AnnaKingsley:FromSlave to Woman of Distinction

AnnaKingsley:FromSlave
to Woman of Distinction
The mistress of North Florida's Kin8sley PlantaUon
wielded 8reat power and left a tremendous le8acy.
J
By Antoinette Tackson
Illustration by Rossie Newson
eep down, Anna sensed that this was an argument she maybe could not win. She was being
asked to make a decision that would greatly
affect her future and that of her family.
Could she endure another move from a place she
considered home? Could she state her case convincingly to persuade Zephaniah so that he would sympathize
with her concerns? She wasn't sure she could, but she
would try to make him understand.
She steeled herself, heaved her chest, lifted her proud
head, and turned slowly to face him.
"I don't know Zeke. Florida is my home now," she
said. Her usually strong voice cracked slightly in the
silence of the suddenly empty kitchen.
Anna had been supervising the preparation of the
evening meal. But sensing the tension in the air, everyone scattered from the room upon Zephaniah's arrival.
They did not want to anger the master nor the mistress
by getting in their way.
The diminutive figure of her plantation owner husband stepped from the doorway into the middle of the
hot kitchen house. He was formally dressed and
uncomfortable in the heat. Plus, he was agitated by the
prolonged discussion, which caused Anna to become
alarmed. Nonetheless, she pressed on.
"I don't want to move again unless it's back to Senegal," she continued. Zephaniah stood still, his hands
clutching a damp handkerchief. Slowly nodding his
head, he mopped his brow, allowing her to have her
say. He trusted her judgment and listened as she
expressed her reservations about moving the family
and business to Haiti.
For 29 years, North Florida had been home to Anna
Majigeen Ndiaye, a West African woman presumed to
have had royal lineage. She was enslaved as a little girl,
and in 1806 Zephaniah KingsleyJr. bought her at age
13. Anna, two other Africanwomen and an assortment
of supplies were among the items he purchased while
on a business trip to Havana, Cuba.
When Anna arrived in Florida from Havana, she
found herself the mistress or wife of Zephaniah Kings-
D
PAGE 18.
FLAVOUR
ley. She gained her freedom five years after arriving in
Florida and she went on to successfully run his varied
businesses, manage his extended family household,
bear him four children and enjoy land ownership and
wealth, herself perhaps not unlike the prosperity and
status she might have enjoyed in Senegal as a woman
in a position of royalty.
Now at age 42, she felt a move could threaten the
security she felt and the family she had labored to keep
together in Florida. Moving also would jeopardize her
chances of maintaining U.S. government compensation
from the Patriot War damage claim she had won after
she had burned down her home to keep it out of the
hands of misguided rebels. She thought it might make
a difference to remind him of her courageous act.
"You promised that 1would get paid," she said, "and
1 did like you. and all the others. Remember you said
that burning down the house was a smart thing to doa brave thing to do since 1 saved the house, my very
first house apart from you as an African woman in
America, from being used by them."
Zeke was unmoved. So, she continued, this time
hoping he could be swayed by the social and emotionalloss she would have to bear by relocating.
"Anyway, what about Mary and Martha?"she asked.
"They are my only daughters and 1would miss them so.
They have their own families now and are well established in Arlington and Mandarin. You would never be
able to persuade them to move to Haiti. 1would be so
lonely there without them Zeke. They are the only ones
1can really talk to about things, about the way life is for
me, for women like us, living as we do here, ...as free
colored women with white men. The others look down
on us and it's hard to make friends. You don't understand. You are gone most of the time anyway."
If he was touched, he did not show it. He took a
deep breath and mustered a degree of finn fmality in
his voice. But he tried to temper his stance with some
tenderness and concern for her welfare.
"Anna, I've made up my mind. Business is business," Zephaniah said. "Haiti is an independent coun-
!
i
1
..
try now. I will be free there to do business as I want, and you, as my
wife, will be able to manage my affairs and yours without being
looked down upon or restricted in any way because of your color. I
will fIx you nicely in Haiti. You will be happy there."
He stepped closer to Anna, who was standing behind a large wooden table with her arms folded. This would be his last overture to persuade her. His eyes lit up as he tried to paint a picture of her new
homeland.
"It is a fme, rich valley," he said, stretching his beefy arms to
demonstrate the expanse of land, "about 30 miles from Port Plane;
heavily timbered with mahogany all around; well watered; flowers so
beautiful; fruits in abundance. Our laborers in Haiti will not be slaves.
They will never be sold nor taken away from the island against their
will. They will be, well let's say they will be indentured apprentices.
I will give them land and they will bind themselves to work for me.
I will even build a school. Anna, our sons will prosper there as everything is improving. Would you think of them?"
Anna's mental resistance slackened. so did her stiffphysical appearance. While he briefly described his Haitian acreage, her mind had
taken flight, bringing back momentary flashes of the lush landscape
of her childhood in Senegal. Maybe, she began thinking, this could
be the fulfillmentof a life she had envisioned when she was so very
young.
