The Jewish Slave Trade

“The principal purchasers of slaves were found among the Jews… [T]hey seemed to be always and everywhere at hand to buy, and to have the means equally ready to pay.” – Lady Magnus, Outlines of Jewish History

This article sets to outline the Jewish involvement in the slave trade and slave ownership, particularly in the United States of America.

The Spanish Jews accumulated substantial wealth through their dealings in Christian slaves and attained significant prominence within Spain’s social and political order. [1]

“The golden age of Jewry in Spain owed some of its wealth to an international network of Jewish slave traders. Bohemian Jews purchased Slavonians and sold to Spanish Jews for resale to the Moors.” [1]

The rapid growth of the slave trade, involving both Africans and Indians, saw the involvement of some Jews acting as agents for the royal families of Spain and Portugal. [2]

“With the spread of sugar, cotton, cocoa, and other plantations the slave ships began to plow those waters, nor can it be said that Jewish traders were absent from the hideous traffic.” [3]

Jewish slave traders procured Black Africans in the tens of thousands and distributed them to the plantations of South America and across the Caribbean. [4]

In the seventeenth century in Curaçao and in the British colonies of Barbados and Jamaica in the eighteenth century, Jewish merchants played a significant role in the slave trade. In fact, in all of the American colonies, whether French (Martinique), British, or Dutch, Jewish merchants frequently held a dominant position. [5]

With the assistance of Jewish slave traders, a large influx of Black Africans occurred, and in some locations, the Black population eventually surpassed the White population by ratios as high as 5 to 1 in cities and 30 to 1 in rural plantation areas. [6]

The Jewish sugar planters prospered by residing on large plantations, making extensive use of both local Indian labor and imported Black slaves. [7] By 1600, the plantations, the majority of the slave trade, and more than one hundred sugar mills, along with a minimum of 10,000 Black Africans, and most of the processed sugar exports were controlled by Jewish settlers. [8] Stephen Fortune states that as early as the sixteenth century, Jews saw the substantial profits to be gained from the slave trade as a result of the sugar industry and appeared to have no moral reservations about their involvement in the trade of human beings. [9]

The Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621 for the sole purpose of making money. Jews invested heavily and became willing partners in the company seeking “dividends from silver, gold, furs, and [the] slave trade.” [10]

“Portuguese merchants, many of them [Jews], had controlled most of the slave trade between Africa and America until the Portuguese rebellion of 1640…. In 1635, however, the Dutch West India Company had captured the African center of Elmina Castle, and, in 1641, the great centers of Luanda and Sao Tome. Thus, as the Portuguese were forced out of the slave trade in 1640, their place was taken by the Dutch West India Company and a few competitors, amongst whom only the English proved to be formidable. The Company first turned Brazil and, after 1654, Curaqao into large slave depots and concentrated most of its remaining financial and military strength to supplying the Caribbean and the Spanish colonies with slaves.” [11]

Dr. Bloom confirms that Jews “were among the leading slave-holders and slaves traders in the colony.” [12]

Dr. Wiznitzer claims that Jews “dominated the slave trade,” then the most profitable enterprise in that part of the world. [13]

“The West India Company, which monopolized imports of slaves from Africa, sold slaves at public auctions against cash payment. It happened that cash was mostly in the hands of Jews. The buyers who appeared at the auctions were almost always Jews, and because of this lack of competitors they could buy slaves at low prices. On the other hand, there also was no competition in the selling of the slaves to the plantation owners and other buyers, and most of them purchased on credit payable at the next harvest in sugar. Profits up to 300 percent of the purchase value were often realized with high interest rates… If it happened that the date of such an auction fell on a Jewish holiday the auction had to be postponed. This occurred on Friday, October 21, 1644” [14]

“Those who succeeded in establishing themselves under Dutch jurisdiction prospered as traders, middlemen, interpreters, and brokers of slaves. The Dutch West India Company monopolized the import of slaves, but private entrepreneurs ran the slave auctions. Among these were numerous [Jews], who also provided the credit that [plantation masters] needed until the sugar crop was brought in. Considering that the mill owners found it cheaper to replace a slave every seven years than to feed him adequately, business was brisk.” [15]

Many Jews have been recorded as participating in the slave trade individually. In 1658, David Israel and Abraham Querido from Amsterdam purchased several slaves from the Dutch West India Company. In 1662, Abraham Cohen Brazil bought 52 slaves from the same company, while Jeudah Henriquez of Amsterdam acquired twelve. [16] In 1673, N. & N. Deliaan offered the Dutch West India Company 500 African slaves and two years later, Jan de Lion, acting as an agent for others, proposed selling the Company between 1,500 and 2,000 Black African slaves from Rio Calabary. [17] Don Manuel Belmonte of Amsterdam, a Spanish-Jewish nobleman of culture and refinement who held high standing in royal and religious circles, had no reservations about engaging in the slave trade. [18]

“Portuguese slave traders were not merely smugglers who robbed Spain of silver; they were also Jewish heretics who practiced their faith in secret behind a public facade of Catholic orthodoxy and who inundated the American colonies with blacks indoctrinated in their own false beliefs. These beliefs, embellished with African superstitions, were in turn spreading among the Indians. The Seville merchants questioned whether African labor was worth all the smuggling and undermining of the Church’s work among the Indians, but they stopped short of appealing for the abolition of the slave trade.” [19]

“[Thorarica] consisted of nine plantations for raising sugar cane with 233 slaves, 55 sugar kettles, 106 head of cattle, and 28 men plus an additional six plantations with 181 slaves, 39 sugar kettles, and 66 animals. All these plantations were owned by eighteen Portuguese Jews.” [20]

As the slave trade became a significant aspect of Jewish economic life, Jews brought in Africans in substantial numbers and stored them in warehouses. [21]

The prosperity of the Jewish community persisted, and by 1694, nearly 100 Jewish families, comprising a total of around 570 individuals, had accumulated over 40 estates and owned 9000 slaves. [22]

According to Jewish author Herbert I. Bloom, “[the] slave trade was one of the most important Jewish activities here as elsewhere in the colonies.” [23]

The following is a list of Jewish buyers of Black slaves from the Dutch West India Company in Surinam, February 21, 22,23,1707. [24]

**sic; Actual totals are 75 Male; 39 Female, and 20 Children. Figures on this list are unedited.

In 1755, the Jewish community demonstrated their participation in the African slave market by the synagogue investing in a property and 14 slaves, bought from another Jewish person, A. Perera. The synagogue’s portfolio also consisted of a plantation named “Nahamu” (Comfort ye), which was staffed by 112 slaves. A well-known Jewish family member, Isahak de Joseph Cohen Nassy, acquired “Tulpenburg” (Tulip Castle), which was staffed by 72 Africans. However, in 1772, a high number of slave deaths caused financial difficulties. [25]

Transporting the slaves across the Atlantic and then ferrying them about the region was the kind of trade in which the Jews had ancient experience. They recognized the obvious need for Black labor and opened yet another fruitful enterprise. [26]

“Jews confined their business to Swan Street, more commonly known as “Jew Street,” where they carried on a vigorous trade in slaves.” [27]

In 1674, the Dutch West India Company permitted them to buy slaves for the export trade [28] and the Jews did not hesitate to become fully involved. Judith Elkin has claimed that, “Sephardim based on Curaçao worked as sailors, navigators, merchants, slavers, and pirates. In 1715 they probably accounted for 36 percent of the white population of Curaçao, and they dominated the island’s shipping.” [29]

During the period of 1686 to 1710, Jewish involvement in the slave trade with the Dutch West India Company was substantial. Records indicate that Jews were recorded as the owners of approximately 867 African slaves in this 25-year timeframe. [30]

Several lists have been discovered that detail the Jewish residents of Curaçao and their ownership of slaves. The most comprehensive study is “History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles” by Isaac S. and Susan A. Emmanuel, which outlines the economic growth of the Jewish community in the area. The following shows the Jews who were involved in the enslavement of Black Africans and the number of slaves they possessed. See Appendix 22, pp. 1036-45.

