Biographical Notes on Rebecca Phillips Moses

Rebecca’s birth was recorded by her father, Jacob Phillips: "My dear daughter Rebecca was born March 19, 1792." The words were written in Phillips’s Haftarot, a collection of holy writings read in Jewish services. Jacob Phillips had emigrated from England to St. Eustatius as a youth, and then, in 1780, still young, to South Carolina, where he joined the militia to fight with the Patriots in the American Revolution.

Jacob Phillips traveled the Atlantic seaboard as a cargo merchant. His work took him as far north as Newport, Rhode Island, and down to New York, Charleston, and the West Indies. His wife, Hannah Isaacks--her family also in trade and shipping--lived in Newport until a business decline during the Revolutionary War prompted a family move to New York. Hannah's parents, Jacob and Rebecca Mears Isaacks, returned to Newport after the Revolution.

Hannah, Jacob, and their children lived at times in New York, Rhode Island, Saint Eustatius (in the West Indies), and South Carolina. Hannah sometimes traveled with Jacob to visit family along his route.

Because of this mobility, and because Jacob Phillips did not note the location of Rebecca's birth, we do not know where she was born. Family historians agree on the West Indies, but they disagree as to precisely where. One story puts Rebecca's birth at sea, a version of events picked up by Jewish genealogist Malcolm Stern. South Carolina historian James Hagy, in enumerating the origins of the Jews of South Carolina, reiterates this in his listing "born at sea," one person.

Giving birth at sea seems very unusual today. But in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hundreds of children were raised on board ship, and many of them were born at sea. One ship captain delivered all six of his children.

According to family lore, Rebecca might have been born on Martinique (her mother died there six years later), St. Eustatius then known as St. Statia, (her parents lived there before her birth), Jamaica (some of her mother's family lived there), or St. Thomas.

Rebecca was named for her maternal grandmother, Rebecca Mears Isaacks, who was still alive when Rebecca was born. Although Jews following Ashkenazic (German) ritual would not name a baby for a living relative, the practice of naming a child after a living relative was part of the Sephardic tradition and was widely followed at the time, especially in the Americas, even among Jews of Ashkenazic origin.

The year 1798 was difficult for Rebecca Mears Isaacks. Several close family members died: her husband, Jacob Isaacks, who had been ill for a long time; her daughter Hannah, who left six young children; and her husband's brother Moses Isaacks, who was also the husband of her sister Judith Rachel. (Moses and Rachel Isaacks may not have lived in S.C. at the time, but several of their children did.)

Rebecca Isaacks soon moved with her living, unmarried children and grandchildren to Charleston. Rebecca Isaacks was 60; her granddaughter Rebecca was six.

Rebecca Isaacks died at age 64 in 1802, four years after she had moved to Charleston. Ages of the Phillips children at the time ranged from 16 (Rachel) to six (Philip). Young Rebecca was 10. (Rebecca Isaacks's unmarried daughter, Rachel Isaacks, died soon after at age 22 in the small village of Cheraw, S.C.)

These nuggets of information evoke a picture in which the young children lived and visited with various cousins and family friends in Charleston and in Cheraw.

According to family historian Hannah Marie Moses, Rebecca was adopted by Sally Lopez, who taught her housekeeping skills and about her Jewish religion. The Lopez family was descended from Aaron Lopez, a Newport merchant. Aaron Lopez had been quite successful before the Revolution, but he lost ships during the war and consequently his fortune; some of his family afterwards relocated to S.C. (Sally Lopez's niece, also named Sally Lopez, organized religious education for children at Charleston's Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) Congregation in 1838.)

ISAIAH MOSES: Merchant, Planter, Traditional Jew

When Isaiah Moses arrived in America from Europe around 1800, he came to Charleston, a thriving port city. Few details are known about his personal or family life before then. He was born in 1772. Originally from Bederkese, Hanover, he first moved to England in the early 1790s, where he married a woman whose identity is now unknown and with whom he had four sons in the 1790s.

When his wife died, likely in childbirth, he moved to Charleston, S.C. Probably he left his sons in England. However, at least one of his sons was in Charleston in 1804 and was a member of KKBE three years before Isaiah married Rebecca. These sons, Phineas, Morris, Solomon, and Simeon Moses would be among the first Jews to settle in Cincinnati.

