[Menydh]

Chapter 4
The Foundation of Modern Colonies


We are only now beginning to realize that colonial expansion was no small force in the development of modern capitalism. It is the purpose of this chapter to show that in the work of that expansion the Jews played, if not the most decisive, at any rate a most prominent part.

That the Jews should have been keen colonial settlers was only natural, seeing that the New World, though it was but the Old in a new garb, seemed to hold out a greater promise of happiness to them than crossgrained old Europe, more especially when their last Dorado (Spain) proved an inhospitable refuge. And this applies equally to all colonial enterprises, whether in the East or the West or the South of the globe. There were probably many Jews resident in the East Indies even in mediaeval times,¹ and when the nations of Europe, after 1498, stretched out their hands to seize the lands of an ancient civilization, the Jews were welcomed as bulwarks of European supremacy, though they came as pioneers of trade. In all likelihood -- exact proofs have not yet been established -- the ships of the Portuguese and of the Dutch must have brought shoals of Jewish settlers to their respective Indian possessions. At any rate, Jews participated extensively in all the Dutch settlements, including those in the East. We are told that Jews were large shareholders in the Dutch East India Company.² We know that the Governor of the Company who, "if he did not actually establish the power of Holland in Java, certainly contributed most to strengthen it,"³ was called Cohn (Coen). Furthermore, a glance at the portraits of the Governors of the Dutch colonies would make it appear that this Coen is not the only Jew among them.⁴ Jews were also Directors of the Company;⁵ in short, no colonial enterprise was complete without them.⁶

It is as yet unknown to what extent the Jews shared in the growth of economic life in India after the English became masters there. We have, however, fairly full information as to the participation of the Jews in the founding of the English colonies in South Africa and Australia. There is no doubt that in these regions (more particularly in Cape Colony), wellnigh all economic development was due to the Jews. In the twenties and thirties of the 19th century Benjamin Norden and Simon Marks came to South Africa, and "the industrial awakening of almost the whole interior of Cape Colony" was their work. Julius Mosenthal and his brothers Adolph and James established the trade in wool, skins, and mohair. Aaron and Daniel de Pass monopolized the whaling industry; Joel Myers commenced ostrich fanning. Lilienfeld, of Hopetown, bought the first diamonds. ⁷ Similar leading positions were occupied by the Jews in the other South African colonies, particularly in the Transvaal, where it is said that to-day twenty-five of the fifty thousand Jews of South Africa are settled.⁸ It is the same story in Australia, where the first wholesale trader was Montefiore. It would seem to be no exaggeration therefore that "a large proportion of the English colonial shipping trade was for a considerable time in the hands of the Jews."⁹

But the real sphere of Jewish influence in colonial settlements, especially in the early capitalistic period, was in the Western Hemisphere. America in all its borders is a land of Jews. That is the result to which a study of the sources must inevitably lead, and it is pregnant with meaning. From the first day of its discovery America has had a strong influence on the economic life of Europe and on the whole of its civilization; and therefore the part which the Jews have played in building up the American world is of supreme import as an element in modern development. That is why I shall dwell on this theme a little more fully, even at the risk of wearying the reader.¹⁰

The very discovery of America is most intimately bound up with the Jews in an extraordinary fashion. It is as though the New World came into the horizon by their aid and for them alone, as though Columbus and the rest were but managing directors for Israel. It is in this light that Jews, proud of their past, now regard the story of that discovery, as set forth in the latest researches.¹¹ These would seem to show that it was the scientific knowledge of Jewish scholars which so perfected the art of navigation that voyages across the ocean became at all possible. Abraham Zacuto, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the University of Salamanca, completed his astronomical tables and diagrams, the Almanach perpetuum, in 1473. On the basis of these tables two other Jews, Jose Vecuho, who was Court astronomer and physician to John II of Portugal, and one Moses the Mathematician (in collaboration with two Christian scholars), discovered the nautical astrolabe, an instrument by which it became possible to measure from the altitude of the sun the distance of a ship from the Equator. Jose further translated the Almanack of his master into Latin and Spanish.

The scientific facts which prepared the way for the voyage of Columbus were thus supplied by Jews. The money which was equally necessary came from the same quarter, at any rate as regards his first two voyages. For the first voyage, Columbus obtained a loan from Louis de Santangel, who was of the King’s Council; and it was to Santangel, the patron of the expedition, and to Gabriel Saniheg, a Maranno, the Treasurer of Aragon, that the first two letters of Columbus were addressed. The second voyage was also undertaken with the aid of Jewish money, this time certainly not voluntarily contributed. On their expulsion from Spain in 1492, the Jews were compelled to leave much treasure behind; this was seized by Ferdinand for the State Exchequer, and with a portion of it Columbus was financed.