In 1720, the six top-ranking Jewish slavermasters had a combined minimum total of 165 slaves. These Jews were: [31]

In 1744, the Jews reportedly owned 310 African hostages. In 1748, they furnished the Curaçao government with 126 African slaves to fortify the island. [32]

*Penso bought two plantations with 300 Africans from Gentile Willem Meyer. [33]

In 1749, the first five of these big Jewish slaveowners (of 1744) had a combined minimum total of 91 slaves. [34]

A “very strict slave census taken in 1765 showed that the Jews owned 860 slaves.” [35]

As many as 400 Blacks were sold in a single day and smuggled into New Orleans by Laffite and his agents. His operation was so extensive that he was said to monopolize Louisiana’s import trade and the commerce of the entire Mississippi Valley. By 1812, it was claimed that Jewish pirate Jean Laffite had become the “greatest trader in all the West.” [36]

The following Jews were known dealers, owners, shippers or supporters of the slave trade and of the enslavement of Black African citizens in early New York history. [37]

Jewish Heads of Households in New York City, Census of 1830: [38]

Mr. Seixas, of course, saw no irony in the fact that Newport, Rhode Island became one of the most active slave trading ports of North America, with the significant assistance of his Jewish community. Indeed, as Jewish historians Edwin Wolf and Maxwell Whiteman have reported, the Newport Jews “traded extensively in Negroes,” [39]

Feingold described how the Jews were connected in Newport: “From Africa they imported slaves and from the West Indies they received molasses from which they distilled rum. A key aspect of the triangular trade involved the notorious middle passage, the transportation of slaves from the west coast of Africa to the West Indies and eventually directly to the Colonies. Newport was the major Colonial port for this traffic in people, so that it comes as no surprise that Colonial Rhode Island boasted a higher proportion of slaves than any other colony.” [40]

Nearly all Jews in Newport had Negro domestic slaves… Bartlett, R.I. Census, 1774, shows only two Newport Jewish families without slaves. [41]

The Census of 1830 provides “official” data on the slave holdings of Philadelphia Jews: [42]

“For the most part they had acquired wealth and owned numerous slaves whom they exploited for the development of their resources. Their prosperity and long tenancy had won them prestige equal to that of the non-Jewish natives, and they were not only completely at home amid their surroundings, but, naturally, supported and sanctioned the institutions that had been so propitious to them, providing them with wealth, position and comfort. Like other wealthy Southern land and slave owners they were convinced that their financial stability depended upon maintaining the services of the negro slaves. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that they became staunch upholders of the slavery system, in their unwillingness to relinquish these personal benefits.” [43]

“They were slave traders in major cities like New Orleans, Mobile, and Richmond,” writes Leonard Dinnerstein. [44]

“the test of the true Southerner was his acceptance of the institution. Southern Jews appear to have had little ambivalence on this score. Rabbi David Einhorn of Baltimore is the only prominent southern Jew who is known to have spoken out against slavery. Others either kept silent or gave wholehearted support to the Southern ideology” [45]

The attitudes and treatment of Blacks by Jews were similar to those of other White Americans. [46] As “King Cotton” became prevalent in the South, a significant number of Jews became plantation owners. [47]

At no time did Southern Jews feel tainted by the slave trade. [48]

Benjamin Mordecai, who was based in Charleston, West Virginia, had large facilities for holding slaves near his warehouses. In 1859, he made a purchase of Africans worth $12,000 in a single sale. [49]

Jacob Levin of Columbia, South Carolina, and Israel I. Jones of Mobile, Alabama, were prominent members of their Jewish communities and were among the largest traders of African Americans in the mid-19th century. A prominent auction house in New Orleans, run by Levy Jacobs, was one of the leading slave dealers in the city, where he would showcase African Americans for sale, including those who were born in America. [50]

Feingold, in Zion in America said, “We can fairly assume that Jews did not differ substantially from their fellow Southerners in their animus toward ‘people of color.’ [Mississippi] Jews approved of, or at least did not think of opposing, the slave system.” [51]

“As might be expected, Southern Jews defended the slave system; individuals among them were among the institution’s most vigorous apologists,” writes Jacob Marcus. [52]

David Yulee, who was born as Levy, was the first Jewish person elected to the U.S. Senate. He later retired to support the Confederacy. Judge Samuel Heydenfeldt also expressed his support for the Confederacy. [53]

Jewish slave ownership was a symbol of status, with Jewish families owning slaves in higher proportions than other families in the South, almost 2 to 1 higher. [54]

In Charleston, West Virginia and Savannah, Georgia, three-quarters of Jewish households held one or more African slaves, and the average number of slaves held was five in Savannah. In Baltimore, Maryland, one-third of Jewish households owned slaves. The 1820 census revealed that the average Jewish household in the United States had three slaves. [55]

[56]

[57]

There seemed to be no reason for Jews to not own a Black slave, other than the lack of funds to purchase one. [58]

Many Jews were involved in Virginia’s slave trade and settled in the state as plantation owners. These included Elias Legardo who arrived on the Abigail in 1621, Joseph Mosse and Rebecca Isaacke who came on the Elizabeth in 1624, John Levy who owned 200 acres in James City County in 1648, Manuel Rodrigues who had a plantation in Lancaster County in 1652, David Da Costa who exported tobacco from his plantation in 1658, Michael Israel who was a Border Ranger and Militiaman in 1758 and purchased 80 acres in Albemarle County in 1757 and 300 acres in Mechum’s River in 1779, and John Abraham who also owned a plantation in Virginia. [59]

By 1788, Jews made up 17% of the White population and nearly all Jewish householders owned at least one slave, with one household having as many as three. [60] Author Myron Berman confirms “Most of the Jews of Richmond in the early 19th century possessed slaves…” [61]

*”Free,” as meant here, either means indentured servant, rented from another owner, or manumitted and in the service of the Jewish household. There were no truly free Africans in America. Blacks of whatever class by law could not be free. Among other restrictions, the “free” Blacks (applied regionally) were prohibited from the use of firearms; restricted from the purchase or use of liquor without a recommendation from a reputable White man; required to report to a White guardian periodically; required to observe curfews; denied the right of assembly except for church; restricted in movement; restricted from immigration; denied educational opportunities; among other restrictions. Violation of these laws could mean severe fines, corporal punishment or resale into slavery.

