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14. "To Do Good in This World We Must Have Money": The Kingsley Legacy
- University Press of Florida
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230 14 “To Do Good in This World We Must Have Money” The Kingsley Legacy In 1842, journalist and abolitionist Lydia Child urged Kingsley to liberate his slaves before he died to avoid the potentially “dreadful risk” and “cruel chances of slavery” they might be subjected to under a less benevolent owner. Kingsley acknowledged that he was troubled by the thought but saidhisdesireto“dogreatthingsforHaiti”couldonlybeaccomplished“by keeping them in slavery a few more years” in order to generate profits from his Florida plantations. “All we can do in this world is to balance evils,” he told Child, and “to do good in the world, we must have money.”1 One year later, Kingsley was dead. Eighty-four men, women, and children in Florida remained on the bondage side of Kingsley’s scale of justice. He had filed his Last Will and Testament with the Duval County Circuit Court only two months before his death, but the document was silent regarding emancipation of his remaining slaves. His only concession was a directive to the executors of his estate: “It is my will and I do hereby authorize my Executors not to separate the families but to allow to any of my slavestheprivilegeofpurchasingtheirfreedomatonehalfthepriceoftheir valuation, on consideration of their migrating to Hayti, if they cannot be allowed to stay as free in this Territory.”2 Judge William Crabtree authorized John H. McIntosh and Albert G. Philips to conduct an inventory and appraisal of Kingsley’s personal property and slaves. The inventory filed on March 13, 1844, valued Kingsley’s schooner, the North Carolina, his plantation equipment, provisions, livestock , and miscellaneous property at $2,101. In striking contrast, the eightyfour slaves were valued at $29,979 (more than one million dollars in today’s “To Do Good in This World We Must Have Money”: The Kingsley Legacy | 231 currency). In addition, estate executors Kingsley B. Gibbs and Benjamin A. Putnam reported to the court stocks and bonds, outstanding loans made to local planters, and miscellaneous real estate holdings valued at more than $60,000.3 Kingsley had confided to Child that after his death one of his relatives wouldlikelychallengehiswill.Aspredicted,MarthaKingsleyMcNeillfiled a petition with the Duval County Clerk of Court seeking to invalidate her brother’s will and to disinherit the designated heirs. The basis of the challenge was that Anna Kingsley was “a negress” and that George Kingsley, John M. Kingsley, Flora Kingsley, Sarah Murphy, and Micanopy Kingsley were “mulattoes and each a slave of Zephaniah Kingsley” until they “voluntarilyandoftheirown freewillandaccord”migratedtoHaiti,disqualifying them from returning to Florida, where territorial law barred their entry. Even if they had remained in Duval County, according to the petitioner, they were legally classified as “coloured” and were therefore barred from inheritingproperty.Thepetition alsodemandedthatestateexecutors“prohibit emancipation for any reason,” which would have the effect of denying self-purchase of freedom to Kingsley’s slaves.4 While Martha McNeill’s court challenge was pending, attorneys representingAnnaKingsleyandherson GeorgeKingsleyfiledseparatepetitions claimingownershipof,andseekingrecoveryof,morethanfiftyoftheslaves listed on the 1844 inventory. In addition, they called for a distribution to the legatees of the funds held by the estate executors. Judge Crabtree ruled positively on the petitions filed by the Kingsleys. Nine slaves were awarded to Anna Kingsley and transferred to the plantation of John Sammis, located in today’s Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville . Sammis was Anna’s son-in-law as well as the agent for her slaves. George Kingsley’s claim to forty-seven slaves was also upheld by the judge. Since Zephaniah had transferred title to San Jose Plantation to George several years before, the slaves awarded to him remained there. In a controversial motion of her petition, Anna Kingsley insisted that Charles J. McNeill, the son of Martha Kingsley McNeill, be dismissed as overseer at San Jose and that the land and slaves be rented to other planters . She contended that operating the plantation under an overseer was producing less revenue than could be gained from renting the land and slaves separately to other planters. After an extensive investigation that 232 | Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World Figure 12. Portrait of Martha Kingsley McNeill, the youngest sibling of Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. The painting is by Samuel Waldo and William Jewett , circa 1834. Martha, married to Dr. Daniel McNeill of Wilmington, North Carolina, was the mother of Charles Johnston McNeill, who lived with his uncle Zephaniah at Fort George Island for many years and served as one of the overseers. Martha was also the mother of Anna Matilda McNeill Whistler, and...