"Okay, Zeke. Perhaps you are right. Maybe Haiti would be better for John and George ... and I could have my own place again.. .
and help with the children. Now explain to me again why you will
be living in New York and only visiting us in Haiti.. .?"
daughter of Edward Sammis, a Duval County justice of the peace, the
granddaughter of Mary Elizabeth Kingsley Sammis and John S. Sammis, and the great granddaughter of Zephaniah and Anna Kingsley.
The A.I. Lewis and Mary Sammis Lewis union formed one of the
most prominent dynasties of wealth and influence and power in Florida's AfricanAmerican community. AL. Lewis,a self-made millionaire,
amassed large sums of property in Jacksonville and throughout Florida, and operated many successful business ventures. He also
acquired what is now known as American Beach, which during segregation was the only public spot blacks in the area had for seaside
recreation.
Mary F. Sammis Lewis, who died in 1923, was very active in the
Jacksonville community. Amongst her many civic, social, and business activities she served on the Deaconess Board of her church,
Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, for over twenty years.
Camilla Thompson, historian and archivist at Bethel Baptist,
recounts that "MaryLewis was the wife of Mr. AL. Lewis ... And she
was one of the deaconesses of the church and very active, and so her
husband, although he was a member of the Mount Olive AMEchurch
supported Bethel quite well because of the fact that his wife was a
member. And Mrs. Mary Lewis traces her ancestry back to Kingsley,
of the Kingsley Plantation. She was a Sammis, and the Sammis' are
descendants of the Kingsleys."
Mary Sammis Lewis and A.I. Lewis had one son, James Henry
Lewis. He had two children-James Leonard Lewis and Mary Frances
Lewis.
The Kingsley-Sammis-Lewis-Betschlegacy today is continued
through Johnnena Betsch-Cole, MaVynee Betsch, and, John Thomas
nna did move to Haiti and lived there until the 1850swhen she
Betsch, the children of Mary Frances Lewis-Betsch and her husband,
returned to Duval County. She
John Thomas Betsch, Sr.
Marsha Dean Phelts, author of the
died in 1870 at about the age of
77.
book, An AffU!ricanBeach for Afrn:an
She is said to have lived out the last
who grew up in JackAnna understood power very well - and AffU!ricans,
sonville and knew members of the
years of her life in the home of her
more importantly she knew how to
daughter, Mary Elizabeth Kingsley SamLewis-Betschfamily, said"... they were
manipulate power, such as the power of
mis.
people that we loved to watch and
her position as mistress of the "big
The house, known today as the old
loved to read about, to hear about...
house," to her benefit and advantage.
Sammis house, is located in Clifton, a
They were extremely admired and
respected.
subdivision of Arlington, in Jacksonville.
"The Afro and the Lewis' made great
Anna's story is much different from the
contributions, they really did. And as I look at AL. Lewis and his phiThomas Jefferson/Sally Hemming drama that has come to typify maslosophy and his way of doing things, A.I. Lewis just stretched his
ter/slave/mistress relationships of the time.
hands out and wherever you could be helped, wherever you had
She understood power very well - and more importantlyshe
understood how to manipulate power, such as the power of her posisense enough to be able to take advantage of these enterprises, then
it was available to you because of his broad sense of bringing a comtion as mistress of the "big house," to her benefIt and advantage.
For example, she managed to secure her freedom and that of her chilmunity along."
dren. In 1811, Zephaniah signed her emancipation papers and she
"He was not rich by himself," she added. "A whole lot of people
benefIted from his business acumen."
became a free woman of color and wealth, as well as an eventual
owner of enslaved Africans herself.
ew wrinen records of Anna and Zephaniah remain and no
Anna consciously used her knowledge, her beauty, and her position to secure a future for herself and her children. Florida and indeed
known pictures of them have been recovered at this time,
although their signatures can still be found on some court docthe world owes Anna a nod of recognition (at least) for the life she
uments.
survived, in her own way, moment by moment until she died far, far
The best physical description of Anna was provided by Zephaniah
from her West African birthplace of Senegal.
What treasures did she leave to merit the respect of Floridians in
himself, who in an interview in 1842 described her as, "a fme, tall fIgparticular and black and white and Americans in general? Anna left
ure, black as jet, but very handsome."
.
In contrast, the caricature representations of Zephaniah describe
a very precious legacy indeed. She left children and grandchildren,
him as a man of small stature, who usually appeared in public on a
who have gone on to contribute much to Florida life, history, and culwhite horse, wearing a Mexican poncho hat, high heeled shoes with
ture and much to the history of Africans in America.
large silver buckles, and a bright green riding coat.