[62]

[63]

Joseph Salvador purchased 100,000 acres in the Carolinas in 1755, and in 1773 his son Francis purchased 6,000 acres to grow indigo working “at least thirty slaves.” Solomon Isaacs imported some slaves into Charlestown in 1755. [64] Marcus says, “All told, 1,108 cargoes of Negro slaves were entered at the port of Charleston, 1735-1775. Solomon Isaacs brought in four small cargoes in 1755; Da Costa & Farr, two cargoes, 1760-1763. During 1752-1772, five other cargoes were brought in by Jews.” [65]

[66]

[67]

[68]

By 1740, only three Jewish families remained in Georgia due to a ban on slavery. [69] They decided to leave, as Marcus notes, “for the same reasons as others did: the enslavement of Africans was not allowed and the trade in alcohol was prohibited.” [70]

[71]

[72]

“What sociological phenomena would lead the Southern Jew to fight so fervently for the principle of slavery? Why was he willing to sacrifice his life so readily for a cause that he knew was contrary to religious principle? In their former European lands of oppression Jews actually sought to avoid conscription by any means; yet here in the South they fought willingly and with zest.” [73]

“For all the self-righteousness of the North, slavery had been implanted and nourished by Northern merchants, Christian and Jewish. During the eighteenth century, Jews actively traded in slaves; some Jews ran slave markets.” [74]

Professor Salo Baron perceived no moral dilemma on the part of nineteenth century Jews: “Jewish merchants, auctioneers, and commission agents in Southern states continued to buy and sell slaves until the end of the Civil War… [A]t no time did Southern Jews feel tainted by the slave trade.” [75]

The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in their report of 1853 expressed their frustration: “The Jews of the United States have never taken any steps whatever with regard to the slavery question. As citizens, they deem it their policy to have every one choose which ever side he may deem best to promote his own interests and the welfare of his country. They have no organization of an ecclesiastical body to represent their general views; no General Assembly, or its equivalent. The American Jews have two newspapers, but they do not interfere in any discussion which is not material to their religion. It cannot be said that the Jews have formed any denominational opinion on the subject of American slavery… The objects of so much mean prejudice and unrighteous oppression as the Jews have been for ages, surely they, it would seem, more than any other denomination, ought to be the enemies of caste, and friends of universal freedom.” [76]

Ms. Feurlicht, in her book Fate of the Jews, frankly concluded: “Not only were a disproportionate number of Jews slave owners, slave traders, and slave auctioneers, but when the line was drawn between the races, they were on the white side.” [77]

“The pursuit of wealth in slaves and usury not only violated Jewish ethics but destroyed the rough democracy imposed upon a people in exile. Initially, the Jews looked to their rabbis and scholars for guidance. Eventually, the aristocracy of learning gave way to the aristocracy of wealth. Leadership of the community passed from the wise man to the rich man, a curse of organizational Jewry even today.” [78]

The slavery debate raged across the country but no Jewish leaders of the Old South “ever expressed any reservations about the justice of slavery or the rightness of the Southern position.” [79] Jewish clergy did not even discuss Black slavery until 1860, and then primarily in support of it. [80]

Arthur Hertzberg sums up their position: “As was to be expected, the Jewish clergy in the South, without exception, endorsed the Confederacy. These preachers, most of whom were quite recent immigrants from Germany, summoned up great passion in their defense of states’ rights. They repeated the conventional platitudes of that day, that the black race was incapable of taking care of itself, that slavery was a way of discharging the responsibility of whites toward their childlike inferiors…” [81]

Rev. J. M. Michelbacher was fully convinced of the legitimacy of African American enslavement, and Rabbi George Jacobs from Richmond, Virginia was a slave owner and landlord. [82] Rabbi Raphall called those who opposed it “blasphemous.” [83] Rabbis Simon Tuska of Memphis and James K. Gutheirn of New Orleans both defended the enslavement of Blacks to their congregations. [84]

All 21 Jewish congregations in the South were staunch supporters of the Confederacy and there is no record of any official condemnation of the slave system from those in the North. [85]

Dr. Marcus writes, “It is now clear that most antebellum Jews, those in the North as well as in the South, cared little about the moral issues of human bondage.” [86]

“We should not be surprised to discover that there was not a single abolitionist among the Jews of the South,” wrote Dr. Korn. [87] Another author wrote that in general, “Jews were everything in the Old South except abolitionists.” [88] “They profited economically and psychologically from slavery,” says Sokolow, and even in northern and midwestem abolitionist territory, “Jews also maintained a discreet silence on the subject.” [89]

The Jewish Record of January 23, 1863: “We know not how to speak in the same breath of the Negro and the Israelite. The very names have startlingly opposite sounds – one representing all that is debased and inferior in the hopeless barbarity and heathenism of six thousand years; the other, the days when Jehovah conferred on our fathers the glorious equality which led the Eternal to converse with them, and allow them to enjoy the communion of angels. Thus the abandoned fanatics insult the choice of God himself, in endeavoring to reverse the inferiority which he stamped on the African, to make him the compeer, even in bondage, of His chosen people. There is no parallel between such races. Humanity from pole to pole would scout such a comparison. The Hebrew was originally free; and the charter of his liberty was inspired by his Creator. The Negro was never free; and his bondage in Africa was simply duplicated in a milder form when he was imported here… The judicious in all the earth agree that to proclaim the African equal to the surrounding races, would be a farce which would lead the civilized conservatism of the world to denounce the outrage.” [90]

The Jewish newspaper of Baltimore, Der Deutsche Correspondent, defended slavery on a “rational” basis. The paper called upon its readers, immigrants in a new land, “never to forget that the Constitution of the United States in support of which every adopted citizen of the Republic has sworn an oath of loyalty, sanctions and protects the institution of slavery.” From this, wrote the eminent Jewish historian Dr. Isaac M. Fein, “the immigrant was to draw the only possible conclusion… Beware, live up to your oath, defense of slavery means good citizenship… Most of the Jews, like the non-Jewish Germans, were for the status quo on the issue of slavery.” [91]

Important Jewish literary figures like Isaac Harby, Edwin De Leon and Jacob N. Cardozo expressed their full support for slavery in their writings. [92]

Robert Lyon’s Asmonean newspaper had already committed itself to a pro-slavery position in 1850-1851, by defending the wisdom of the Fugitive Slave Law. [93] Said Lyon: “Let our citizens, one and all, resolve this day, to put down Abolitionism, in whatever shape and form it may present itself, to discountenance it, by whomsoever its principles may be advocated, and to crush out at once and forever this attempt to plunder our Southern citizens of their property… Once more, Down with Abolitionism! Let us stand by the Union, and nothing but the Union.” [94]

Major Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785-1851) was a journalist, judge, playwright, politician and was considered the most distinguished Jewish layman until 1840. He was such a prolific proponent of slavery, that the first Black American periodical, The Freedom’s journal, was launched in response to Noah’s racist propaganda. [95] He actually defended slavery by calling it liberty: “There is liberty under the name of slavery. A field negro has his cottage, his wife, and children, his easy task, his little patch of corn and potatos, his garden and fruit, which are his revenue and property. The house servant has handsome clothing, his luxurious meals, his admitted privacy, a kind master, and an indulgent and frequently fond mistress.” [96]

Dr. Korn says: Seventy-three Jewish heads of households have been identified as Jewish; of these, at least thirty-four owned one or more slaves, to a total of 151 slaves. The only large holdings of slaves were possessed by Jacob Jacobs of Charleston (11), and Abraham Cohen (21), Solomon Cohen (9), and Esther Myers (11), all of the Georgetown District. [97]

Many families did not participate in this census and still more would not have revealed their identity as slaveholders or as Jews, having emerged so recently from the era of Inquisition. [98]

The Census of 1830 provides another “official” tally of the slave holdings of Jews. The chart below lists records of slave holdings of Jews in areas outside of major Jewish communities: [99]

Malcolm Stern published some additions and corrections to Rosenwaike’s analysis which included a slave count: [100]

[101] [102]

The Jessurin family of Curaqao alone “owned over one hundred ships sailing the seven seas in the 1800s,” when Jews were masters of the slave trade. [103]

The following is a partial listing of ships that are recorded as having Jewish owners and are known to have transported slaves. [104]

The below listed ships were owned by Jews who are known to have participated in the slave trade (*asterisk means ownership is presumed): [105]

All of the following “Chosen People” are confirmed to have participated in the Black African slave trade. According to their own literature, each one is a prominent historical figure, and most are highly regarded and respected by Jews themselves.

