Ingleside Plantation was a forced-labor farm of located in extreme northeast Leon County,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and established by

Robert W. Alston Robert West Alston was an American cotton planter who lived near Lake Miccosukee, Leon County, Florida. Alston was originally from Halifax County, North Carolina, and came to Florida by way of Hancock County, Georgia. Dueling was popular on the ...

and his family. Eventually, the property was acquired by Joel C. Blake. In 1860, Blake was

enslaving Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

116 people to work his land, which was mostly devoted to producing cotton as a

cash crop A cash crop or profit crop is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") ...

. Blake, who was 29 years old in 1860, married Laura Parish, some relation to his mother. He founded Ingleside Plantation by purchasing land to the east of Blakely Plantation. Blake later joined the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

and was killed on July 2, 1863, at the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

. Ingleside would later become

Ring Oak Plantation Ring Oak Plantation is a large quail hunting plantation located in northeast Leon County, Florida. Origins Ring Oak originally was the land of antebellum cotton plantations Blakely Plantation and Ingleside Plantation. Prior to it having a n ...

, a private hunting plantation co-owned by

David Sinton Ingalls David Sinton Ingalls (January 28, 1899 – April 26, 1985) was the US Navy's only flying ace of World War I, with six credited victories; thus he was the first ace in U. S. Navy history. Early life Ingalls was born on January 28, 1899, in Cle ...

and Robert Livingston Ireland, Jr.

Location

Ingleside was bounded on the east by the shores of

Lake Miccosukee Lake Miccosukee is a large swampy prairie lake in northern Jefferson County, Florida, located east of the settlement of Miccosukee. A small portion of the lake, its northwest corner, is located in Leon County. The small town of Miccosukee, Flo ...

and would have been bound on the west by Blake's mother's

Blakely Plantation Blakely Plantation was a cotton plantation, forced-labor farm of located in extreme northeast Leon County, Florida, Leon County, Florida. In 1850, the farm included 800 acres worked by 51 enslaved people. Blakely was bounded on the east by Ingle ...

. Today, the land is County Road 59 (Veterans Memorial Drive). Ingleside's northern boundary would now be Cypress Landing Road and to the south it would have bounded by the streets of Leland Circle and Indigo Lane.

Plantation statistics

The Leon County Florida 1860 Agricultural Census shows that the Blakely Plantation had the following: *Improved Land: *Unimproved Land: *Cash value of plantation: $25,000 *Cash value of farm implements/machinery: $1200 *Cash value of farm animals: $5,000 *Number of enslaved: 116 *Bushels of corn: 7000 *Bales of cotton: 181

External links

Letter from Joel Blake to his wife Laura

Citations

References

Rootsweb PlantationsFlorida Historical Markers Program
*Paisley, Clifton; ''From Cotton To Quail'', University of Florida Press, c1968. {{Coord, 30.5604, -84.0139, display=title Plantations in Leon County, Florida Cotton plantations in Florida