Kingsley Plantation

Kingsley Plantation, on Fort George Island in the Timucuan Preserve, is the oldest remaining plantation complex in Florida, dating to the early 19th century. The site preserves the planter's house, the slave quarters (25 tabby and coquina shell cabins arranged in a semicircle), a barn, and a kitchen building — giving a more complete picture of the plantation system than most similar sites, because the slave quarters survive.

The National Park Service interprets the site with a focus on both the Kingsley family and the enslaved people who worked the plantation, drawing on historical records to name individuals and describe their lives where documentation exists. The complex stands in a beautiful natural setting on the Ft. George River, and the drive across Fort George Island through live oak hammock is worth doing for the landscape alone. Free admission; ranger-guided tours available.

things to do sight
A story
Zephaniah Kingsley ran this plantation with his wife Anna Madgigine Jai, a Senegalese woman whom he had purchased as a slave and later freed and married. Anna managed the plantation and enslaved workers while Kingsley was away on business, and owned property and enslaved people in her own right. After the United States tightened restrictions on freed Black people in the 1820s, Kingsley moved much of his family to Haiti, where free Black property-owners faced fewer legal obstacles. Anna outlived him and continued to manage their property until her death.