But more than that. A number of Jews were among the companions of Columbus, and the first European to set foot on American soil was a Jew -- Louis de Torres. So the latest researches would have us believe.¹²

But what caps all -- Columbus himself is claimed to have been a Jew. I give this piece of information for what it is worth, without guaranteeing its accuracy. At a meeting of the Geographical Society of Madrid, Don Celso Garcia de la Riega, a scholar famous for his researches on Columbus, read a paper in which he stated that Christobal Colon (not Columbus) was a Spaniard who on his mother’s side was of Jewish descent. He showed by reference to documents in the town of Pontevedra, in the province of Galicia, that the family of Colon lived there between 1428 and 1528, and that the Christian names found among them were the same as those prevalent among the relatives of the Spanish admiral. These Colons and the Fonterosa family intermarried. The latter were undoubtedly Jews, or they had only recently been converted, and Christobal’s mother was called Suzanna Fonterosa. When disorders broke out in the province of Galicia the parents of the discoverer of America migrated from Spain to Italy. These facts were substantiated by Don Celso from additional sources, and he is strengthened in his belief by distinct echoes of Hebrew literature found in the writings of Columbus, and also because the oldest portraits show him to have had a Jewish face.

Scarcely were the doors of the New World opened to Europeans than crowds of Jews came swarming in. We have already seen that the discovery of America took place in the year in which the Jews of Spain became homeless, that the last years of the 15th century and the early years of the 16th were a period in which millions of Jews were forced to become wanderers, when European Jewry was like an antheap into which a stick had been thrust. Little wonder, therefore, that a great part of this heap betook itself to the New World, where the future seemed so bright.

The first traders in America were Jews. The first industrial establishments in America were those of Jews. Already in the year 1492 Portuguese Jews settled in St. Thomas, where they were the first plantation owners on a large scale; they set up many sugar factories and gave employment to nearly three thousand Negroes.¹³ And as for Jewish emigration to South America, almost as soon as it was discovered, the stream was so great that Queen Joan in 1511 thought it necessary to take measures to stem it.¹⁴ But her efforts must have been without avail, for the number of Jews increased, and finally, on May 21, 1577, the law forbidding Jews to emigrate to the Spanish colonies was formally repealed.

In order to do full justice to the unceasing activity of the Jews in South America as founders of colonial commerce and industry, it will be advisable to glance at the fortunes of one or two colonies.

The history of the Jews in the American colonies, and therefore the history of the colonies themselves, falls into two periods, separated by the expulsion of the Jews from Brazil in 1654.

We have already mentioned the establishment of the sugar industry in St. Thomas by Jews in 1492. By the year 1550 this industry had reached the height of its development on the island. There were sixty plantations with sugar mills and refineries, producing annually, as may be seen from the tenth part paid to the King, 150,000 arrobes of sugar.¹⁵

From St. Thomas, or possibly from Madeira,¹⁶ where they had for a long time been engaged in the sugar trade, the Jews transplanted the industry to Brazil, the largest of the American colonies. Brazil thus entered on its first period of prosperity, for the growth of the sugar industry brought with it the growth of the national wealth. In those early years the colony was populated almost entirely by Jews and criminals, two shiploads of them being brought thither annually from Portugal.¹⁷ The Jews quickly became the dominant class, "a not inconsiderable number of the wealthiest Brazilian traders were New Christians."¹⁸ The first Governor-General was of Jewish origin, and he it was who brought order into the government of the colony. It is not too much to say that Portugal’s new possessions really began to thrive only after Thomé de Souza, a man of exceptional ability, was sent out in 1549 to take matters in hand.¹⁹ Nevertheless the colony did not reach the zenith of its prosperity until after the influx of rich Jews from Holland, consequent on the Dutch entering into possession in 1642. In that very year, a number of American Jews combined to establish a colony in Brazil, and no less than six hundred influential Dutch Jews joined them.²⁰ Up to about the middle of the 17th century all the large sugar plantations belonged to Jews,²¹ and contemporary travellers report as to their many-sided activities and their wealth. Thus Nieuhoff, who travelled in Brazil from 1640 to 1649, says of them:²² "Among the free inhabitants of Brazil that were not in the (Dutch West India) Company’s service the Jews were the most considerable in number, who had transplanted themselves thither from Holland. They had a vast traffic beyond the rest; they purchased sugar-mills and built stately houses in the Receif. They were all traders, which would have been of great consequence to the Dutch Brazil had they kept themselves within the due bounds of traffic." Similarly we read in F. Pyrard’s Travels:²³ "The profits they make after being nine or ten years in those lands are marvellous, for they all come back rich."

The predominance of Jewish influence in plantation development outlasted the episode of Dutch rule in Brazil, and continued, despite the expulsion of 1654,²⁴ down to the first half of the 11th century.²⁵ On one occasion, "when a number of the most influential merchants of Rio de Janeiro fell into the hands of the Holy Office (of the Inquisition), the work on so many plantations came to a standstill that the production and commerce of the Province (of Bahio) required a long stretch of time to recover from the blow." Later, a decree of the 2nd March 1768 ordered all the registers containing lists of New Christians to be destroyed, and by a law of 25th March 1773 New Christians were placed on a footing of perfect civic equality with the orthodox. It is evident, then, that very many crypto-Jews must have maintained their prominent position in Brazil even after the Portuguese had regained possession of it in 1654, and that it was they who brought to the country its flourishing sugar industry as well as its trade in precious stones.

