Excerpt from The Enslaved Communities on Fort George Island A Special History Study for Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve by Amani T. Marshall Ph.D Prepared under a cooperative agreement between The Organization of American Historians and The National Park Service
"The 1844 inventory of Zephaniah Kingsley’s estate valued Abdallah, his wife Bella, and their children, Paul and Amy, at $1,248. In a document dated September 7, 1846, Paul was listed among the twenty-one people to be auctioned from Zephaniah Kingsley’s estate the following January. Abdallah and Bella would be separated from their eldest child, not through sale, but through death. In a list of the property sold after the auction, Executor B.A. Putnam casually noted on a separate piece of paper, “The slave Paul not sold, because he had died before the day of sale.” Abdallah, Bella, and Amy were listed among the nine enslaved people Judge Crabtree awarded to Anna Kingsley. The family was valued at $936. Anna Kingsley eventually allowed the family to purchase their freedom, presumably for $468. The Duval County Census of 1860 records Abdallah and Bella Kingsley, both African born, as free and living in the rural area that is now the Arlington neighborhood of Jacksonville."