David De Acosta, described as “a gentleman of Spain,” owned a forty-one acre plantation on Barbados in 1680 “worked by sixtyone black slaves… seven white servants and three bought ones (Mons), apparently all Christians.” His will dated February, 1684-1685 dispenses his Africans: The two former to enjoy and possess my plantations negroes, &c. each paying half of debts owing, and sharing proceeds and expenses each year. No negroes or anything to be sold, & should Daniel B. Henriques sell anything he will forfeit his inheritance in favour of my wife, & the sale shall be deemed null & void. [106]

Jacob Adler; In 1863, he and his partner, Herman Cone of Jonesboro, Tennessee, purchased two African men they named “Friendly” and “foe William,” for $4,500. [107]

Charity Adolphus (d. 1773); When her house was burned down, “she escaped with her life, only by being carried out of the burning house by her faithful Negro slave, Darby.” [108]

Samuel Alexander was one of the founders of Congregation Beth Shalome of Richmond in 1791. He and his brother Solomon (listed below) were also slave owners who are considered to be humanitarians because they arranged to have their hostages “manumitted.” They reserved the right, however, to keep them as indentured servants. [109]

Solomon Alexander was a one-time acting mayor of Richmond, Virginia who enslaved a Black woman named “Esther.” [110]

Juan De Araujo (or Arauxo) “had been a minor slave trader who had travelled widely through the Spanish Indies, between Puebla, Vera Cruz, Cartagena, Havana and, possibly even, Angola.” [111]

Issack Asher of New York was charged with “selling an unhealthy Negro” in 1863. [112]

Solomon Audler of New Orleans was listed as the “owner” of four Africans in the census of 1830. [113]

Maurice Barnett of Baton Rouge, Louisiana “owned” at least eleven African citizens. He was such a prolific slave dealer and auctioneer that twentieth century picture postcards of the “Old Slave Block” depict his office at 40 St. Louis Street. He was one of the closest associates of the slave breeding and smuggling Jewish pirate, Jean Laffit. [114]

Jacob Barrett of Columbia, South Carolina and a later resident of Charleston, was a merchant who once traded twenty Black human beings, “… at very large profits, keeping for his own use Armistead Booker, a good-looking, active carriage driver and barber, who attended to his horses and in the store, and Aunt Nanny, a first rate cook.” He was the cousin of one of the era’s biggest Jewish slave dealers named Jacob Ottolengui. [115]

Hester Barsimon‘s family of five had “only one black attendant.” [116]

Abraham Baruch (ci. 1701) household at Bridgetown consisted of three Jews and three slaves. In 1685, one of his negroes was concerned in a native rebellion and was executed by the Island authorities, whereupon a sympathetic legislature voted his master a sum of £17 10s. [117]

Rebecca Baruh lived alone with one slave in seventeenth century Barbados. [118]

Diego Nunes Belmonte and other Portuguese Jewish merchants were partners in the slave trade between Luanda and the West Indies. [119]

Don Manuel Belmonte of Amsterdam was, according to Drs. Emmanuel, a Spanish-jewish nobleman of culture and refinement, high in royal and religious circles, [who] had no qualms about carrying on the slave trade. He and a gentile associate conducted it on an extensive scale, of course with Company participation. [120] He formed an association with Jean Cooymans, ex-sheriff of Amsterdam, to ship slaves in large quantities to Curaçao. [121]

Judah Phillip Benjamin (1811-1884) was born in the British West Indies and brought up in Charleston. He was a rabid proslavery senator from Louisiana in the Civil War era who led the call for secession of the southern states from the Union in order to maintain the profits of free slave labor. He owned a plantation called Bellachasse and used 140 African slaves in its operation. [122]

Francisco Lopez Blandon (b. 1618) was imprisoned by the Inquisitional authorities for practicing Judaism from 1643-1649, but “had a Negro slave who brought him food and messages from the outside. This slave also eavesdropped in the office of the head jailer and reported all that he heard.” [123]

Abraham Block of Richmond, Virginia, owned a Black woman named “Matilda Drew.” [124]

Simon Bonane, (or Bonave); In 1699, he was aboard the pirate ship Adventure of London and according to Max J. Kohler: “In August, 1720, we read that ‘Simon the Jew don’t expect his [slave] ship from Guinea before the fall(sic).'” [125]

Stephen Boyd was a Dutch jew of Baltimore who employed a Jewish indentured servant named Wolf Samuels to oversee his 94 Black slaves on his 4,000 acre plantation. [126]

Domingo da Costa Brandau and his wife, Maria Henriques Brandau, lived in Amsterdam in 1639 and had an engenho or plantation in “Arrerippi” (possibly Recife, Brazil), where African citizens were forced to labor without pay. [127]

Saul Brown (a.k.a. Pardo, d. 1702) was a Newport merchant involved in the business of African human import/export. In 1695, he was the first hazan (minister) of the Shearith Israel congregation. [128]

Benjamin Bueno was a slave owner in seventeenth century Barbados. [129]

Joseph Bueno (aka. Joseph Bueno de Mesquita, ci. 1708) purchased a cemetery for Jews in New York in 1682 with the proceeds from his Caribbean Black flesh shipping business. He left to his wife Rachell, “all the slaves now belonging to me…” [130]

Rachael Burgos had a household of six persons and a couple of slaves in Bridgetown in 1680. [131]

Samuel De Campos, a Barbados merchant in 1720, left to his daughter Sarah “a negro boy by name Scipio and a mulatto girl named Debora.” To his daughter Hester, “a negro boy by name Joe and a girl by name Jenny.” [132]

Luis Rodriguez Carvajal became a businessman in New Spain and “perhaps shared with the rest of his family in the lucre of the slave trade.” [133]

Raquel Nunez Carvallo left to her son Jacob Frois “one negro woman by name Abbah.” To son Isaac Frois “now of the Island of Jamaica… one negro girle by name Rose.” [134]

Abraham Cohen (c. 1739-1800) of the Georgetown district of South Carolina, was a Postmaster General and a slave dealing auctioneer who held 21 African citizens against their will. [135]

Barnett A. Cohen (1770-1839) and his wife Bella, of the Barnwell District of Kings Creek, South Carolina held more than twenty Africans as slaves. [136]

Jacob Cohen‘s plantation worked 294 slaves at no pay. [137]

Jacob I. Cohen (c. 1744-1823) was born in Germany and operated as a slave maker in the South and then in Philadelphia. He was a land speculator who hired Daniel Boone, the “noted Kentucky pioncer and Indian fighter,” to survey his land. Cohen was president of his Jewish Congregation Mikveh Israel from 1810- 1811. He and his partner, Isaiah Isaacs of Richmond, enslaved Blacks they named “Tom,” “Dick,” “Spencer,” “Mieshack,” “Fanny,” “Eliza,” and their children of an unspecified number. [138]