Despite this, the year 1654 marks an epoch in the annals of American- Jewish history. For it was in that year that a goodly number of the Brazilian Jews settled in other parts of America and thereby moved the economic centre of gravity.

The change was specially profitable to one or two important islands of the West Indian Archipelago and also to the neighbouring coastlands, which rose in prosperity from the time of the Jewish influx in the 17th century. Barbados, which was inhabited almost solely by Jews, is a case in point.²⁶ It came under English rule in 1627; in 1641 the sugar cane was introduced, and seven years later the exportation of sugar began. But the sugar industry could not maintain itself. The sugar produced was so poor in quality that its price was scarcely sufficient to pay for the cost of transport to England. Not till the exiled "Dutchmen" from Brazil introduced the process of refining and taught the natives the art of drying and crystallizing the sugar did an improvement manifest itself. As a result, the sugar exports of Barbados increased by leaps and bounds, and in 1661 Charles II was able to confer baronetcies on thirteen planters, who drew an annual income of £10,000 from the island. By about the year 1676 the industry there had grown to such an extent that no fewer than 400 vessels each carrying 180 tons of raw sugar left annually.

In 1664 Thomas Modyford introduced sugar manufacturing from Barbados into Jamaica,²⁷ which in consequence soon became wealthy. Now, while in 1656, the year in which the English finally wrested the island from Spain, there were only three small refineries in Jamaica, in 1670 there were already 75 mills at work, many of them having an output of 2000 cwts. By 1700 sugar was the principal export of Jamaica and the source of its riches. The petition of the English merchants of the colony in 1671, asking for the exclusion of the Jews, makes it pretty plain that the latter must have contributed largely to this development. The Government however, encouraged the settlement of still more Jews, the Governor in rejecting the petition remarking²⁸ that "he was of opinion that his Majesty could not have more profitable subjects than the Jews and the Hollanders; they had great stocks and correspondence." So the Jews were not expelled from Jamaica, but "became the first traders and merchants of the English colony."²⁹ In the 18th century they paid all the taxes and almost entirely controlled industry and commerce.

Of the other English colonies, the Jews showed a special preference for Surinam.³⁰ Jews had been settled there since 1644 and had received a number of privileges -- "whereas we have found that the Hebrew nation . . . have . . . proved themselves useful and beneficial to the colony." Their privileged position continued under the Dutch, to whom Surinam passed in 1667. Towards the end of the 17th century their proportion to the rest of the inhabitants was as one to three, and in 1730 they owned 115 of the 344 sugar plantations.

The story of the Jews in the English and Dutch colonies finds a counterpart in the more important French settlements, such as Martinique, Guadeloupe, and San Domingo.³¹ Here also sugar was the source of wealth, and, as in the other cases, the Jews controlled the industry and were the principal sugar merchants.

The first large plantation and refinery in Martinique was established in 1655 by Benjamin Dacosta, who had fled thither from Brazil with 900 co-religionists and 1100 slaves.

In San Domingo the sugar industry was introduced as early as 1587, but it was not until the "Dutch" refugees from Brazil settled there that it attained any degree of success.

In all this we must never lose sight of the fact that in those critical centuries in which the colonial system was taking root in America (and with it modern capitalism), the production of sugar was the backbone of the entire colonial economy, leaving out of account, of course, the mining of silver, gold and gems in Brazil. Indeed, it is somewhat difiicult exactly to picture to ourselves the enormous significance in those centuries of sugar-making and sugar-selling. The Council of Trade in Paris (1701) was guilty of no exaggerated language when it placed on record its belief that "French shipping owes its splendour to the commerce of the sugar-producing islands, and it is only by means of this that the navy can be maintained and strengthened." Now, it must be remembered that the Jews had almost monopolized the sugar trade; the French branch in particular being controlled by the wealthy family of the Gradis of Bordeaux.³²

The position which the Jews had obtained for themselves in Central and South America was thus a powerful one. But it became even more so when towards the end of the 17th century the English colonies in North America entered into commercial relations with the West Indies. To this close union, which again Jewish merchants helped to bring about, the North American Continent (as we shall see) owes its existence. We have thus arrived at the point where it is essential to consider the Jewish factor in the growth of the United States from their first origins. Once more Jewish elements combined, this time to give the United States their ultimate economic form. As this view is absolutely opposed to that generally accepted (at least in Europe), the question must receive full consideration.

