THE J EWS OF SOUTH C AROLINA FROMHE T EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY ,' BY BARNETT A * ELZAS, M.D., LL.D. ASSOCIATE O F JEWS* COLLEGE, LONDON HOLL1ER S CHOLAR, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON RABBIF O K. K. BETH ELOHIM, CHARLESTON, S. C. PRESSF O J.. B LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 1905 TOHE T FRIEND OF MY YOUTH MADAME E MILY S. KIEFE OF P ARIS THIS V OLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY I NSCRIBED BY THE A UTHOR 156700 " W herever possible, let us not be told about this man or that. Let us hear the man himself speak, let us see him act, and let us be left to form our own opinions about him. The historian, we are told, must not leave his readers to themselves. He must not only lay the facts before them : he must tell them what he himself thinks about those facts. In my opinion this is precisely what he ought not to do." — Froude on The Science of History. PREFACE 0 w rite a comprehensive history of the Jews of South Carolina is to-day a task of no small difficulty : not that there is any dearth of material at the disposal of the historian, but by reason of the very vastness of that material, of which scarcely anything has hitherto )een utilized. Twenty years ago the task would have been a much easier one. There were then several people still living in Charleston who were born in the first decade of the nine teenth century and who could have filled in many an inter esting gap that must now remain void. sStrange a it may seem, very little of historical value has been written on the subject. Four brief sketches of the Jewish Congregation at Charleston, by the late Nathaniel Levin, in the first volume of Leeser's Occident, reproduced in substance in the Year Book of the City of Charleston for 1883, useful as far as they go but exceedingly imperfect and erroneous; a few biographical notices in Markens's The Hebrews in America and in the recently published Jewish Encyclopedia; a few items collected in the Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, and a few mis cellaneous articles in the Jewish newspapers of the last fifty years are all that we possess. For the rest, the data have been buried in the voluminous records of various character existing in South Carolina and in the newspaper files of the 7 8 P REFACE last h undred and seventy years. The story is here pre sented for the first time from original sources. Until q uite recently the Congregation Beth Elohim had no records prior to 1866. These were long supposed to have been burnt in Columbia, where they were sent for safe keeping during the war between the States. A singular accident has brought most of these books, beginning with the year 1800, to light again. They form, indeed, a most re markable collection, and correct many fictions that till now have passed current as history. In t he preparation of this work the author has carefully collated all files of newspapers published in Charleston from 1732 to the present time; he has examined all the public documents of the State from the earliest times to the present day; he has ransacked the historical collections of the Charleston Library Society, the South Carolina His torical Society, the Winyah Indigo Society, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the "Wis consin State Historical Society ; and the treasures of many private libraries have passed through his hands. In t he following chapters tradition will play but an in significant part. A whole volume might be written on the traditions of the Jews of South Carolina, but it is perhaps as well to let these traditions die. Traditions, while inter esting to the general reader, do not help the truth of history. The story will therefore be treated objectively. The records will speak for themselves. Here and there personal interpretation of the documents and of the facts will be necessary. They will be interpreted in as faithful a light as possible, nothing extenuated and nothing set down in malice. The a uthor would here acknowledge his deep sense of obligation to numerous friends without whose assistance this volume could never have been carried to successful completion: to the late General Edward McCrady, whose PREFACE 9 name w ill ever be indissolubly associated with the history of South Carolina ; to the late Henry A. de Saussure, Esq., whose valuable collection of historical material he ungrudg ingly placed at his disposal; to Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., the able secretary till recently of the South Carolina Historical Society, whose time and knowledge have been unsparingly drawn upon on innumerable occasions ; to the Hon. William A. Courtenay, of Newry, who, at his own