. Anna remained in Florida and established a free black community in what is now part of Jacksonville. Many in that community, probably including Anna, sought safety in northern states during the Civil War. 

Anna made a will in 1860, listing assets of $3,000 and four enslaved children, ages 17, 14, 9, and 7, who were probably house servants. The will specifies that the two oldest are to be sold and the money distributed to benefit Anna's grandchildren. 

Anna and her family returned to Florida after the Civil War, but their wealth had largely evaporated. Anna relied on the support of her adult children, who became very successful, during her last years. She died in 1870 with no debts and no assets.  

Anna is buried in a private family cemetery in Jacksonville. Her grave is not marked.  

More than 200 years after Anna was stolen and enslaved, her family in Senegal learned of her fate. 

Excerpt:

Kingsley had become a rich man by 1811. . . . Plantations in Spanish East Florida had experienced unprecedented prosperity in the first decade of the nineteenth century, and Kingsley's mercantile business was thriving. Given Kingsley's affluence and his respect and affection for Anna and the children, it is unlikely that lack of material comforts would have led her to make significant changes in her life. And yet, during the year after she was emancipated, Anna Kingsley moved across the St. Johns River from Laurel Grove to a home and farm of her own located at Mandarin Point.  

Note: This book counts toward the Color Coded Reading Challenge.