Isaiah was doubtless aware of Charleston as a thriving Jewish center: Of the 140 Jewish men new to Charleston's KKBE congregation between 1776 and 1825, one-third came from England although like Isaiah Moses, many were born elsewhere. For the first two decades of the 19th century, the Jewish population of Charleston exceeded that of any other U.S. city. Hagy estimates the number of Jews in Charleston at 600 in the year 1800.

In pre-Revolutionary times, Charleston’s reputation as a prosperous town was based on the profitability of indigo. The crop had ceased being profitable when the "bounty" offered for it by the British was no longer available. The low country on the Carolina coast around Charleston was also under rice cultivation, another profitable crop that had made many planters wealthy. But rice was not invariably profitable, as Isaiah would one day discover.

Isaiah Moses’s presence in Charleston is first documented in the Charleston city directory of 1800. His early years there were a financial success, probably the most so of his career. Isaiah's first listing is as a grocer, a provisioner for the plantation owners who would come to town. Subsequent listings indicate he was a shopkeeper, then planter.

The distinctions between "shopkeeper" and "merchant" may not be obvious to us today. A merchant bought and sold on his own account and tried to find a market for what he purchased. A shopkeeper had a fixed place of business from which he served retail customers. The social hierarchy of the time placed merchants higher on the socioeconomic scale than shopkeepers; Isaiah was a merchant, according to historian James Hagy. Planters were considered the professional and social elite, and Isaiah early on had ambitions in this area. (In Bederkese, Hanover, where he was born, Jews had not been permitted even to own land.)

Providing for himself and perhaps sending money home for four children may have motivated his move to America. Through the closeness of the Jewish community and his strong religious ties, Isaiah Moses met Rebecca Phillips, a young woman of 15. Isaiah was doing well in business; he was a respected, responsible member of the Jewish community, and thereby a likely prospect for the young Rebecca. His years in England, as for many Ashkenazic Jews, provided a bridge from his youth in Hanover to his mature adulthood in Charleston, Anglicizing him in the process. It was probably in England that he first became exposed to the Sephardic ritual that he so staunchly upheld in South Carolina.

R.I. MOSES: Life as a Wife, Mother, and Businesswoman

Rebecca and Isaiah married on November 11, 1807. Rebecca had a ketubah, or Jewish marriage contract, worked out earlier. Another traditional Jewish document related to her marriage was a shetar halitzah, signed at the time of her wedding. The prenuptial shetar halitzah, signed by Levi Moses, Isaiah's brother, freed her from the obligation of a Levirate marriage, that is, marrying Isaiah’s brother Levi if Isaiah should die before Rebecca had children.

The wedding was in Charleston and took place on Wednesday, a traditional wedding day for young Jewish brides at the time; weddings were usually held at home. The only known description of a Jewish wedding in early America was written by Dr. Benjamin Rush in a letter to his wife, and he spoke of elements retained today in traditional Orthodox Jewish weddings. (Later, in 1841, the congregation asked the female members to furnish a white chuppah, or wedding canopy, for congregational use in the synagogue.)

When Rebecca married Isaiah, she was aged 15 years, eight months, and he was 35. Though this was young for a Jewish bride in Charleston in the early 19th century, five years younger than average, a 20- year difference in ages between husband and wife, though not the norm, was also not unusual at the time. Rebecca’s older sister Rachel at 17 had married a man 23 years older than she. Her grandmother had married a man 20 years older. Later, Rebecca's younger sister Fanny married a man 16 years older than she. Isaiah’s brother Levi, who had come to South Carolina with Isaiah, also married a woman who was about 16 at the time of the marriage.

By 1807, Rebecca’s mother had been dead for 10 years. Her grandmother, who had helped raise her, had been dead for five years. Her father’s business as a seagoing merchant kept him traveling along the eastern seaboard. Her young aunt Rachel Phillips had recently died at age 22, perhaps of one of the fevers that periodically raged in South Carolina. So many deaths and so much change in her short life may have made Isaiah Moses a safe haven for her.

Regardless of such influences on her decision to marry, glimpses into her daybook of later years reveal Rebecca to have been a practical woman, and she doubtless welcomed the opportunity to marry. In a brief daybook entry upon Isaiah's death 50 years later, she refers to him as her "beloved husband." No doubt he was.

Rebecca dropped her maiden name, Phillips, and took her husband’s given name as her middle name. She is listed in the city directory of 1837 as "Moses, R. I.," and she also uses this initial on the cover of her daybook. Isaiah also gave his name to each of his sons as a middle name. At the time Isaiah was born in Germany, a son’s second name was the name of his father. Thus Isaiah Moses was Isaiah, son of Moses. (The Isaiah Moses Jr. first listed in Charleston in 1804 by historian James Hagy, would have been a son by his first wife.)