At first sight it would seem as if the economic system of North America was the very one that developed independently of the Jews. Often enough, when I have asserted that modern capitalism is nothing more or less than an expression of the Jewish spirit, I have been told that the history of the United States proves the contrary. The Yankees themselves boast of the fact that they throve without the Jews. It was an American writer -- Mark Twain, if I mistake not -- who once considered at some length why the Jews played no great part in the States, giving as his reason that the Americans were as "smart" as the Jews, if not smarter. (The Scotch, by the way, think the same of themselves.) Now, it is true that we come across no very large number of Jewish names to-day among the big captains of industry, the well-known speculators, or the Trust magnates in the country. Nevertheless, I uphold my assertion that the United States (perhaps more than any other land) are filled to the brim with the Jewish spirit. This is recognized in many quarters, above all in those best capable of forming a judgment on the subject. Thus, a few years ago, at the magnificent celebration of the 250th anniversary of the first settlement of the Jews in the United States, President Roosevelt sent a congratulatory letter to the Organizing Committee. In this he said that that was the first time during his tenure of office that he had written a letter of the kind, but that the importance of the occasion warranted him in making an exception. The persecution to which the Jews were then subjected made it an urgent duty for him to lay stress on the splendid civic qualities which men of the Jewish faith and race had developed ever since they came into the country. In mentioning the services rendered by Jews to the United States he used an expression which goes to the root of the matter -- "The Jews participated in the up-building of this country."³³ On the same occasion ex- President Cleveland remarked: "I believe that it can be safely claimed that few, if any, of those contributing nationalities have directly and indirectly been more influential in giving shape and direction to the Americanism of to-day."³⁴

Wherein does this Jewish influence manifest itself? In the first place, the number of Jews who took part in American business life was never so small as would appear at the first glance. It is a mistake to imagine that because there are no Jews among the half-dozen well-known multimillionaires, male and female, who on account of the noise they make in the world are on all men’s lips, therefore American capitalism necessarily lacks a Jewish element. To begin with, even among the big Trusts there are some directed by Jewish hands and brains. Thus, the Smelters’ Trust, which in 1904 represented a combination with a nominal capital of 201,000,000 dollars, was the creation of Jews -- the Guggenheims. Thus, too, in the Tobacco Trust (500,000,000 dollars), in the Asphalt Trust, in the Telegraph Trust, to mention but a few, Jews occupy commanding positions.³⁵ Again, very many of the large banking-houses belong to Jews, who in consequence exercise no small control over American economic life. Take the Harriman system, which had for its goal the fusion of all the American railways. It was backed to a large extent by Kuhn, Loeb & Co., the well-known banking firm of New York. Especially influential are the Jews in the West California is for the most part their creation. At the foundation of the State Jews obtained distinction as Judges, Congressmen, Governors, Mayors, and so on, and last but not least, as business men. The brothers Seligman -- William, Henry, Jesse and James -- of San Francisco; Louis Sloss and Lewis Gerstle of Sacramento (where they established the Alaska Commercial Company), Hellman and Newmark of Los Angeles, are some of the more prominent business houses in this part of the world. During the gold-mining period Jews were the intermediaries between California and the Eastern States and Europe. The important transactions of those days were undertaken by such men as Benjamin Davidson, the agent of the Rothschilds; Albert Priest, of Rhode Island; Albert Dyer, of Baltimore; the three brothers Lazard, who established the international banking-house of Lazard Freres of Paris, London and San Francisco; the Seligmans, the Glaziers and the Wormsers. Moritz Friedlaender was one of the chief "Wheat kings." Adolph Sutro exploited the Cornstock Lodes. Even to-day the majority of the banking businesses, no less than the general industries, are in the hands of Jews. Thus, we may mention the London, Paris and American Bank (Sigmund Greenbaum and Richard Altschul); the Anglo-Californian Bank (Philip N. Lilienthal and Ignatz Steinhart); the Nevada Bank; the Union Trust Company; the Farmers’ and Merchants’ Bank of Los Angeles; John Rosenfeld’s control of the coalfields; the Alaska Commercial Company, which succeeded the Hudson Bay Company; the North American Commercial Company, and many more.³⁶

It can scarcely be doubted that the immigration of numerous Jews into all the States during the last few decades must have had a stupendous effect on American economic life everywhere. Consider that there are more than a million Jews in New York to-day, and that the greater number of the immigrants have not yet embarked on a capitalistic career. If the conditions in America continue to develop along the same lines as in the last generation, if the immigration statistics and the proportion of births among all the nationalities remain the same, our imagination may picture the United States of fifty or a hundred years hence as a land inhabited only by Slavs, Negroes and Jews, wherein the Jews will naturally occupy the position of economic leadership.

But these are dreams of the future which have no place in this connexion, where our main concern is with the past and the present. That Jews have taken a prominent share in American life in the present and in the past may be conceded; perhaps a more prominent share than would at first sight appear. Nevertheless, the enormous weight which, in common with many others who have the right of forming an opinion on the subject, I attach to their influence, cannot be adequately explained merely from the point of view of their numbers. It is rather the particular kind of influence that I lay stress on, and this can be accounted for by a variety of complex causes.

That is why I am not anxious to overemphasize the fact, momentous enough in itself, that the Jews in America practically control a number of important branches of commerce; indeed, it is not too much to say that they monopolize them, or at least did so for a considerable length of time. Take the wheat trade, especially in the West; take tobacco; take cotton. We see at once that they who rule supreme in three such mighty industries must perforce take a leading part in the economic activities of the nation as a whole. For all that I do not labour this fact, for to my mind the significance of the Jews for the economic development of the United States lies rooted in causes far deeper than these.

