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VR Movie: The Kingsley Plantation

The Kingsley Plantation is located on Fort George Island in Jacksonville. The main house was constructed about 16 years before Zephaniah Kingsley moved here 1814. The unusual floorplan included four corner rooms or pavilions. An observation deck was built on the Kingsley Plantation roof. Originally there were no roads to the plantation. The only available transportation was by ship. The observation deck looks out over the Fort George River. Zephaniah's wife, Anna, often managed the plantation. Anna was purchased by Kingsley as a slave in 1806 when she was 13 years old. By 1811, Kingsley had given Anna and her three children their freedom. Anna continued to manage the plantation until the late 1830s when she and her children moved to Haiti to avoid the harsh racial laws enacted in Florida after its annexation by the United States. She did, however, later return to Florida to be near her daughters and grandchildren. She died in Florida in 1870.

Credit: Panorama movie produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology from original photographs.

Exploring Florida: A Social Studies Resource for Students and Teachers
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida © 2002.