Joseph Cohen of Lynchburg, Virginia was convicted in 1819 of the murder of one of the many African citizens he enslaved. [139]

Levi Cohen is named on a Georgia receipt for slaves. [140]

Mordecai Cohen (c. 1763-1848) was born in Poland and owned a plantation at St. Andrews, South Carolina where twenty-seven Africans provided the free field labor. He was one of the wealthiest planters in South Carolina and a commissioner of markets in Charleston from 1826 to 1832. When the twenty-three Black house servants are added, the resulting total is fifty, a number sufficient to place him third among Jewish slave owners in South Carolina. [141]

[A lot of names exist, and they may or may not be added]

Source: [1] Harry L. Golden and Martin Rywell, Jews in American History: Their Contribution to the United States of America (Charlotte: Henry Lewis Martin Co., 1950), p. 5; Feuerlicht, p. 39. Also, Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 11, p. 402

Source: [2] 43 Burkholder and Johnson, p. 28; Liebman, The Jews in New Spain, p. 47

Source: [3] 6 Rufus Learsi, The Jews in America: A History (New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1972), p. 25

Source: [4] Galloway, p. 81: “As sugar grew in significance, so did African slavery: from about 6,000 slaves in 1643 to 20,000 in 1655 and 38,782 in 1680.” See Learsi, p. 22. He characterizes the settlements as being based on a “slave economy on which all the plantations of the New World rested.”

Source: [5] Marc Lee Raphael, Jews and Judaism in the United States: A Documentary History (New York: Behrman House, Inc., 1983), p. 14

Source: [6] For examples see Herbert S. Klein, African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 133,134

Source: [7] Arkin, AJEH, p. 199. Professor Gilberto Freyre describes the Brazilian plantation owners of this period in his book, The Masters and the Slaves – A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilisation, as follows: Power came to be concentrated in the hands of the country squires. They were the lords of the earth and the lords of the men and women also. Their houses were the expression of the enormous feudal might – ugly, strong, thick walls, deep foundations. For safety’s sake, as a precaution against pirates and against the natives and the Africans, the proprietors built these fortresses and buried gold and their jewels beneath the floors. Slothful, but filled to overflowing with sexual concerns, the life of the sugar planters tended to become a life that was lived in a hammock. A stationary hammock with the master taking his ease, sleeping, dozing. Or a hammock on the move with the master on a journey or a promenade beneath the heavy draperies or curtains. He did not move from the hammock to give orders to his Negroes, to have letters written by his plantation clerk or chaplain, or to play a game of backgammon with some relative or friend. It was in a hammock that, after breakfast or dinner, they let their food settle as they lay picking their teeth, smoking a cigar, belching loudly, emitting wind and allowing themselves to be fanned or searched for lice by the piccaninnies as they scratched their feet or genitals – some of them out of vicious habits, others because of venereal or skin disease. For a summary of the conditions of slavery in this period, particularly the treatment of African and Indian women, see Sean O’Callaghan’s, Damaged Baggage: The White Slave Trade and Narcotics Traffic in the Americas (London: Robert Hale, 1969), pp. 15-32.; Galloway, p. 72: “As on Hispaniola, the average plantation in Brazil had about 100 slaves …. Even as late as 1583, two-thirds of the slaves on the engenhos of Pernambuco were Indian.” There are also other corroborating statements of Jewish wealth including those in George Alexander Kohut’s article, “Jewish Martyrs of the Inquisition in South America,” PAJHS, vol. 4 (1896), pp. 104-5: “The Marranos appear to have been quite prosperous for a while…”; and on pages 127-28 Mr. Kohut quotes from R. G. Watson’s, Spanish and Portuguese South America During the Colonial Period (London: 1884) vol. 2, p. 119: “If the New Christians were in Brazil a despised race, they could at any rate count on opportunities of gaining wealth and retaining it when gained.”

Source: [8] Arkin, AJEH, p. 200; Arnold Wiznitzer confirms in Jews in Colonial Brazil (Morningside Heights, New York: Columbia University Press, 1960), pp. 50-1, that, In return for a payment of 200,000 cruzados the New Christian merchants, by a royal decree of July 31, 1601, had been granted the right to trade with the colonies, but in 1610 this concession had been revoked. The Portuguese New Christian merchants suffered tremendous losses as a result of this act of revocation, since almost all of the country’s export trade had been in their hands. Friedman, “Sugar,” p. 307, says that in Brazil, “Many [Jews] became successful planters and mill owners, and not a few became sugar brokers and slave dealers or combined both operations, bartering slaves against sugar.” Mr. Friedman referenced N. Deerr, The History of Sugar, 2 vols. (London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1949), vol. 1, p. 107; Galloway, p. 79, describes the Jewish involvement: “In both Pernambuco and Amsterdam, the Sephardic Jews became involved in the sugar trade as financiers and merchants; in Pernambuco a few became [plantation masters].” Dimont, p. 30, says that sugar production was “an industry controlled by the Marranos.”

Source: [9] Stephen Alexander Fortune, Merchants and Jews: The Struggle for the British West Indian Caribbean, 1650-1750 (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1984), p. 71

Source: [10] Golden and Rywell, pp. 11, 13; EAJA, pp. 125-26 and notes 27 and 28. Bloom states that there is no accounting of the exact investment of the Jews in the Company but cites the works of others who concur that while their numbers were not more than 10%, their investment was much greater. Eighteen Jews of Amsterdam, by 1623, had reportedly invested 36,100 guilders of the 7,108,106 guilders raised (one half of 1 %), in the West India Company though actual figures have not been determined. Later, the influence of these investors in the establishment of a Jewish community in colonia New York, over the objection of the Company’s own governor, suggests that the reported investment of the Jews is understated. See this document, section entitled, “New York.” See also Arkin, AJEH, p. 201 and Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic and the Hispanic World 1606-1661 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), p. 127. It is reputed that Dutch Jews may have owned as much as “five-eighths” of the Dutch East India Company, whose profits from precious metals, spices, coral and drugs were magnificent. See John M. Shaftesley, Remember the Days: Essays on Anglo-Jewish History presented to Cecil Roth by members of the Council of The Jewish Historical Society of England (The Jewish Historical Society of England, 1966), pp. 127,135,139. Another venture confirms Jewish interest in such enterprise. In describing the formation of the armored shipping Brazil Company, David Grant Smith, pp. 237-38, suggests that “New Christians” were considered to be “the only possible source for funds of such magnitude.”