As the golden thread in the tapestry, so are the Jews interwoven as a distinct thread throughout the fabric of America’s economic history; through the intricacy of their fantastic design it received from the very beginning a pattern all its own.

Since the first quickening of the capitalistic spirit on the coastlands of the ocean and in the forests and prairies of the New World, Jews have not been absent; 1655 is usually given as the date of their first appearance. ³⁷ In that year a vessel with Jewish emigrants from Brazil, which had become a Portuguese possession, anchored in the Hudson River, and the passengers craved permission to land in the colony which the Dutch West India Company had founded there. But they were no humble petitioners asking for a favour. They came as members of a race which had participated to a large extent in the new foundation, and the governors of the colony were forced to recognize their claims. When the ship arrived, New Amsterdam was under the rule of Stuyvesant, who was no friend to the Jews and who, had he followed his own inclination, would have closed the door in the face of the newcomers. But a letter dated March 26, 1665, reached him from the Court of the Company in Amsterdam, containing the order to let the Jews settle and trade in the colonies under the control of the Company, "also because of the large amount of capital which they have invested in shares of this Company."³⁸

It was not long before they found their way to Long Island, Albany, Rhode Island and Philadelphia.

Then their manifold activities began, and it was due to them that the colonies were able to maintain their existence The entity of the United States to-day is only possible, as we know, because the English colonies of North America, thanks to a chain of propitious circumstances, acquired i degree of power and strength such as ultimately led to their complete independence. In the building up of this position of supremacy the Jews were among the first and the keenest workers.

I am not thinking of the obvious fact that the colonies were only able to achieve their independence by the help of a few wealthy Jewish firms who laid the economic foundations for the existence of the New Republic. The United States would never have won complete independence has not the Jews supplied the needs of their armies and furnished them with the indispensable sinews of war. But what the Jews accomplished in this direction did not arise out of specifically American conditions. It was a general phenomenon, met with throughout the history of the modern capitalistic States, and we shall do justice to instances of it when dealing with wider issues.

No. What I have in mind is the special service which the Jews rendered the North American colonies, one peculiar to the American Continent -- a service which indeed gave America birth. I refer to the simple fact that during the 17th and 18th centuries the trade of the Jews was the source from which the economic system of the colonies drew its lifeblood. As is well known, England forced her colonies to purchase all the manufactured articles they needed in the Mother-country. Hence the balance of trade of the colonies was always an adverse one, and by constantly having to send money out of the country they would have been drained dry. But there was a stream which carried the precious metals into the country, a stream diverted in this direction by the trade of the Jews with South and Central America. The Jews in the English colonies maintained active business relations with the West Indian Islands and with Brazil, resulting in a favourable balance of trade for the land of their sojourn. The gold mined in South America was thus brought to North America and helped to keep the economic system in a healthy condition.³⁹

In the face of this fact, is there not some justification for the opinion that the United States owe their very existence to the Jews? And if this be so, how much more can it be asserted that Jewish influence made the United States just what they are -- that is, American? For what we call Americanism is nothing else, if we may say so, than the Jewish spirit distilled.

But how comes it that American culture is so steeped in Jewishness? The answer is simple -- through the early and universal admixture of Jewish elements among the first settlers. We may picture the process of colonizing somewhat after this fashion. A band of determined men and women -- let us say twenty families -- went forth into the wilds to begin their life anew. Nineteen were equipped with plough and scythe, ready to clear the forests and till the soil in order to earn their livelihood as husbandmen. The twentieth family opened a store to provide their companions with such necessaries of life as could not be obtained from the soil, often no doubt hawking them at the very doors. Soon this twentieth family made it its business to arrange for the distribution of the products which the other nineteen won from the soil. It was they, too, who were most likely in possession Of ready cash, and in case of need could therefore be useful to the others by lending them money. Very often the store had a kind of agricultural loan-bank as its adjunct, perhaps also an office for the buying and selling of land. So through the activity of the twentieth family the farmer in North America was from the first kept in touch with the money and credit system of the Old World. Hence the whole process of production and exchange was from its inception along modern lines. Town methods made their way at once into even the most distant villages. Accordingly, it may be said that American economic life was from its very start impregnated with capitalism. And who was responsible for this? The twentieth family in each village. Need we add that this twentieth family was always a Jewish one, which joined a party of settlers or soon sought them out in their homesteads?

Such in outline is the mental picture I have conceived of the economic development of the United States. Subsequent writers dealing with this subject will be able to fill in more ample details; I myself have only come across a few. But these are so similar in character that they can hardly be taken as isolated instances. The conclusion is forced upon us that they are typical. Nor do I alone hold this view. Governor Pardel of California, for example, remarked in 1905: "He (the Jew) has been the leading financier of thousands of prosperous communities. He has been enterprising and aggressive."⁴⁰

Let me quote some of the illustrations I have met with. In 1785 Abraham Mordccai settled in Alabama. "He established a trading-post two miles west of Line Creek, carrying on an extensive trade with the Indians, and exchanging his goods for pinkroot, hickory, nut oil and peltries of all kinds."⁴¹ Similarly in Albany: "As early as 1661, when Albany was but a small trading post, a Jewish trader named Asser Levi (or Leevi) became the owner of real estate there."⁴² Chicago has the same story. The first brick house was built by a Jew, Benedict Schubert, who became the first merchant tailor in Chicago, while another Jew, Philip Newburg, was the first to introduce the tobacco business.⁴³ In Kentucky we hear of a Jewish settler as early as 1816. When in that year the Bank of the United States opened a branch in Lexington, a Mr. Solomon, who had arrived in 1808, was made cashier.⁴⁴ In Maryland,⁴⁵ Michigan,⁴⁶ Ohio⁴⁷ and Pennsylvania⁴⁸ it is on record that Jewish traders were among the earliest settlers, though nothing is known of their activity.

