Kingsley Plantation - 3/06/10

It was a very lovely afternoon as we made our way towards Heritage Days at Kingsley Plantation. One thing I noticed immediately after we turned onto the incredibly long dirt road that wound through the woods, was that there were several large houses built to either side. I was very curious about this. Who lived in these houses? Were they connected to the planation somehow? Were they related to Kingsley? We were running a few minutes late and by the time we arrived at the old (tabby) barn, and Dr. Hargrove had already begun her presentation. There was a much larger crowd than I had expected to see. One thing I've learned so far in this course is to never underestimate people's interest in "Plantation Life". The audience seemed engaged, one woman was nodding vigorously and humming her agreement with everything Dr. Hargove said. After the presentation was brought to an uncerimonius end by the park's director, there were several questions about Gullah culture. Dr. Davidson's presentation on archaeology at Kingsley was next. He discussed the archaeological history of the planation first, originating in 1968 with Dr. Charles Fairbanks. He then discussed how his own work had led to the discovery of African cultural elements in Kingsley's pre-emancipation archaeological record. One I found particularly interesting was the discovery of a chicken carcass, ritually buried with an iron concretion in the doorway of a slave cabin. Iron concretions and iron tools were often ritually buried under homes in west Africa as a tribute to Ogoun, a principle god of the Yoruba people. I thought his work was very interesting and extremely relevant to the history of Africanisms and Gullah culture in Jacksonville. We took a short walking tour through the remains of Kingsley's slave cabins and Dr. Davidson pointed out where a few of the more signifigant archaeological finds had been made.

Kingsley Plantation