Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner
- Book Review,
by Daniel L. Schafer
From Booklist
Schafer expands on previously written material about the fascinating legend of an African princess, brought to Florida as a slave, who later became a plantation and slave owner. Basing his work on extensive documentation, including interviews with African griots, Schafer traces the history of Anna Madgigine Jai from her homeland of Senegal, where she was captured at about 13 years of age in 1806 and sold to Zephaniah Kingsley, a maritime merchant, slave trader, and later an abolitionist. Kingsley eventually married Anna, made her manager of his plantation, and fathered four children with her. Anna was an independent, enterprising woman, who managed the plantation for 25 years until expanding U.S. territory threatened race relations, the family's cohesion, and inheritance rights. The family fled to Haiti, but after her husband's death Anna returned to the U.S. to answer legal challenges to his will, which left sizable portions of his estate to her and their children. This is a fascinating look at an extraordinary woman and the complexities of slavery beyond the common image of slavery in the South. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
American Historical Review, October 2004
"Schafer has produced a remarkable study that should be read by scholars and general readers alike."
American Historical Review, October 2004
"The narrative humanizes Anna Kingsley, putting a voice and face to slavery in Florida during Spanish and American rule."
American Historical Review, October 2004
"...an understanding of the complexities of slavery...Shafer's impressive study offers an excellent and very well-researched starting point."
Book Description
Anna 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 accomplishments by a woman in a patriarchal society are fascinating in themselves. To have achieved them as a woman of color is remarkable.
About the Author
Daniel L. Schafer is professor of history at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville.
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