You may also know it as the Zephaniah Kingsley Plantation Home & Buildings or simply as Kingsley Plantation, located in Jacksonville area. Plantation was built on the grounds of a mansion that had been owned by Zephaniah Kingsley, a prominent figure in early Florida history, for a period of 25 years. Part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, which is overseen by the United States National Park Service, it may be found at the northern extremity of Fort George Island, at Fort George Inlet.
Approximately 60 acres are now devoted to the park’s buildings and gardens; the original 1,000 acres were taken up by forest. The island is home to Pre-Columbian Timucua artifacts and the ruins of a Spanish mission once known as San Juan del Puerto.
In 1765, when Florida was still under British control, a plantation was founded there. It changed hands multiple times when the territory passed from Spain to the United States and back again. Kingsley and his family, who were polygamous and multiracial, owned the property for the longest period of time and were unmoved by racial tensions and enslavement.
Before the state of Florida took possession of the plantation in 1955, it was home to free blacks and various private proprietors. In 1991, the National Park Service bought the property. Kingsley Plantation is known for its owner’s house, which was built between 1797 and 1798 and is considered the oldest surviving plantation house in the state, as well as its kitchen house, barn, and the remnants of 25 slave cabins with significant anthropological value that survived beyond the end of the Civil War in the United States.
Cement tabby was used to build the sturdy bases of the home, the kitchen, the barn, and the slave quarters. Findings from the archeological dig at the slave cabins have shed light on the African customs practiced by the recently-arrived slave population in North America.
Approximately one thousand feet south of the main owner’s house on Kingsley Plantation are the ruins of 23 of the original 32 slave huts. A few of the slave dwellings have been meticulously restored to their early 19th century appearance, while the rest are in varying stages of repair or ruin. Slavery on the island is documented in an exhibit in the kitchen house, which also showcases the garden.
The most important work being done at Kingsley Plantation is the preservation of the historical buildings. Due to serious structural deterioration caused by termites and humidity, the kitchen and owner’s residence were closed in 2005. Despite the fact that the kitchen building was renovated in 2006, the owner’s home is still undergoing maintenance. Since March 2017, the owner has been giving restricted guided tours of their home each weekend. Restoration work is complete, and the barn is now available for use. The slave quarters are sturdy, but each hut has signs of vandalism, proving that they are easy targets. Exhibits are on display in one of the kitchen house’s public rooms.
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