expense, sent to him some of his most precious volumes; to Mr. Yates Snowden, late of The News and Courier, who has called his attention to many suggestive data ; to Mr. A. S. Freidus and Mr. Wilberforce Eames, of the New York Public Library ; to J. Quintus Cohen, Esq., of New York, to whom the author is indebted for much valuable material; and, finally, to Henry A. M. Smith, Esq., of Charleston, to whose unceasing encouragement the publication of this volume is largely due. The a uthor would only add that the following chapters are the result of- several years of steady work done in the intervals of a busy life. He has striven to make the story as complete and as accurate as possible. Other facts may yet come to light, but all the sources at present available have been laid under contribution. Many interesting data have doubtless been omitted, but the author only claims to tell the story in as far as it is revealed in the records. When the reader considers the immensity of the task here undertaken, and the fact that this history is now written for the first time, the author feels that he may reasonably seek indulgence for any small shortcomings of which he may unconsciously be guilty. Charleston, S . C, September, 1905. CONTENTS PAGE Preface 7 CHAPTER I Beginnings. 1 670-1750 17 CHAPTER I I Organization. 1 750-1775 30 CHAPTER I II Moses L indo 47 CHAPTER I V Francis S alvador 68 CHAPTER V The R evolutionary Period 78 CHAPTER V I Joseph S alvador 108 CHAPTER V II 1783-1800 1 19 CHAPTER V III 1800-1824 1 31 11 12 C ONTENTS CHAPTER I X PAGE The R eformed Society of Israelites 147 CHAPTER X 1824-1860 1 66 CHAPTER X I Religious D evelopment. 1824-1860 208 CHAPTER X II The W ar Between the States 220 CHAPTER X III Smaller C ommunities 241 CHAPTERIV X Modern P eriod. 1865-1905 260 Miscellaneous B iographies 268 APPENDIX A The A ct for Making Aliens Free 276 APPENDIX B Directories ( a) 1695-1750, (b) 1750-1783, (c) 1783-1800 277 APPENDIX C The S alvador Grant of Arms 280 APPENDIX D The H ebrew Benevolent Society 282 APPENDIX E The H ebrew Orphan Society 285 CONTENTS 1 3 APPENDIX F PAGE The C ongregation Beth Elohim. 1800-1824 287 APPENDIX G Ministers o f Beth Elohim. 1750-1905 292 APPENDIX H Old J ewish Cemeteries in South Carolina 293 Bibliography 2 95 Index 3 07 THE J EWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA CHAPTER / —BEGINNINGS 1670-1750 HE h istory of South Carolina is a thrill ing history. From her settlement in 1670 to our own day it has been one long tale of glorious achievement. In not a few things has South Carolina set the pace to her sister States, but in nothing may she feel a more jus tifiable pride than in the broad and liberal principles on which she was founded. "In t he year 1669, the Lords 'did encourage severall people to come in their Vessells to inhabitt this part of their province & with the said people did alsoe send Fundamll Lawes, Constitucons under the hands & Seales of six of their Lordshipps bearing date 21st July, '69, as the unalter able forme & rule of Governmt for ever. ' " 1 This C onstitution of John Locke (1669) was a veritable Magna Charta of liberty and tolerance. South Carolina 1 N ote of Langdon Cheves to " Shaftesbury Papers," Vol. 5, Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, p. 117. 17 18HE T JEWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA started r ight. Our chief concern being with the Jews of South Carolina, it would be well to note carefully Article 87 of this wise and far-seeing Constitution : "87. B ut since ye natives of yt place who will be concernd in or. plantations are utterly strangers to Christianity, whose idollatry, igno rance, or mistake gives us noe right to expell or use ym. ill, & those who remove from other parts to plant there, will unavoydably be of diffrent opinions concerning matters of religion, ye liberty whereof they will expect to have allowed ym., & it will not be reasonable for us on this account to keep ym. out yt civil peace may be maintaind amidst ye diversity of opinions, & our agreement & compact with all men may be duly & faith fully observed, ye violation whereof upon what p'tence soever, cannot be without great offence to Almighty God, & great scandal to the true religion yt we p'f esse, & also yt heathens, Jues, and other disenters from the purity of Christian religion may not be scared and kept at a distance from it, but by having an oppertunity of acquainting themselves with ye truth & reasonablenes of its doctrines, & ye peacablenes & inoffen- civenes of its professors, may by good usage and perswasion, & all those convincing methods of gentlenes & meeknes sutable to ye rules & designe of the Ghospel, be wone over to imbrace and unfeynedly receive ye truth.