On the other hand, a great deal is known of Jews in Texas, where they were among the pioneers of capitalism. Thus, for example, Jacob de Cordova "was by far the most extensive land locator in the State until 1856." The Cordova’s Land Agency soon became famous not only in Texas but in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the owners of large tracts of Texas land resided. Again, Morris Koppore in 1863 became President of the National Bank of Texas. Henry Castro was an immigration agent; "between the years 1843-6 Castro introduced into Texas over 5000 immigrants . . . transporting them in 27 ships, chiefly from the Rhenish provinces. . . . He fed his colonists for a year, furnished them with cows, farming implements, seeds, medicine, and in short with everything they needed."⁴⁹

Sometimes branches of one and the same family distributed themselves in different States, and were thereby enabled to carry on business most successfully. Perhaps thebest instance is the history of the Seligman family. There were eight brothers (the sons of David Seligman, of Bayersdorf, in Bavaria) who started a concern which now has branches in all the most important centres in the States. Their story began with the arrival in America in the year 1837 of Joseph Seligman. Two other brothers followed in 1839; a third came two years later. The four began business as clothiers in Lancaster, moving shortly after to Selma, Ala. From here they opened three branches in three other towns. By 1848 two more brothers had arrived from Germany and the six moved North. In 1850, Jesse Seligman opened a shop in San Francisco -- in the first brick house in that city. Seven years later a banking business was added to the clothing shop, and in 1862 the house of Seligman Brothers was established in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris and Frankfort.⁵⁰

In the Southern States likewise the Jew played the part of the trader in the midst of agricultural settlers.⁵¹ Here also (as in Southern and Central America) we find him quite early as the owner of vast plantations. In South Carolina indeed, "Jew’s Land" is synonymous with "Large Plantations."⁵² It was in the South that Moses Lindo became famous as one of the first undertakers in the production of indigo.

These examples must suffice. We believe they tend to illustrate our general statement, which is supported also by the fact that there was a constant stream of Jewish emigration to the United States from their earliest foundation. It is true that there are no actual figures to show the proportion of the Jewish population to the total body of settlers. But the numerous indications of a general nature that we do find make it pretty certain that there must always have been a large number of Jews in America.

It must not be forgotten that in the earliest years the population was thinly scattered and very sparse. New Amsterdam had less than 1000 inhabitants.⁵³ That being so, a shipful of Jews who came from Brazil to settle there made a great difference, and in assessing Jewish influence on the whole district we shall have to rate it highly.⁵⁴ Or take another instance. When the first settlement in Georgia was established, forty Jews were among the settlers. The number may seem insignificant, but when we consider the meagre population of the colony, Jewish influence must be accounted strong. So, too, in Savannah, where in 1733 there were already twelve Jewish families in what was then a tiny commercial centre.⁵⁵

That America early became the goal of German and Polish Jewish emigrants is well known. Thus we are told: "Among the poorer Jewish families of Posen there was seldom one which in the second quarter of the 19th century did not have at least one son (and in most cases the ablest and not least enterprising) who sailed away across the ocean to flee from the narrowness and the oppression of his native land."⁵⁶ We are not surprised, therefore, at the comparatively large number of Jewish soldiers (7243 )⁵⁷ who took part in the Civil War, and we should be inclined to say that the estimate which puts the Jewish population of the United States about the middle of the 19th century at 300,000 (of whom 30,000 lived in New York)⁵⁸ was if anything too moderate.



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Notes to Chapter 4

1. When Don Isaac Abarbanel was writing his commentary on the Book of Jeremiah (1504) he saw a document brought from India by Portuguese spice merchants wherein it was reported that they had met many Jews in that country. Quoted by M. Kayserling, Christopher Columbus (1894), p. 105. Cf. also Bloch, op. cit., p. 15.

2. As Manasseh ben Israel mentions in his "Humble Address" to Cromwell. For this document, see Jewish Chronicle, November and December, 1859. Cf. also de Barrios, Hist. universal Judayca, p. 4.

3. G. C. Klerk de Reus, Geschichtlicher Überblick der ... niederländischostindischen Compagnie (1894), xix. For Coen, see p. xiv.

4. J. P. J. Du Bois, Vie des Gouverneurs généraux ... ornée de leurs portraits en vignettes au naturel (1763).

5. E.g., Francis Salvador. Cf. art. "Salvador," in Jewish Encycl., also Hyamson, p. 264.

6. In 1569 wealthy Amsterdam Jews furnished the Barentz Expedition. Cf. M. Grunwald, Hamburgs deutsche Juden (1904), p. 215.

