See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344210327 Dreaming of Equality: Francis Salvador, the American Jewish Revolutionary Patriot Chapter · September 2020 CITATIONS READS 0 16 1 author: Bonnie K. Goodman Concordia University Montreal 36 PUBLICATIONS 1 CITATION SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Jewish Response to the American Civil War, 1860-1913 View project On This Day in History... View project All content following this page was uploaded by Bonnie K. Goodman on 11 September 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. 1 DDrreeaammiinngg ooff EEqquuaalliittyy FFrraanncciiss SSaallvvaaddoorr,, tthhee AAmmeerriiccaann JJeewwiisshh RReevvoolluuttiioonnaarryy PPaattrriioott OTD in History… January 11, 1775, Patriot Francis Salvador the first Jew elected joins the Provincial Congress of South Carolina OTD in History… August 1, 1776, Patriot Francis Salvador the first Jewish death of the American Revolution BByy BBoonnnniiiee KK... GGooooddmmaann,,, BBAA,,, MMLLIISS CCooppyyrriiigghhtt ©© 22002200 2 OTD in History… August 1, 1776, Patriot Francis Salvador the first Jew elected to serve in Provincial Congress of South Carolina dies in the American Revolution By Bonnie K. Goodman, BA, MLIS Copyright © 2020 3 Table of Contents DDrrreeaammiiinngg oofff EEqquuaallliiitttyy ...................................................................................... 2 FFrrraanncciiiss SSaalllvvaaddoorrr,,, ttthhee AAmmeerrriiiccaann JJeewwiiisshh RReevvoollluutttiiioonnaarrryy PPaatttrrriiioottt ...................... 2 OTD in History… January 11, 1775, Patriot Francis Salvador the first Jew elected joins the Provincial Congress of South Carolina ............................ 2 OTD in History… August 1, 1776, Patriot Francis Salvador the first Jewish death of the American Revolution................................................... 2 OTD in History… August 1, 1776, Patriot Francis Salvador the first Jew elected to serve in Provincial Congress of South Carolina dies in the American Revolution ...................................................................................... 3 Preface ............................................................................................................. 5 Introduction: The Jewish Position in Colonial America ............................. 8 Jewish Rights in the American Colonies ............................................... 17 Jewish Support in the American Revolution ......................................... 25 Francis Salvador: Jewish Patriot ............................................................... 31 The Salvador Family in England ........................................................... 31 Francis Salvador and the South Carolina Provincial Congress ............. 35 Francis Salvador: Patriot Fighting the Loyalists in the Revolution ...... 42 Conclusion: President George Washington and the promise of Religious Freedom ..................................................................................................... 51 Bibliography........................................................................................... 69 About the Author ....................................................................................... 74 4 Preface Since university, I have consistently been interested in American colonial and Revolutionary history. At McGill University, where I majored in history, American, and a lesser extent Jewish history, no professor specialized in that period teaching at the university. The only course the History Department offered was the American history survey until 1865. I wanted to learn more, unfortunately, and with busy schedules, students are rarely motivated to read outside their classes at the undergraduate level. When I took the Masters in Arts in Judaic Studies at Concordia University I was fulfilling another dream to learn about American Jewish history, not that the department was that enthusiastic about my scholarly obsession. Judaic Studies was offered as part of the Department of Religion, not an independent Jewish Studies department, the emphasis was on the religious aspect as opposed to the social, political, and cultural elements that are at the least equally important in studying American Jewish History. I chose to research probably the most studied era in American history, the Civil War. Since then, I have focused my historical writing on anti-Semitism and American Jewish history in the South before, during, and after the Civil War. Again I put aside my interest in learning more about the colonial and Revolutionary eras. Recently, I decided to fulfill this long waited academic dream. When I was in graduate school my interest peaked more when I worked as the features editor at the History News Network and edited the History Doyens series. Then I had the opportunity to speak with three of the greatest historians and scholars of that period, Edmund S. Morgan, Bernard Bailyn, and Gordon S. Wood. We have lost two of them, Morgan and Bailyn, who just died this past August. 1 I began writing the “On this Day in History” feature back in December 2007, when I was a features editor at the History News Network. My first edition was “December 17, 1862: Grant Issues General Order No. 11 Against the Jews.” 2 When I restarted writing my “On This Day in… 1 https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169253 2 http://web.archive.org/web/20101201084015/http:/hnn.us/blogs/entries/45459.html 5 History” series in 2018, I decided to write every time about an American Revolutionary event when one came up on a date. Some of my most popular articles were on the First Continental Congress, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the Treaty of Paris with many schools referencing these essays. Still, I wanted to know more about the lives of the small Jewish minority in the pre-Revolutionary era than what I had read in the surveys during my academic studies. In 2013, I had touched upon the topic when I wrote about the court battle between Congregation Jeshuat Israel in Newport, Rhode Island, and Congregation Shearith Israel in New York. The two congregations were fighting over ownership of the Touro Synagogue building and the religious contents particularly, “Colonial-era silver Torah scroll finials handcrafted by prominent silversmith Myer Myers valued at more than $7 million.” 3 This is an argument reminiscent of the two congregations’ disagreements in 1790 over the writing of an address to President George Washington. In that disagreement, Jeshuat Israel won out in their historic address and Washington’s response, their exchange is remembered in history while Shearith Israel’s is but a footnote. This time round Shearith Israel won in appeals court and the Supreme Court failed to take up the case leaving Touro synagogue belonging to Shearith Israel. However, the colonial Jewish experience and history are more than this court battle two hundred and thirty years after the historic Washington addresses. In 2019, I came upon Francis Salvador’s January 1775 election to South Carolina First Provincial Congress and started to write a short On This Day in History article. However, life and other more timely topics interrupted my work. This summer as I am editing my American Revolutionary “On This Day in History” anthology I decided to revisit Francis Salvador’s life. This essay “Dreaming of Equality: Francis Salvador the American Revolutionary Jewish Patriot” is just but an excerpt of what the manuscript blossomed into, and is a work in progress. At the time of the American Revolution there might have been only 2,500 Jews spread over six port cities, however, American Jewish 3 https://www.jta.org/2018/06/15/united-states/nations-oldest-synagogue-newport-belongs-ny- congregation-appeals-court-says 6 contributions were already showing to be significant especially in their fight for their rights. Jews in that era laid the groundwork for the later larger waves of Jewish immigrants that would come from Central Europe in the antebellum era and the nearly four million East European Jews that started arriving in 1881. Without the hard-won fights for political and religious rights, these later Jewish immigrants would not have the opportunities to flourish as they did. Jewish heroes like Francis Salvador deserve to be remembered as an honor for their groundbreaking path and sacrifices for American Jewry. Bonnie K. Goodman Montreal, Canada, September 7, 2020 7 Introduction: The Jewish Position in Colonial America On this day in history January 11, 1775, Francis Salvador, the first Jew elected to a colonial public office begins his tenure on the revolutionary South Carolina Provincial Congress. Salvador was a recent immigrant to America having arrived in Charleston, South Carolina from London in 1773, a year later, he was elected to the South Carolina assembly becoming the first Jew elected to a political body in modern history, and then in 1775, he was reelected to Second Provincial Congress. Salvador became a Whig and supported the colonial revolt and then the fight for independence from Great Britain. Salvador made history again in on August 1, 1776, becoming the first Jewish casualty of the American Revolutionary War when a Cherokee native siding with the British killed and scalped him in battle. Historian Samuel Rezneck indicates in his book Unrecognized Patriots: The Jews in the American Revolution, Salvador “is one of the best-