Kingsley Plantation, Florida and Cumberland Island, Georgia

We spent the night at a beautiful anchorage located by the Kingsley Plantation.  See the boat dock to the left of the picture.  We rode our dinghy and tied to the dock and walked to the Kingsley Plantation, which is managed by the National Park Service.

This is the slave quarters.  They are laid out in an unusual way, instead of a straight line, the houses form a semi-circle.  This pattern is similar to village design in some areas of West Africa.  The homes were built out of a material called 'tabby'.  Slaves cooked oyster shells in a kiln for lime.  These cooked shells dissolved in water, and sand was mixed in to make cement.  This was poured into forms, layer by layer to make walls.

Zephanian Kingsley relocated to Spanish Florida in 1803 and became a successful merchant and planter.  His African wife was from Senegal.  Kingsley purchased her as a slave in Havana, Cuba in 1806.  He freed her and their children in 1811.  In 1814 they moved to the plantation.  Anna, his wife, took advantage of Spanish views on race and society, which enabled her to own her own plantation and slaves.  She also was her husband's business partner, also very unusual for the time.  When Spain lost control of Florida in 1821, new laws were enacted that greatly reduced the civil liberties of free blacks.  Kingsley moved Anna, their two sons and 50 of his now freed slaves to Haiti.

The plantation house dates to 1798 and is the oldest plantation house still standing in the state of Florida.

Beautiful sunrise as we are leaving one of our favorite anchorages.

We passed miles of marshland.

We have also seen many remnants of hurricane Hugo, which occurred in 1989.  Due to the high costs of salvage, including the high costs of regulatory compliance, boats are often abandoned.

This is a very large, noisy plant that we passed as we came to Fernandina Beach.  It reminded us of "Mad Max Visits Thunderdome".

We anchored off of Cumberland Island.  We walked through a forest that reminded us of 'The Hobbit' or 'Snow White'.

We had a picnic lunch on the beach and were so pleased to see the wild horses which roam freely on the Island.  Legend has it that the horses were originally brought to the Island by the Spanish.

After a picnic lunch it's nap time.

Anchorage by Fort Frederica

We did not go ashore here because there was no dock to tie the dinghy.  However, we read about Fort Frederica and its place in history.  Fort Frederica is located on St Simons Island, Georgia and is the remains of a fort built by James Oglethorpe to the protect the southern boundary of the British colony of Georgia from Spanish (Florida)  raids.