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101 7 Laurel Grove Plantation, Slavery, and East Florida’s Booming Economy When Kingsley’s ship was secured to the wharf at Laurel Grove in March 1808, the total number of slaves he imported for his plantation was seventyfour . Four years later the number of “fully taskable hands” (healthy men and women capable of a full day of labor) had increased to one hundred, in addition to the children. Nearly all the adults were “new Africans” who were immediately thrown into a confusing world of strangers, ordered to clear land, plant and harvest crops, and construct dwellings, barns, and storage buildings.1 Information concerning daily life and labor at the plantation is exceedingly sparse until June 1810, when an incident occurred that pitted two of Kingsley’s enslaved managers against armed white planters of the St. Johns River militia. On June 4, militiamen conducted raids along the St. Johns River in search of weapons rumored to be hidden in slave dwellings at several plantations. After experiencing “little interruption while the Negroes were at work in the field,” the mounted raiders confiscated forty-one guns which they brought back to militia headquarters at the Cowford on the St. Johns River (today Jacksonville’s central business district).2 When the militiamen rode into the residential quarters at Laurel Grove, Kingsley was not in residence. They were met instead by two enslaved men who claimed to be the managers of the property during Kingsley’s absence. The senior manager, Abraham Hanahan, ordered the mounted troopers to leave. Supported in protest by a second black man, named Peter, Hanahan confrontedmilitiamembersastheysearchedtheplantation’sslavequarters and confiscated eleven guns. According to one of the militiamen, Abraham 102 | Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World used “improper language [and] conduct” as he demanded that the militiamen return a gun they confiscated from him. When told the militia acted under orders of government and must be obeyed, Abraham said he would “go and see Mr. [William] Craig [the judicial official in charge of the St. Johns River district] and that if he did not give him satisfaction he would go to governor [Henry] White, that he would speak his mind to him and that he might send him to the guard house to the fort or to the Devil that he did not care.”3 Hanahan wentthefollowingdaytothehomeofmilitiamemberAndrew Maclean. In front of witnesses, he once again stated that “he was going to the governor and that he did not fear going to the stocks nor anywhere else for he would have his gun.” Andrew Atkinson heard Abraham declare that neither “Mr. Craig, the governor or anybody else had any right to interfere with his master’s plantation.”4 The two black managers continued their protest at a June 6 meeting of area planters and militia members held at the Cowford Ferry. They appeared outside the meeting hall, with Peter boldly demanding the return of his personal weapon and becoming irritated when the white men refused. He allegedly declared loudly that “things would take a turn and . . . Negroes would yet have their arms.”5 This was more black protest than the white planters and slave owners would tolerate. After hearing what they claimed were “very improper and disrespectful expressions used in the [presence of white men] by a Mulatto man [Hanahan] . . . and the expressions of disrespect and insubordination uttered by an old Negro man named Peter,” Craig had the men manacled and marched to St. Augustine.6 Two influential white planters angered by the raids wrote to Governor Henry White demanding compensation for weapons confiscated from slaves at their St. Johns River plantations. George Fleming, a prominent Irish-born planter and militia officer who had been in East Florida since 1790, claimed the armaments seized from his enslaved men were used for “defense and security [against] savage indians, [and] animals eating corn.” MaríadelCarmenHillSánchez,thewidowofwealthyFlorida-bornplanter and merchant Francisco Xavier Sánchez, warned of “dangers now due to lack of firearms” and said her enslaved workers “must have weapons to keep animals away from planted seeds.” Laurel Grove Plantation, Slavery, and East Florida’s Booming Economy | 103 Craig had ordered the militia raids in an atmosphere of hysteria prompted by rumors of a pending slave insurrection in Georgia. In early April, rumors had begun circulating of “secret correspondence subsisting betwixttheNegroesandamulattomannamedMorriswhohadlatelycome in from Georgia,” after reports spread of his “active encourage[ment] of the intended Insurrection there.” Even more frightening stories made the rounds: planters heard tales of more than one hundred...

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