7. See art. "South Africa," in the Jewish Encycl.

8. Dr. J. H. Hertz, The Jew in South Africa (1905).

9. Art. "Commerce" in Jewish Encycl.

10. The literature concerning Jews and America is pretty extensive. I can only mention the most important works here. To begin with, there is the Jewish Encyclopedia (an American publication), which has some excellent articles relating to American conditions. Then I must mention the Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of America (begun in 1895), a veritable mine of information on American Jewish (also economic) history, more especially in the colonies in North and South America in the 17th and 18th centuries. There are some valuable speeches in The 250th Anniversary of the Settlement of the Jews in the U.S.A. (1905). Further, see Markeus, The Hebrews in America; C. P. Daly, History of the Settlement of the Jews in North America (1893); M. C. Peters, The Jews in America (1906). The first two books appear to be out of print.

11. In connexion with the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, a number of works have made their appearance showing to what extent Jews participated in the actual discovery. The best of these is M. Kayserling, Christopher Columbus und der Anteil der Juden, etc. (1894). Some others are: F. Rivas Puiqcerver, Los Judios y el nuevo mundo (1891); L. Modona, Gli Ebrei e la scoperta dell’ America (1893). Cf. also art. "Discovery of America," in Jewish Encycl., and address by Oscar Strauss in the 250th Anniversary, etc., p. 69.

12. M. Kayserling, he. cit., p. 112; Juan Sanchez, of Saragossa, the first trader. Cf. also Kayserling’s "The Colonization of America by the Jews," in the Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of America, vol. 2, p. 73.

13. G. F. Knapp, "Ursprung der Sklaverei in den Colonien," in the Archiv für Soziale Politik, ii., p. 129.

14. Oscar Strauss, loc. cit., p. 71.

15. Ritter, "Über die geographische Verbreitung des Zuckerrohrs," in the Berichten der Berliner Akademie (1839), quoted by Lippmann, Geschichte des Zuckers (1890), p. 249.

16. According to Max J. Kohler, "Phases of Jewish Life in New York before 1800," in the Transactions of the Jewish Hist Soc. of America, vol. ii., p. 94.

17. Art. "America," in Jewish Encycl. Cf. G. A. Kohut, "Les juifs dans les colonies hollandaises," in the R.E.J. (1895), vol. 31, p. 293.

18. H. Handelmann, Geschichte von Brasilien (1860), p. 412.

19. P. M. Netscher, Les Hollandais au Brésil (1853), p. 1. For the wealthy Jewish family of Souza, cf. M. Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal (1867), p. 307; M. Grunwald, Portugiesengraber (1902), p. 123.

20. M. J. Kohler, op. cit.

21. Art. "America," in Jewish Encycl.

22. Transactions of Jewish Hist. Society of America, ii. 95. Cf. also Netscher, p. 103.

23. Ibid.

24. There was no actual expulsion; in fact the treaty of peace of 1654 granted Jews an amnesty. But the fateful words were added, "Jews and other non-Catholics shall receive the same treatment as in Portugal." That was sufficient. For the treaty, see Aitzema, Historia, etc. (1626), quoted by Netscher [see note 191, p. 163.

25. H. Handelmann, loc. cit; pp. 412-13.

26. For Jews in Barbados, see John Camden Hatten, The Original Lists, etc. (1874), p. 449; Ligon, History of Barbados (1657), quoted by Lippmann op. cit., p. 301; Reed, The History of Sugar and Sugaryielding Plants (1866), p. 7; M’Culloch, Dictionary of Commerce, ii., p. 1087. Cf. also C. P. Lucas, A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, e.g. ii. (1905), 121, 274, 277.

27. For Jews in Jamaica, see M. Kayserling, "The Jews in Jamaica," etc., in the J.Q.R., vol. 12 (1900), 708 ff.; Hyamson, loc. cit., chapter xxvi. Numerous extracts from contemporary records will be found in Kohler’s "Jewish Activity in American Colonial Commerce," in Transactions of Jewish Hist. Society of America, vol. 10, p. 59. Cf. also the same writer’s paper in the Transactions, vol. 2, p. 98.

28. The letter of the Governor to Secretary of State Lord Arlington, quoted by Kayserling in J.Q.R., vol. 12, p. 710.

29. Monumental inscriptions of the British West Indies, collected by Captain J. H. Lawrence Archer, quoted by Kohler, "Phases of Jewish Life," op. cit., p. 98.

