A biography of Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., merchant, African slave trader, ship captain, plantation owner, slave master, miscegenist, polygamist, and, later, partial supporter of abolition and founder of a colony in Haiti for free persons of color.

Florida Book Awards, 2013.

The Kingsley Family, Charleston, and the American Revolution -- New Brunswick years: becoming an Atlantic trader -- "My saddle bags loaded with specie": Caribbean commerce in the age of revolution -- Shifting loyalties: St. Thomas and the transit trade in African slaves -- "Fortune is neither to be won by prudence nor industry": a slaving voyage to East Africa -- Family ties: Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley -- Laurel Grove Plantation, slavery, and East Florida's booming economy -- "Left by the patriots a perfect desert": the Patriot War in East Florida -- "Like a turtle without a shell": Spain's final years in East Florida -- "Discreetly restrained under the patriarchal system": life and labor at Kingsley's plantations -- "The door of liberty is open to every slave who can find the means of purchasing himself": from Spanish to American race relations -- "In trust for Flora Hanahan Kingsley and her son Charles": Kingsley as Patriarch -- The "Island of Liberty" and Kingsley's final journeys -- "To do good in this world we must have money": the Kingsley legacy.