Source: [11] Swetschinski, p. 236; Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, pp. 67-8; Smith, pp. 246-47; Israel, The Dutch Republic, p. 276

Source: [12] Herbert I. Bloom, The Economic Activities of the Jews of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Port Washington, New York/London: Kennikat Press, 1937) p. 133

Source: [13] Bloom, “Book Reviews: The Dutch in Brazil, pp. 113, note 114

Source: [14] Wiznitzer, Jews in Colonial Brazil, pp. 72-3; Raphael, p. 14

Source: [15] Judith Laikin Elkin, Jews of the Latin American Republics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980) p. 17

Source: [16] 94 Emmanuel HJNA, p. 75 note no. 52. see also Liebman, New World Jewry, p. 170, Johan Hartog, Curaqao From Colonial Dependence to Autonomy (Aruba, Netherland Antilles, 1968), p. 178 and Swetschinski, p. 222

Source: [17] Emmanuel HJNA, p. 75; ibid, vol. 2, p. 747

Source: [18] Emmanuel HJNA, pp. 75-6 and note no. 55

Source: [19] Frederick P. Bowser, African Slave in Colonial Peru: 1524-1650 (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1974), p. 34; Wiernik, p. 34, reports that the “public facade” mentioned in this quote included Marranos or secret Jews taking some extraordinary actions: “…it was reported that the physicians of Bahia, who were mainly new-Christians, prescribed pork to their patients in order to lessen the suspicion that they were still adhering to Judaism.” See also Bertram Wallace Korn, The Early Jews of New Orleans (Waltham, Massachusetts: American Jewish Historical Society, 1969), pp. 3-4

Source: [20] Seymour B. Liebman, New World Jewry, p. 188

Source: [21] Marc Lee Raphael, Jews and Judaism in the United States: A Documentary History (New York: Behrman House, Inc., 1983), p. 24

Source: [22] Wiemik, p. 47; Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Ltd., 1971), vol. 15, p. 530

Source: [23] Herbert I. Bloom, The Economic Activities of the Jews of Amsterdam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Port Washington, New York/London: Kennikat Press, 1937)

Source: [24] The Economic Activities of the Jews of Amsterdam, pp. 159-60. Other sales took place in March, 1707 where ten Jews bought slaves amounting to 10,400 guilders which was more than one-fourth of the total amount of money expended at the sale (38,605 guilders)

Source: [25] The Economic Activities of the Jews of Amsterdam, pp. 162-63; MCAJ1, 159; R. BijIsma, “David de Is. C. Nassy, Author of the Essai Historique sur Surinam,” in Robert Cohen, The Jewish Nation in Surinam, p. 6

Source: [26] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 83, ibid, vol. 2, p. 681: “According to a letter of the Curaqoan Jews to the Amsterdam Parnassim, February 17, 1721, the shipping business was mainly a Jewish enterprise.” Liebman, New World Jewry, p. 183: “The ships were not only owned by Jews, but were manned by Jewish crews and sailed under the command of Jewish captains.”

Source: [27] Jacob Rader Marcus, The Colonial American Jew: 1492-1776 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970, 3 volumes), p. 120; Davis, p. 141

Source: [28] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 75

Source: [29] EIkin, p. 18; Another well documented description of the Jewish settlement in Curaçao can be found in Jacob Rader Marcus, The Colonial American Jew: 1492-1776 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970, 3 volumes), pp. 180-87 passim

Source: [30] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 78; It should again be noted as in Barbados, that Jews had every reason to underreport their taxable holdings – they were, after all, prominent as tax-collectors (tax-farmers). This, coupled with a lively smuggling trade with Africans as the prime profit making commodity, would cause one to question the validity of the slave holdings reported by the Jews. These figures, therefore, represent the lowest possible number of Africans held as slaves by the “chosen people.” See Samuel, p. 7

Source: [31] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 228

Source: [32] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 229

Source: [33] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 228 note

Source: [34] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 228

Source: [35] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 228

Source: [36] Harold Sharfman, Jews on the Frontier (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1977), p. 154

Source: [37] A more detailed documentation of their involvement is provided in the chapter entitled “Jews of the Black Holocaust.” Also, Hershkowitz, “New York,” pp. 29, 32, APPENDIX II

Source: [38] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, pp. 119-23, Table A-6

Source: [39] Wolf and Whiteman, pp. 190-91

Source: [40] Feingold, Zion, p. 42; Raphael, p. 14; Rudolf Glanz, “Notes on Early Jewish Peddling in America,” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 7 (1945), p. 121: “Doubtless they were active in Indian trade, supplying the Army, and in real estate deals, but the center of their activities was triangular trade between the American colonies and the motherland via the West Indies.”

Source: [41] Jacob Rader Marcus, The Colonial American Jew: 1492-1776 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970, 3 volumes), p. 1528; According to Ira Rosenwaike, “An Estimate and Analysis of the Jewish Population of the United States in 1790,” Karp, JEA1, p. 393. Dimont, p. 44: “At the time of the Revolution, the Jewish community in Newport comprised but fifty to seventy-five Jewish families, but their wealth and prestige outstripped that of the Jewish community in New York.”

Source: [42] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 124, Table A-7

Source: [43] G. Cohen, pp. 84-5; See also Eugene 1. Bender, “Reflections on Negro-Jewish Relationships: The Historical Dimension,” Phylon, vol. 30 (1969), p. 60; Lewis M. Killian, White Southerners (Amherst: UMass Press, 1985), p. 73; Harry Simonhoff, Jewish Participants in the Civil War (New York: Arco Publishing Co., Inc., 1963), pp. 31011; Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 218

Source: [44] Leonard Dinnerstein, Uneasy At Home (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987), p. 86

Source: [45] Leonard Dinnerstein, Uneasy at Home, pp. 86-7; See also Wiernik, pp. 206-7

Source: [46] Julius Lester, lecture at Boston University, January 28, 1990; Weisbord and Stein, p. 20

Source: [47] Lenni Brenner, Jews in America Today (Secaucus, New Jersey: Lyle Stuart Inc., 1986) pp. 221-22

Source: [48] Salo W. Baron, Arcadius Kahan, Nachum Gross, ed., Economic History of the Jews (New York: Schocken Books, 1975), p. 274

Source: [49] Salo W. Baron, Arcadius Kahan, Nachum Gross, ed., Economic History of the Jews (New York: Schocken Books, 1975), p. 274; Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” pp. 181-82; Myron Bermon, Richmond’s Jewry 1769-1976: Shabbat in Shockoe (Charlottesville, Virginia: Jewish Community Federation of Richmond by University Press of Virginia, 1979), p. 166; Feldstein, p. 81

Source: [50] Harold Sharfman, Jews on the Frontier (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1977), p. 152

Source: [51] Feingold, Zion, p. 62

Source: [52] Jacob Rader Marcus, Memoirs of American Jews 1775-1865 (New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1974, 3 volumes), p. 20

Source: [53] G. Cohen, p. 87

Source: [54] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 66

Source: [55] Ira Rosenwaike, “The Jewish Population of the United States as Estimated from the Census of 1820,” Abraham J. Karp, ed., The Jewish Experience in America: Selected Studies from the Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (Waltham, Massachusetts, 1969, 3 volumes), p. 17

Source: [56] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 68, Table 21

Source: [57] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 67, Table A-20

Source: [58] “Some Old Papers Relating to the Newport Slave Trade,” Newport Historical Society Bulletin, no. 62 (July, 1927), p. 11, “And it is certain that Protestants, Quakers, and Jews were all holders of slaves. It was a question not of creed or race, but of the of sufficient money.”

Source: [59] Hühner, “The Jews of Virginia,” p. 88; Golden and Rywell, p. 23

Source: [60] Jacob Rader Marcus, United States Jewry, 1776-1985 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), p. 211, p. 28

Source: [61] Berman, p. 166; Feingold, Zion, p. 60: “[T]he possession of one or two house servants was fairly widespread. As many as a quarter of the South’s Jews may have fallen into this category… It is a clue to the relative prosperity of [Mississippi] Jewry because slave ownership was also an indication of wealth and social status.” This accounting, however, is of domestic servants only and makes no accounting of the Blacks held as stock in trade.