30. For Jews in Surinam the most important authority is the Essai sur la colonie de Surinam avec l’histoire de la Nation Juive Portugaise y établie, etc., 2 vols., Paramaribo (1788). Koenen, in his Geschiedenes der Joden in Nederland (1843), p. 313, speaks of this work as "de hoofdbron . . . voor de geschiedenes der Joden in die gewesten." I have not been able to see a copy. Newer treatises on the subject have brought to light a good deal of fresh material. We may mention R. Gottheil, "Contributions to the History of the Jews in Surinam," in Transactions of Jewish Hist. Society of America, vol. 9, p. 129; J. S. Roos, "Additional Notes on the History of the Jews of Surinam," Transactions, vol. 13, p. 127; P. A. Hilfman, "Some Further Notes on the History of the Jews in Surinam," Transactions, vol. 16, p. 7. For the connexion between Surinam and Guiana see Samuel Oppenheimer, "An Early Jewish Colony in Western Guiana, 1658" 1666, and its relation to the Jews in Surinam," in Transactions, vol. 16, pp. 95"186. Cf. also Hyamson, ch. xxvi, and Lucas.

31. For Jews in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Santo Domingo, see Lippmann, op. cit., p. 301; A. Cahen, "Les Juifs de la Martinique au xvii sc.," in R.E.J., vol 2; Cahen, "Les Juifs dans les Colonies françaises au xviii sc.," in R.E.J., vols. 4 and 5; Handelmann, Geschichte der Insel Hayti (1856).

32. Lucien Wolf in the Jewish Chronicle, Nov. 30, 1894, quoted by Kohler in Transactions, vol. 10, p. 60.

33. The 250th Anniversary of the Settlement of the Jews in the U.S. (1905), p. 18.

34. The 250th Anniversary, etc.

35. John Moody, The Truth about the Trusts (1905), pp. 45, 96, etc.

36. Art. "California," in Jewish Encycl. (which is a particularly good one).

37. There are others who maintain that even before the Brazilian refugees arrived a number of wealthy Jewish traders from Amsterdam settled in the colony of the Hudson. Cf. Albion Morris Dyer, "Points in the First Chapter of New York Jewish History," in Transactions of Jewish Hist. Soc. of America, vol. 3, p. 41.

38. The letter is quoted in full by Kohler, "Beginnings of New York Jewish History," in Transactions, vol. 1, p. 47.

39. See Transactions, vol. 1, p. 41; vol. 2, p. 78; vol. 10, p. 63; Kohler, "Jews in Newport," Transactions, vol. 6, p. 69. Kohler often quotes Judge Daly, Settlement of the Jews in North America (1893).

40. Address by Governor Pardell, of California, in The 250th Anniversary, etc., p. 173.

41. See art. "Alabama," in Jewish Encycl.

42. See art. "Albany," in Jewish Encycl.

43. B. Felsenthal, "On the History of the Jews in Chicago," in Transactions, vol. 2, p. 21; H. Eliassof, "The Jews of Chicago," in Transactions, vol. 2, p. 117.

44. Lewis N. Dembitz, "Jewish Beginnings in Kentucky," in Transactions, vol. 1, p. 99.

45. J. H. Hollander, "Some Unpublished Material relating to Dr. Jacob Lumbrozo of Maryland," in Transactions, vol. 1.

46. D. E. Heinemann, "Jewish Beginnings in Michigan before 1850," in Transactions, vol. 13, p. 47.

47. D. Philipson, "The Jewish Pioneers of the Ohio Valley," in Transactions, vol. 8, p. 43.

48. Henry Necarsulmer, "The Early Jewish Settlement at Lancaster, Pa.," in Transactions, vol. 3, p. 27.

49. Henry Cohen, "The Jews in Texas," in Transactions, vol. 4, p. 9; Henry Cohen, "Henry Castro, Pioneer and Colonist," in Transactions, vol. 5, p. 39. Cf. also H. Friedenwald, "Some Newspaper Advertisements in the 18th Century," in Transactions, vol. 6.

50. "Einiges aus dem Leben der amerikanisch-jüdischen Familie Seligman aus Bayersdorf in Bayern," in Brüll’s Monatsblättem (1906), p. 141.

51. Leon Huhner, "The Jews of Georgia in Colonial Times," in Transactions, vol. 10, p. 65; Huhner, "The Jews of South Carolina from the Earliest Settlement to the End of the American Revolution," in Transactions, vol. 12, p. 39; Chas. C. Jones, "The Settlement of the Jews in Georgia," in Transactions, vol. 1, p. 12.

52. B. A. Elgas, The Jews of South Carolina (1903).

53. L. Huhner, "Asser Levy, a noted Jewish Burgher of New Amsterdam," in Transactions, vol. 8, p. 13. Cf. also Huhner, "Whence came the First Jewish Settlers of New York?" in Transactions, vol. 9, p. 75; M. J. Kohler, "Civil Status of the Jews in Colonial New York," in Transactions, vol. 6, p. 81.

54. For Jews who in the 18th century carried on business in their own tongue in New York cf. J. A. Doyle, The Colonies under the House of Hanover (1907), p. 31.

55. Chas. C. Jones, "The Settlement of the Jews in Georgia," in Transactions, vol. 1, pp. 6, 9.

56. M. Jaffe, "Die Stadt Posen," in Schriften des Vereins für S. P., vol. 119, ii. 151.

57. Simon Wolf, "The American Jew as Soldier and Patriot," in Transactions, vol. 3, p. 39.

58. According to Dr. Fischell’s Chronological Notes of the History of the Jews in America.