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138 9 “Like a Turtle without a Shell” Spain’s Final Years in East Florida In August 1814, Governor Sebastián Kindelán informed Juan Ruiz de Apodaca , captain general for Cuba and the Floridas, that the “province is at peace,” a pronouncement more hopeful than realistic for East Florida. American troops had withdrawn from the province in May 1813, and most of the Patriot insurgents either petitioned for pardons and returned to their rural properties or sought refuge outside the province. One band of disgruntled Patriots under Buckner Harris returned to Alachua in the winter of 1814 in an attempt to establish the Republic of East Florida in the rich farmlands the Seminoles had been driven from in February 1813. Their goal was recognition by the American government and eventual annexation as a U.S. territory. When a Seminole war party killed Harris in Alachua in May 1814, the Patriot adventurers broke up and returned to their former residences in Georgia and East Florida. East Florida was at peace, but turmoil soon resumed.1 The booming economy that East Florida experienced in the first decade of the nineteenth century was a major casualty of the Patriot insurgency. It would not be until after East Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821 that the economy would recover. Zephaniah Kingsley was nevertheless hoping for a quick economic turnaround and anticipating a revival of his career as a ship captain and maritime trader. His base at the end of 1814 was Fernandina, although he traveled often to his new plantation at Fort George Island where his enslaved Africans and overseers were at work. His expectations were high, but like others in East Florida he would suffer through continued bandit raids and violence as well as an- “Like a Turtle without a Shell”: Spain’s Final Years in East Florida | 139 otherseriesofAmericaninvasions.LifeunderSpanishrulewouldcontinue to be precarious. The first of Kingsley’s traumatic experiences in the post-Patriot era occurred at the end of November 1814 in the form of a near fatal shipboard brawl. The incident had its origins in the evening of November 25, when the anchor line of Kingsley’s sloop, the Providencia, became entangled with the line of another ship tied to a wharf at Fernandina harbor. Kingsley’s sloop had only recently been completed at his Fort George Island shipyard ,andtheriggingandanchorropeswerestillbeingadjustedwhenitwas tied to the wharf that evening, not long before a sudden storm blew in off the Atlantic. Accompanying Kingsley were five enslaved black sailors and John Ashton, a white carpenter from St. Augustine hired to build a house in Fernandina.2 Kingsley tied his ship next to the Dolores, a Cuban slaving vessel captained by Joaquin Zorrilla. For several days Zorrilla had been waiting impatiently for favorable sailing weather that would permit him to depart for Africa.Whilewaiting,heandhiscrewmembersengagedinheavydrinking. A few hours after Kingsley secured his vessel, the wind commenced blowing hard from the east and the Providencia banged against the side of the Dolores. Zorrilla became enraged and shouted intemperate and drunken accusations at Kingsley, threatening violence if the vessels collided again. Kingsley and his crew rectified the problem, and the evening passed without further problems. The two captains conversed cordially the following morning, and Kingsley sent a gift of Florida oranges to the crew aboard the Dolores. The next evening the storm revived with increased intensity, causing the vessels to again collide. On this occasion, Zorrilla shouted out threats of violence against Kingsley. The two captains exchanged insults while Kingsley disentangled the vessels and promised to find a new anchorage in the daylight. When Kingsley said the dispute could be resolved in the daylight after everyone aboard the Dolores had sobered, Zorrilla became enraged and ordered seven of his crew to join him in an armed attack on the Providencia. As the men advanced, Kingsley ordered his black sailors to take shelter in the hold of the ship and to secure the hatch. He and Ashton, who was incapacitated with severe fever at the time, withdrew to the captain’s quarters 140 | Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World belowthedeck.Kingsleytuckedadaggerinhisbeltandpreparedtodefend himself with a rifle and a pistol as the group from the slave ship burst into the quarters. Shots were exchanged, and the pilot of the slave ship, Genaro Garay, received a flesh wound. Kingsley was subdued and nearly killed, as Zorrilla ordered his men to tie Kingsley’s arms behind his back and throw him into the hold of the Dolores...

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