Source: [62] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, pp. 132-33, Table A-1 1. (Excludes Richmond)

Source: [63] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 128, Table A-8

Source: [64] Jacob Rader Marcus, Early American Jewry (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951, 2 volumes) p. 322

Source: [65] Jacob Rader Marcus, The Colonial American Jew: 1492-1776 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970, 3 volumes), p. 1504

Source: [66] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, pp. 130-31, Table A-10

Source: [67] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 113-15, Table A-2

Source: [68] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 117, Table A-4

Source: [69] St. John, p. 60; Hühner, “The Jews of Georgia,” p. 82: “The reasons which ultimately induced most of the Jews to leave the colony had nothing whatever to do with religious prejudice.”

Source: [70] Jacob Rader Marcus, Memoirs of American Jews 1775-1865 (New York: KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 1974, 3 volumes), 2, p. 288

Source: [71] 7 Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 129, Table A-9

Source: [72] Rosenwailke, Edge of Greatness, p. 118, Table A-5

Source: [73] Rabbi Leo E. Turitz and Evelyn Turitz, Jews in Early Mississippi (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1983), p. xvii; Learsi, p. 95, concurs. He states that the Jews of the South “embraced its cause promptly and enthusiastically.”

Source: [74] Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht, The Fate of the Jews: A People Torn Between Israeli Power and Jewish Ethics (New York: Times Books, 1983), p. 73

Source: [75] Salo W. Baron, Arcadius Kahan, Nachum Gross, ed., Economic History of the Jews (New York: Schocken Books, 1975), p. 274; Also Fishman, p. 8

Source: [76] Louis Ruchames, “Abolitionists and the Jews,” PAJHS, vol. 42 (1952), pp. 153-54; The complete text is in Schappes, pp. 332-33. The original source is The Thirteenth Annual Report of the American and Foreign AntiSlavery Society, pp. 114-15; See also Sokolow, p. 27.

Source: [77] Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht, The Fate of the Jews: A People Torn Between Israeli Power and Jewish Ethics (New York: Times Books, 1983), p. 187

Source: [78] Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht, The Fate of the Jews: A People Torn Between Israeli Power and Jewish Ethics (New York: Times Books, 1983), p. 39

Source: [79] Abraham J. Karp, Haven and Home: A History of Jews in America (New York: Schocken Books, 1985), p. 80; Karp, JEA3, p. 209

Source: [80] Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Ltd., 1971), vol. 12, p. 932. Frequently discussed, however, was Jewish slavery, which was the centerpiece of their moral crusade. According to Robert V. Friedenberg, “Hear O Israel,” The History of American Jewish Preaching, 1654-1970 (Tuscaloosa and London: University of Alabama Press, 1989), p. 41: “By the 1850s, there were at least sixty Jewish religious leaders in the country, of whom at least eighteen have left us printed sermons.” Friedenberg, p. 46: “It is highly significant that the first important statement on slavery to be made from any Jewish pulpit in the United States was not made until January 1861, after South Carolina had already left the Union over the question of slavery and while six other states were in the process of deciding to do the same.” See also Korn, Civil War, pp. 29-30

Source: [81] Arthur Hertzberg, The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter: A History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), pp. 123-24

Source: [82] Korn, Civil War, p. 29 and on pp. 88-90, Michelbacher also composed a prayer for his cause which read in part: Be unto the Army of this Confederacy, as thou were of old, unto us, thy chosen people – Inspire them with patriotism! Give them when marching to meet, or, overtake the enemy, the wings of the eagle – in the camp be Thou their watch and ward – and in the battle strike for them O Almighty God of Israel, as thou didst strike for thy people on the plains of Canaan – guide them O Lord of Battles, into the paths of victory, guard them from the shaft and missile of the enemy…” See also Lewis M. Killian, White Southerners (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1985), p. 73; Korn, Civil War, p. 29; Feldstein, pp. 100-1: Rabbi Michaelbacher justified the enslavement and the prison-like atmosphere of the slave states in this prayer, reasoning that it was the only means to prevent a repetition of the Saint Dominique massacre of the 1790s: The man servants and maid servants Thou has given unto us, that we may be merciful to them in righteousness and bear rule over them, the enemy are attempting to seduce, that they, too, may turn against us, whom Thou has appointed over them as instructors in Thy wise dispensation. Behold, O God, [the abolitionists] invite our manservants to insurrection, and they place weapons of death and the fire of desolation in their hands that we may become an easy prey unto them; they beguile them from the path of duty that they may waylay their masters, to assassinate and to slay the men, women and children of the people that trust only in Thee. In this wicked thought, let them be frustrated, and cause them to fall into the pit of destruction, which in the abomination of their evil intents they digged out for us, our brothers and sisters, our wives and our children.

Source: [83] Stanley Feldstein, The Land That I Show You (New York: Anchor Press/ Doubleday, 1978), p. 97

Source: [84] Korn, Civil War, pp. 29-30; Karp, Hawn and Home, p. 80

Source: [85] Kaganoff and Urofsky, p. 29; Feldstein, p. 96

Source: [86] Jacob Rader Marcus, Studies in American Jewish History (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1969), p. 38

Source: [87] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 215. Certainly, no Jews who came to live in the antebellum South were deeply affected by abolitionism, and though their ethical anxiety over the peculiar institution was “sometimes demonstrated,” wrote Stephen J. Whitfield, “but not abundantly.” See Whitfield, Voices of Jacob, Hands of Esau: Jews in American Life and Thought (New York: Archon Books, 1984), p. 226

Source: [88] Oscar R. Williams, Jr., “Historical Impressions of Black-Jewish Relations Prior to World War II,” Negro History Bulletin, vol. 40 (1977), p. 728

Source: [89] Sokolow, p. 27. In Barbados, for instance, the Jews regarded manumission as “a curious eccentricity.” See Samuel, pp. 46-7

Source: [90] Hugh H. Smythe, Martin S. Price, “The American Jew and Negro Slavery,” The Midwest journal, vol. 7, no. 4 (1955-56), p. 318; Korn, Civil War, p. 27, Feuerlicht, p. 76

Source: [91] Fein, “Baltimore Jews,” p. 324. The term 48’ers refers to the immigrants who arrived en masse in 1848, primarily from Germany and many of whom were Jewish.

Source: [92] Karp, Haven and Home, p. 80

Source: [93] Korn, Civil War, p. 253, note 76

Source: [94] Korn, Civil War, p. 253, note 76

Source: [95] Jonathan D. Sarna, Jacksonian few: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah (New York: Holmes and Meir Publishers, 1981), pp. 111 and 197 note 52; Bernard Postal & Lionel Koppman, Guess Who’s Jewish in American History (New York: Shopolsky Books, 1986), p. 19; EJ, vol. 12, p. 1198; Joseph R. Rosenbloom, A Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews: Colonial Times through 1800 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press 1960), p. 134

Source: [96] Jonathan D. Sarna, Jacksonian few: The Two Worlds of Mordecai Noah (New York: Holmes and Meir Publishers, 1981), p. 110

Source: [97] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 182

Source: [98] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 182

Source: [99] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, pp. 134-38, Table A-12

Source: [100] Malcolm H. Stern, “Some Additions and Corrections to Rosenwaike’s ‘An Estimate and Analysis of the Jewish Population of the United States in 1790,”‘ AIHQ, vol. 53 (1964), pp. 285-89: Ira Rosenwaike’s original article is in PAIHS, vol. 50, no. 1 (March, 1961), pp. 23-67

Source: [101] Rosenwaike, “Jewish Population of 1820,” pp, 19A-13

Source: [102] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, p. 70, Table 22