Rebecca gave birth to her first child a year after her marriage. Though Isaiah continued his business in Charleston after the marriage, her first three children were born in Columbia, according to notations in a family bible.

Who or what provided the draw for Rebecca away from Charleston for her first three confinements remains a mystery, but it was traditional to go back to a parental home to give birth. According to a family history, Rebecca’s own daughter Cecilia returned to her parents’ (Rebecca and Isaiah’s) home in Charleston to give birth to her daughter Rebecca Ella Solomons. And Rebecca’s older sister had been born at her grandparents’ in Newport, Rhode Island.

Another possibility is that Isaiah was attracted to Columbia by the lots being auctioned for sale. However, he continues to be listed in Charleston directories of this period.

In 1813, Rebecca bore her fourth child--this time in Charleston. With the purchase that year of the Oaks plantation on Goose Creek, Rebecca and Isaiah settled more solidly into Charleston and the low country, as the coastal area around Charleston is called. Her father, Jacob Phillips, at some point moved into Rebecca and Isaiah’s home. By then he was crippled from rheumatism, said to have resulted from his many years at sea. He was bedridden during his last years in Rebecca’s home; he died around 1830.

Isaiah was able to buy the Oaks because of his success in business. He also bought 35 slaves to work the plantation. With this symbol of a wealthy southern man, he began to be listed in the city directory as "planter." No doubt Isaiah expected to make money from the plantation, but in this he was disappointed.

An 1819 plat of the plantation shows the land around the creek under cultivation for rice, which had a reputation as a profitable crop in the low country. But Isaiah Moses had at most a few dozen acres under rice cultivation, far fewer than the hundred acres necessary to justify the expense of tidal irrigation.

The Charleston area went into economic decline in the late eighteen-teens through the early eighteen-twenties. There are several reasons for this, including the end of the prosperous post-Revolutionary War economy; the publicized slave revolt of Denmark Vesey in 1822, which scared many whites away. Regular steamship service between Europe and New York and Philadelphia diminished the importance of Charleston and its favorable location along the Atlantic jet stream flowing from the West Indies to Europe. Competition from other Southern ports attracting more trade contributed to Charleston's decline.

Wide-scale economic depression in 1837 strained Isaiah’s income further. In this one year only, Rebecca Moses is listed in the Charleston directory as having a dry-goods business.

To tide them over through the tough time, Isaiah borrowed $2,000 from the general endowment fund of the synagogue, which was available for personal loans. Then the plantation house burned down in 1840. Isaiah sold the Oaks property in 1841 at a $2,000 loss from the original purchase price of $6,000.

In addition to his business interests--which at one point included a partnership in an auction business--Isaiah was actively involved in the Charleston Jewish community. Probably his early success as a grocer and merchant/shopkeeper enabled him to become a financial supporter and leader of the Esnoga, as the place of worship was called according to Sephardic custom. At the time of the 1820 adoption of the constitution of KKBE Congregation, Isaiah Moses served on the Adjuncta, or governing board. Although he came from Germany, Isaiah was a strong proponent of the traditional Sephardic ritual, and he opposed the reforms generally supported by the German Jews of the Congregation.

Isaiah Moses was a supporter and leader of the breakaway Shearit Israel congregation after his original congregation, KKBE, became Reform. His son-in-law, Rev. Jacob Rosenfeld, was the hassan-- the cantor or reader--of the congregation. Isaiah was also a member of the Hebrew Orphan Society, of which his son Levy was president immediately before the Civil War.

The Charleston city directories of the period provide glimpses into social history. Most listings are for businesses, but some are residential. Typically, in early-19th-century Charleston, residences were above businesses, in the same building. The family living above the business may have been the one running the business, but not necessarily. Between 1800 and 1849, Isaiah Moses is listed in the city directories at various addresses, mostly on King Street. Only from 1802 to 1807 is he listed at the same address, 197 King Street. He later bought a building on King Street, but it is not known whether this was used as a residence, a business address, or an investment--probably in each capacity at various times. There was one listing on St. Phillips Street. One family history, written by Rebecca Moses's great-grandson H. A. Alexander, says that his mother, Rebecca Ella Solomons Alexander, "was born in 1854 in the same house in the same bed in which her mother (Cecilia Moses Solomons) was born." The listings apparently are collected by the company printing the directory and appear not to be consistently inclusive but rather indicative.

