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nydus/Jews and Negro Slavery in the Old South, 1789-1865Public

This historical study examines the participation of Jewish people in the institution of slavery in the American South between 1789 and 1865. The text documents Jewish involvement as plantation owners, slave traders, and business associates, while also addressing contemporary opinions and social interactions regarding the enslaved population.

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Table of Contents

VII

CASES OF MISCEGENATION INVOLVING JEWS

Inter-racial cohabitation was quite common in the South, but there is little available documentary evidence which can be utilized to establish statistical indices, either for the general white population, or for any minor division thereof.

A search in the available records for Jewish names borne by Negroes encounters the inevitable difficulty of distinguishing Jewish from non-Jewish names. Many, like Aaron, Abrahams, Benjamin, David, Davis, Emanuel, Hart, Isaacs, Lyons, Marks, Moses, Myers, Noah, Samuels, Salomons, and Stein, can be Jewish or Gentile, as the case may be. Nor have we any notion of whether Northern Negroes with names like Hannah Adler, Perry Cohen, Isaac Farber, Richard Levy, Peter Levy, Benjamin Levy, Isaac Nathans, Abraham Stern, and thirteen Negro Tobias', went North before or after receiving their names. But it is likely that some of these Negroes did receive their names either from Jewish owners or Jewish fathers. This is probably also true of Sheldon Cohen of St. Peters Parish, South Carolina, Constance Herschell of New Orleans, Levy Jacobs of Fayetteville, North Carolina, George and Samuel Kauffman of King and Queen County, Virginia, Affey Levy of Charleston, Justine Moise of New Orleans, Harry Mordecai of Frankfort, Kentucky, Betty Rosenberg of Charleston Neck, and Catherine Sasportes of Charleston.83 Lists of Negroes active in Reconstruction days in South Carolina provide a few additional Jewish-sounding names: H. B. Da Costa, a well-regarded teacher; Philip E. Ezekiel, who was nominated for the positions of inspector general and adjutant on the Reform Republican ticket in 1872; Richard Moses, who was a leader in the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist

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