Source: [103] Liebman, New World Jewry, p. 183

Source: [104] Jacob Rader Marcus, American Jewry: Documents of the Eighteenth Century (Cincinnati: Hebrew College Union Press, 1959), pp. 392, 416, 448; Schappes, pp. 58, 334, 569, 583, 627; Jay Coughtry, The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981); Donnan, passim; Virginia Bever Platt, “And Don’t Forget the Guinea Voyage”: The Slave Trade of Aaron Lopez of Newport,” William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 4 (1975), p. 603; Emmanuel, vol. 2, passim; Kohler, “Newport,” p. 73; Jonathan D. Sarna, Benny Kraut, Samuel K. Joseph, Jews and the Founding of the Republic (New York: Markus Wiener Publishing), p. 45

Source: [105] Freund, pp. 35, 75-6, Samuel Oppenheim, “Jewish Owners of Ships Registered at the Port of Philadelphia, 1730-1775,” PAJHS, vol. 26 (1918), pp. 235-36, Broches, pp. 12,14. Kohler, “New York,” p. 83; Libo and Howe, p. 46; Lee M. Friedman, Jewish Pioneers and Patriots, p. 90; Korn, Jews of New Orleans, p. 93; Irwin S. Rhodes, References to Jews in the Newport Mercury, 1758-1786 (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1961), pp. 3,13,15; Kohler, “Newport,” p. 73, lists Myer Pollack as owner of a ship Nancy. Hershkowitz, “Wills of Early New York Jews, 1743 – 1774,” AJHQ, vol, 56 (1966-67), p. 168. Leo Hershkowitz, “New York,” p. 27; Feingold, Zion, p. 45; MEA11, 204. See also Emmanuel, vol. 2, Appendix 3, pp. 681-738, for lists of Jewish owned ships

Source: [106] Wilfred S. Samuel, A Review of The jewish Colonists in Barbados in the Year 1680 (London: Purnell & Sons, Ltd.,1936), pp. 13,92

Source: [107] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 193

Source: [108] David De Sola Pool, Portraits Etched in Stone: Early Jewish Settlers, 1682-1831 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1952), p. 478

Source: [109] Edwin Wolf and Maxwell Whiteman, The History of the Jews of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1957), p. 191; Joseph R. Rosenbloom, A Biographical Dictionary of Early American jews: Colonial Times through 1800 (Lexington: University of Kentucky, Press 1960), p. 7

Source: [110] Myron Sermon, Richmonds lewry 1769-1976: Shabbat in Shockoe (Charlottesville, Virginia: Jewish Community Federation of Richmond by University Press of Virginia, 1979), p. 16

Source: [111] Daniel M. Swetschinski, “Conflict and Opportunity in ‘Europe’s Other Sea’: ‘The Adventure of Caribbean Jewish Settlement,” AJHQ, vol. 72 (1982-83), p. 214

Source: [112] Earl A. Grollman, “Dictionary of American Jewish Biography in the 17th Century,” AJA, vol. 3 (1950), p. 4

Source: [113] Korn, Jews of New Orleans, p. 167

Source: [114] Korn, Jews of New Orleans, pp. 107-9: “Auction,” p. 208, plate 12; 1. Harold Sharfman, Jews on the Frontier (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1977), p. 151

Source: [115] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 194

Source: [116] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” p. 43

Source: [117] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” p. 33

Source: [118] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” p. 43

Source: [119] Ernst van den Boogaart and Pieter C. Emmer, “The Dutch Participation in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1596- 1650,” The Uncommon Market, editors, Henry A. Gemery and Jan S. Hogendom (New York: Academic Press, 1975), p. 354

Source: [120] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 75. Belmonte was count palatine and representative of her Catholic Majesty before the High States Ceneral of Holland. Also known as Isaac Nunez, he, jointly with Moseh Curiel, represented the Jews before the Dutch government. In 1658, Belmonte was ambassador-extraordinary of Holland to England; see note no. 55. See also Swetschinski, p. 236

Source: [121] Isaac S., and Susan A. Emmanuel, History of the Jews of the Netherland Antilles (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1973), p. 76; Johannes Menne Postma, The Dutrh in the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1600-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 38-4

Source: [122] Harry Simonhoff, Jewish Notables in America: 1776-1865 (New York: Greenberg Publisher, 1956), p. 370, EJ, vol. 4, pp. 529-30; Henry L. Feingold, Zion in America: The lewish Experience from Colonial Times to the Present (New York: Twayne Publishin& Inc., 1974), p. 60; Simon Wolf, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen (Philadelphia: Levytype Company, 1895), p. 114. Whereas most references have confirmed 140 slaves, Feingold has reported the number to be as high as 740

Source: [123] Liebman, The Jews in New Spain, p. 262

Source: [124] Ezekiel and Lichtenstein, p. 90

Source: [125] Max J. Kohler, “Phases of jewish Life in New York Before 1800,” PAJHS, vol. 2 (1894), p. 84

Source: [126] Joseph L. Blau and Salo W. Baron, editors, The Jews of the United States, 1790-1840 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963, 3 volumes), vol. 3, p. 799. The authors claim that Boyd “was neither a Jew nor a Dutchrnan,” but Samuels describes him as such in a letter to his family in 1819. See also Isaac M. Fein, The Making of An American Jewish Community (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1971), p. 11

Source: [127] Isaac Emmanuel, “Seventeenth Century Brazilian Jewry: A Critical Review,” AJA, vol. 14 (1962), p. 37

Source: [128] Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Ltd., 1971) vol. 4, p. 1411; Schappes, p. 569; Rosenbloom, p. 14

Source: [129] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” pp. 14, 90

Source: [130] Leo Hershkowitz, Wills of Early New York Jews (1704-1799) (New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1967), p. 15; Rosenbloorn, p. 14

Source: [131] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” p. 40

Source: [132] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” p. 59

Source: [133] Martin A. Cohen, “The Religion of Luis Rodriguez Carvajal,” AJA, vol. 20 (April, 1968), p. 39

Source: [134] Samuel Oppenheim, “An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana: Supplemental Data,” p. 84

Source: [135] Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” pp. 181, 195; Ira Rosenwaike, “An Estimate and Analysis of the Jewish Population of the United States in 1790,” PAJHS, vol. 50 (1960), p. 47; Rosenbloom, p. 20

Source: [136] Ira Rosenwaike, “The Jewish Population of the United States as Estimated from the Census of 1820,” Karp, JEA2, p. 18; Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 180; Rosenbloom, p. 21

Source: [137] Ira Rosenwaike, On the Edge of Greatness: A Portrait of American Jewry in the Early National Period (Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1985), p. 69

Source: [138] Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Ltd., 1971), vol. 5, p. 662; Schappes, pp. 101, 593; Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” pp. 185-88; Rosenwaike, “Jewish Population in 1790,” p. 63; Charles Reznikoff and Uriah Z. Engelman, The Jews of Charleston (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1950), p. 77; “Acquisitions,” AJA, vol. 5 (January, 1953), p. 58; Bermon, PP. 163-64; Rosenbloom, p. 24

Source: [139] Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, Ltd., 1971), vol. 12, p. 1085; Feingold, Zion, p. 62; Korn, “Jews and Negro Slavery,” p. 189

Source: [140] “Acquisitions. Material Dealing with the Period of the Civil War,” AJA, vol. 12 (1960), p. 117

Source: [141] Rosenwaike, Edge of Greatness, pp. 69-70