Zephaniah Kingsley - Death and Property Disputes

Death and Property Disputes

After visiting his family in Haiti in 1843, Kingsley boarded a ship going to New York to conduct business there. His death of pulmonary disease at 78 years old was recorded in New York City, where Kingsley was buried in a Quaker cemetery. He left much of his land to his wives and children, a bequest which was immediately contested on racial grounds by his white relatives. Kingsley's niece, Anna McNeill (who married George Whistler; they bore a son named James Whistler who became an artist and painted his mother in the iconic Whistler's Mother) was among the family members who attempted to remove any of Kingsley's family of African descent from his will. Kingsley's will stipulated that no remaining slaves should be separated from their families, and that they should be given the opportunity to purchase their freedom at half their market price. Anna Madgigine Jai, who kept her African name through the marriage, returned to Florida in 1846 to oppose Kingsley's white relatives in court in Duval County; she was successful, which was also extraordinary in light of the state and local policy that was hostile toward freed slaves or blacks of any status.

After a brief period during the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865), Anna fled to New York for supporting the Union. Anna Madgigine Jai died in April or May 1870 on a farm in the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville, where she is buried in an unmarked grave.