Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve

The entirety of the Timucuan Preserve contains a wide swathe of events reaching back to pre-colonial America. The preserve is split between 3 major areas of focus, the Kingsley Plantation, Ribault Monument, and the ecological aspect of the preserve. The preserve sits on the eastern side of Jacksonville at the end of the St. Johns river adjoining Naval Station Mayport to it's south.

The Ribault Monument comes from the time before Florida was properly colonized by the Spanish, preceding the foundation of St. Augustine. John Ribault was a French Huguenot and naval officer who lived from 1520-1565, claiming land from present day Jacksonville, Florida to Paris Island, South Carolina. John Ribault, on his first voyage to the new world, aimed to settle Florida before the Spanish had the chance to in order to take a dominant stance against the Spanish's armada. First exploring the St. Johns river, he first named it River May, after the month he found it, and placed a stone column in order to claim Florida as a territory of France. After many set backs in France and Ribault's colony in South Carolina succumbing to famine, mutiny, and a fire, Ribault returned to Florida to reaffirm French control in the region, founding a settlement called Fort Caroline. Although there is a model of the fort in the Timucuan Preserve today, he actual fort is theorized to have been constructed in modern day Darien, Georgia. Despite not having settled Jacksonville as previously thought, Ribault's influence has been felt by the greater Jacksonville community as his monument still stands and the city named a High School and Middle School after the French officer.

The Kingsley Plantation was first constructed/founded in 1793 by a man named John McQueen. The property had been traded with over time until 1814 when Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., a relatively successful slave merchant and smuggler, leased the land and eventually purchased it in 1817. While Florida was still under Spanish rule, Kingsley enjoyed the privilege of marrying one of his slaves, Anna Madgigine Jai, and even entrusted her to run the plantation in his absence. In 1821, Florida was annexed by the US and installed it's own government prohibiting interracial marriages. As a result, Kingsley moved much of his family to Haiti between 1835 and 1837. Kingsley died in 1843 leaving the fate of the property uncertain as both Kingsley's white and Black relatives claimed the plantation as their own. In 1846, Anna Madgigine Jai, Kingsley's wife returned to Jacksonville and argued to the Duval Country court that the plantation belonged to her under the Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain that ceded Florida to the U.S. in 1819. Anna then became the Black, female owner of a plantation in the Antebellum period. After the Civil War, the Freedman's Bureau took control over the plantation and later on transferred ownership to the State of Florida in 1955. Since 1991, the plantation has been added to the National Park Service and became a part of the Timucuan Preserve.

Timucuan Historical and Ecological Preserve Florida, National Park Service. Accessed February 28th 2021. https://www.nps.gov/timu/index.htm.

-This is the official website for the Timucuan Preserve detailing everything about it from the hours, entries on the entire history of the preserve such as the Kingsley Plantation, Fort Caroline, and more. This website is especially useful as most if not all the information about the area is linked here.

Timucuan Preserve, Florida Hikes. Accessed February 28th 2021. https://floridahikes.com/timucuan-preserve.

-This website has a map of each of the landmarks of the Timucuan preserve and gives an overview of all of them.

Meide, Chuck and John de Bry 2014 The Lost French Fleet of 1565: Collision of Empires. In ACUA Underwater Archaeology Proceedings 2014, edited by Charles Dagneau and Karolyn Gauvin, pp. 79-92. Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology, Québec City, Canada.

-Provides historical context for the Ribault Monument which resides in the preserve including when and why the monument was erected and explains Jacksonville's French heritage. This also lightly touches on the Native American tribes that used to live in the Jacksonville area.

Daniels, Gary C.. Academics Locate Fort Caroline in Georgia not Florida, The New World. March 6th 2014. Accessed March 28th 2021. https://thenewworld.us/academics-locate-fort-caroline-in-georgia-not-florida/.

-Provides a synopsis on the discovery that Fort Caroline which was thought to have been located in the Timucuan Preserve is theorized to have been located in southern Georgia. Explains how the recreation of the fort in the preserve isn't the real location .

Davis, Ennis. Exploring Historic Kingsley Plantation, The Jaxson. June 4th 2019. Accessed March 28th 2021. https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/exploring-historic-kingsley-plantation/.

-Provides a focused and comprehensive history of the Kingsley Plantation going back to prior to the American Revolution and up to the modern day.