Dr. Johnnena Betsch Cole, former president of Spelman College,
Zephaniah Kingsley died in 1843 in New York at the age of 78.
along with her sister and environmental activistMaVynee Betsch, and
The story of Anna Majigeen Ndiaye and Zephaniah Kingsley is a
their brother and accomplished musician, John Thomas Betsch, are
complex one. It is a story that speaks to the precarious and precious
the great grandchildren (7th generation descendants) of Anna and
nature of freedom-freedom lost, freedom won, and freedom chalZephaniah Kingsley.
lenged.
In fact, their great grandmother, Mary F. Sammis was the fIrstwife
of A.L. (Abraham Lincoln) Lewis, one of the founders of the Afro
"It is obviously a profoundly moving story," said Johnnena Betsch
Cole. "It's also a story, which in my view, has extraordinary comAmerican LifeInsurance Company, - they married in 1884.
plexity and contradictions. My great grandmother was not only a
And who was Mary F. Sammis in relation to Anna? She was the
A
F
PAGE 20
.
FLAVOUR
. .. I imagine some redheaded white guy with a beard, wearing funny
woolen clothing, and she must have been like... 'You want me to
do what?' I just can't picture it," Peri said.
Peri adds: "But I really always wonder what was she thinking, and
when the whole celebration (The Kingsley Heritage Festival) was
going on and all these people were talking about her... Is she
pleased? I'm sure she has got to be more pleased than when there
were all these stories of her wearing peacock feathers and fanning
him and just some exotic bird or whatever."
Like her Aunt MaVynee, it is Peri's personal connection to the history of the enslavement and dispersal of African people, as well as
her desire to honor the memory of her great grandmother, which has
motivated and inspired her to seek the truth about her family's history.
.
Anna Waits in the Old Sammis House
slave, she owned slaves. And I would hope that for each of us as an
African American if there is any specificity to what is the general
knowledge, that black people owned slaves, that we would have
some contradictory feelings about that."
Anna was an African woman in a demanding situation. She made
some hard, and in hindsight, perhaps some questionable choices.
But, how she managed to survive so that others could live is triumph
inside of tragedy.
When I entered the Sammis house
she spoke to me
...not me really but through me
as I only felt her and knew not
what to say.
In the oldest parts of the house
where she walked and slept and dreamed
n November 19, 2001, the writer visited the house at the invi- I could sense her quiet resolution
tation of the current owners. Although Anna's voice has sel- that what she came here for
dom been heard, the writer found a sense of her presence was nearly complete...
in the home. She captured her feelings in poetry. .
I felt her sigh, not a heavy
burden of a sigh but
a sigh full of love untapped,
Today, MaVynee Betsch, environmental activist and Amelia
of love bottled up and saved for
Island resident, popularly known as "the beach lady" and her
another day.
niece, Peri Frances Betsch, continue to work to keep Anna's
A
sigh that perhaps today
memory alive.
is
her
day at last
MaVynee, great granddaughter of Anna Majigeen Ndiaye and
to
escape
the storybook love tales
Zephaniah Kingsley, often pays tribute to Anna by performing
to escape the day her heart
skits and reciting poetry in her honor at the Kingsley Plantation
Heritage Celebration, sponsored by the National Park Service
stood still, that last day in Africa,
and held annually on Fort George Island in October.
before the ship set sail.
However, Peri Francis, an 8th-generation descendant of
The last day she really
Anna, is on a mission to fmd out more about her family's ancesloved anything with any passion ...at all.
tral connection to Anna Majigeen Ndiaye.
The
sigh I felt in the Sammis house
Not much is really known about Anna. She arrived in the
was
a
hopeful one
Americas from Senegal. She lived life as an enslaved African
woman and as a free woman of color and wealth in Florida at
sent by one who's packed and
Laurel Grove Plantation and Kingsley Plantation in the Jackready to go and sits
sonville area and in Haiti.
and waits for
She was the acknowledged wife/mistress of Zephaniah Kingsone more breeze
ley, Jr. with whom she had four children.
to open one more door
Peri journeyed to Senegal, West Africa in the summer of 1998
...hoping that perhaps
in search of information about Anna's life before she was
this time, this door
brought to Florida.
will be the way Home.
Peri says that she did not find those storybook romance portrayals of Anna's arrival as an enslaved African woman and life
- Antoinette T. Jackson
O
Descendant debunks romanticizedview
as mistress to Zephaniah Kingsley very believable.
Regarding the circumstances of Anna's initial encounter with
Zephaniah and her life in Florida, Peri said it was not a romanticized tale.
"I don't think it was like some.. .'1 saw him across the crowded slave market, and he winked at me.' That's ludicrous. I can't
buy into that. And also you've got to think, like I would imagine, these people looked crazy to her, like who are you?
Antoinette T. Jackson is a University of Florida doctoral candidate in anthropology. This article is based
on some of her research for the Ethnohistorical
Study of the Kingsley Plantation, undertaken
through the National Park Service. Acknowledgements to Marsha Phelps, Allan Burns, Ph.D., and
Irma McClaurin, Ph.D.
SUMMER 2002 .
PAGE 21