Mayorasgo de Koka ("Primarily Coca") was a tract of land in what was then Haiti but since 1844 is in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

. After renting it in 1837,

Zephaniah Kingsley Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. (December 4, 1765 – September 14, 1843) was a Quaker, born in England, who moved as a child with his family to South Carolina, and became a planter, slave trader, and merchant. He built four plantations in the Spanish co ...

purchased it in 1838. As whites were barred from land ownership in Haiti it was titled in the name of Zephaniah's eldest son, the mixed-"race" George Kingsley (whose mother was Kingsley's African enslaved concubine/wife

Anna Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 12 ...

). It is located in the province of Puerto Plata, on the north coast of the

. Beginning in 1828, the legislature of the new U.S.

Territory of Florida The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida. Originally the major portion of the Spanish t ...

passed a series of laws that progressively removed the rights that

free persons of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

had enjoyed in Spanish Florida. After failed attempts at stopping these laws through politics and advocacy, Kingsley moved his mixed-race family—as well as a total of 53 former slaves which he freed from his plantations in Florida—to the estate. There they were guaranteed equality by the laws of the Republic of Haiti, the first independent country in the world established by former African slaves.

Anna Kingsley Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, born Anta Madjiguène Ndiaye (18 June 1793 – April or May 1870), also known as Anta Majigeen Njaay or Anna Madgigine Jai, was a West African from present-day Senegal, who was enslaved and sold in Cuba, probably via t ...

lived there from 1838 to 1846, when she returned to Florida. The economy of the estate was mostly agricultural and included some mahogany logging. As the number of Kingsley descendants grew, they turned to cattle grazing and further divided the property into smaller tracts of land. Some descendants moved to urban areas and gradually lost control of the land to peasant farmers. Today, some descendants of Zephaniah Kingsley as well as of his former Florida slaves still live in the area. The village of Cabaret, within the former plantation, is today the windsurfing tourist town of

Cabarete Cabarete is a town in the Puerto Plata province of the Dominican Republic, noted for its tourism and beaches. It is located on Camino Cinco approximately from the airport of Puerto Plata (POP). History Cabarete was founded in 1835 by the merc ...

. There are no markers and no historic buildiings.

References

{{Reflist, 2 1830s in Haiti American expatriates in Haiti American expatriates in the Dominican Republic 1830s in the Dominican Republic 1838 establishments in the Dominican Republic 1838 establishments in Haiti Puerto Plata Province Coca Zephaniah Kingsley Tourist attractions in the Dominican Republic