Today we’re headed down to the wetlands of east Florida, just outside of Jacksonville, and investigating the spirits that haunt Kingsley Plantation: the princess turned slave, turned slave-owner, Anna Kingsley; the vengeful and malevolent entity known as “Old Red Eyes”; and the ghostly white peacocks that scream in the night are just some of the known apparitions.  However, are these truly the ghosts that haunt the plantation?  Or is the true haunting the racial tropes that persist within these ghostly stories, paired with the bloody imprint of slavery on our history? 

 

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Sources:

AncestryLibrary.com—Florida, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1810-1974. (n.d.-a). Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/8993/images/005886187_00016?usePUB=true&_phsrc=eBA241&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=120668

 

AncestryLibrary.com—Florida, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1810-1974. (n.d.-b). Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/8993/images/005886196_00104?usePUB=true&_phsrc=eBA241&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=288588

 

AncestryLibrary.com—Florida, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1810-1974. (n.d.-c). Retrieved January 12, 2021, from https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/8993/images/005886081_00271?usePUB=true&_phsrc=eBA241&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=173533

 

Anna and Zephaniah Kingsley. (2018, September 22). Celebrating Our History. https://uncoveringjax.wordpress.com/anna-and-zephaniah-kingsley/

 

Anna Kingsley A Free Woman.pdf. (n.d.-b). Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Anna-Kingsley-Free-Woman.pdf

 

Black History Month: The Ghosts of Kingsley Plantation. (2011, February 25). Haunt Jaunts. https://www.hauntjaunts.net/black-history-month-the-ghosts-of-kingsley-plantation/

 

Card, M. (n.d.). Guest column: The amazing inter-racial story of Anna and Zephaniah Kingsley. The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/20191103/guest-column-amazing-inter-racial-story-of-anna-and-zephaniah-kingsley

 

Groove, B. (2019, November 29). The Spiritual Significance of Peacocks. Balance. https://blog.buddhagroove.com/the-spiritual-significance-of-peacocks/

 

Jacksonville, M. A. 12713 F. C. R., & Us, F. 32225 P. 904-641-7155 C. (n.d.). Anna Kingsley: A Free Woman - Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/kp_anna_freewoman.htm

 

Jaxson, T. (n.d.-a). Old Red Eyes And The Ghosts Of Kingsley Plantation. Retrieved January 9, 2021, from https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/old-red-eyes-and-the-ghosts-of-kingsley-plantation/

 

Jaxson, T. (n.d.-b). Old Red Eyes And The Ghosts Of Kingsley Plantation. Retrieved January 9, 2021, from https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/old-red-eyes-and-the-ghosts-of-kingsley-plantation-page-2/

 

Kingsley Plantation. (2020). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kingsley_Plantation&oldid=965199923

 

Kp_freedomandslavery.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2021, from https://www.nps.gov/timu/planyourvisit/upload/kp_freedomandslavery.pdf

 

leral, L. rédaction de. (n.d.). ANNA KINGSLEY... Ou ANTA MADGIGIN NJAÏ - ANTA MADJIGUENE NDIAYE. Leral.net - S’informer en temps réel. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.leral.net/ANNA-KINGSLEY-ou-ANTA-MADGIGIN-NJAI-ANTA-MADJIGUENE-NDIAYE_a263761.html

 

Weird Florida. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2021, from http://www.weirdus.com/states/florida/road_less_traveled/old_red_eyes/index.php

 

Zephaniah Kingsley. (2021). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zephaniah_Kingsley&oldid=998872813

 

TRANSCRIPT:

 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Crimes & Witch-Demeanors.  I’m your host, Joshua Spellman.  Last week we covered the burning of a Capitol building…which happened to air on the day our Capitol was attacked…am I prophet?  Maybe.  Today we’re headed down to the wetlands of east Florida, just outside of Jacksonville, and investigating the spirits that haunt Kingsley Plantation:  the princess turned slave turned slave-owner, Anna Kingsley; the vengeful and malevolent entity known as “Old Red Eyes”; and the ghostly white peacocks that scream in the night are just some of the known apparitions.  However, are these truly the ghosts that haunt the plantation?  Or is the true haunting the racial tropes that persist within these ghostly stories paired with the bloody imprint of slavery on our history?  Join me today to find out.

 

I was getting a little tired of telling the same old story of rich white folk, as ghost stories often tend to be…and the story of Kingsley Plantation is still often told as one.  Instead of focusing too much on the owner of the plantation, Zephaniah Kingsley, a rich, white polygamous slave-owner; I wanted to focus in on the story of one of his wives, Anna Kingsley, or Anta Madjiguene Ndiaye.  Her story is that of tragedy and triumph, overcoming being sold into slavery and even once freed, overcoming societal norms and the oppression of Jim Crowe.  For the history portion of the podcast, let us delve into the life of Anna Kingsley so that we can better understand her afterlife and the phantoms that lurk on the grounds of Kingsley Plantation.

 

 

 

On June 18, 1793 princess Anta Madjiguene Ndiaye of the Wolof people was born in modern-day Senegal.  At this time, this portion of West Africa was a home to conflict between the Wolof and the Fula and villages in the area were often lain waste to by slave raids.  The crisis only intensified and in 1806, Anta was captured by Tyeddo raiders from the Futa Toro.

 

She was taken by force to Goree Island, a slave debarkation point.  She was kept prisoner for days with little to no food.  However, on the first occasion she was presented to European buyers, she was sold.  Unfortunately, this catapulted Anta from one horrific situation to another.

 

The journey across the Atlantic was long and arduous.  The enslaved were shackled to wooden boards, confined to tight quarters, and were malnourished and over-heated.  Those who had died from heat stroke or another malady were simply thrown overboard like rotted meat.  Some people managed to escape and threw themselves overboard, as death by drowning was preferable to the horrid conditions on the ship and what awaited them once they arrived at their destination.

 

The ship landed in Havana, Cuba and the passengers were immediately forced into isolation.  This was done to help prevent the spread of any diseases that may have been brought with them and to make them presentable to potential buyers.

 

In the autumn of 1806, it was time for Anta to be put up for sale.  As it would have it, luck was on her side.