Wherever the family lived, it was probably within walking distance of the Esnoga. As traditionally observant Jews, the family would have walked to services on the sabbath and other holidays.

Like other plantation owners, the Moseses spent the hottest months away from the plantation, probably in town, and in fact it is not clear how much time the family spent at the plantation. Though the plantation was located within 20 miles of Charleston, it would have taken the better part of a day to get there by carriage. With Isaiah’s active role in the Esnoga, the family likely spent more time in town than on the farm for religious holidays and a majority of weekly sabbaths.

Rebecca stayed busy with her large and growing family. Her health as a child-bearing woman is remarkable: All 12 of her children were born in good health, and her own health was not jeopardized. Rebecca’s children were born starting when she was 16 and Isaiah 36, her last child when she was 41 and Isaiah 61.

Her young children appear to have been healthy, although her son Moses suffered from dementia as an adult. In her daybook Rebecca refers to his living at Columbia Insane Asylum beginning in 1845, when he was 27; he died 18 years later. He seemed to be the only child whose welfare she felt the need to provide for after her death. She stipulated in her will that if Moses were still alive when she died, she wanted her house to go for his care. Moses in fact died in 1863, at age 45, nine years before Rebecca’s death.

Contrasting with her good health were the health-related early deaths of her mother, at age 36; her cousin Rachel Isaacks, at age 22; and her husband’s first wife. Of her daughters’ children, several died as infants, including those of Sarah, Cecilia, and Leonora.

Rebecca and Isaiah’s close-knit family developed strong ties to other families through multiple marriages to the same family--across several generations--a common practice among early American Jews, documented by Jewish genealogist Malcolm Stern and others. In Rebecca's family it is striking: As already noted, Rebecca’s grandmother and a sister had married two brothers. Son Jacob Moses married Rinah J. Ottolengui, and then nine years later—after Rinah had died—married her sister Sarah Ottolengui. Son Aaron married another Ottolengui sister, Judith A. Offspring from each of these marriages wed in the next generation. Another Moses daughter, Cecilia, married a first cousin of the Ottolengui women (Abraham Alexander Solomons).

Some of these family alliances took place over several generations. One of Cecilia’s children, Rebecca Ella Solomons, married Julius M. Alexander, the son of another of Rebecca’s daughters, Sarah Moses Alexander, and her husband, Aaron Alexander. Offspring of Isaiah Moses's son of his first wife married offspring descended from children with his second wife, Rebecca. There were also multiple marriages across several generations with the Joseph, Solomons, and Abrahams families.

Rebecca noted in her daybook several visits to her daughters’ homes. Her daughter Leonora and husband Rev. Jacob Rosenfeld lived for a time in Cincinnati, where Isaiah Moses's sons had been instrumental in founding an early congregation, and in Savannah, where son-in-law Abraham Alexander Solomons, married to Cecilia Moses Solomons, was active in the politics of Congregation Mickve Israel and was instrumental in hiring Rosenfeld as its rabbi. Rebecca does not mention any of Isaiah’s children with his first wife in her daybook, but the marriages among descendants of both unions suggest the families stayed in touch.

Several of Rebecca’s children were active in their congregations. Her sons remained aligned with Isaiah in their choice of a traditional congregation. Rebecca's daughters were involved in religious education. Leonora taught children alongside her husband, and Sarah Moses Alexander taught children in her home in Atlanta. There is no evidence that Rebecca herself formally instructed children.

In political matters, especially regarding slavery and the South, there was not consistent agreement in the family. During the Civil War, one of Rebecca’s daughters, Sarah, along with her husband, Aaron Alexander, staunchly supported the Union, whereas Rebecca just as strongly supported the Southern cause. Aaron and Sarah had moved from Charleston to Atlanta, but sometime in the 1850s, they moved with their family to Philadelphia. This period was financially devastating to them, and he ended up in debtors prison; Sarah followed him into prison with their children. The family moved to Georia during the war and back Atlanta after the war; Aaron became financially successful in Atlanta. In the tradition of a number of Charleston-born Jews of the period, both Aaron and Sarah were buried in the old Comings Street cemetery in Charleston.

A story revealing Rebecca’s practical side is charmingly recounted by Hannah Marie Moses, a granddaughter, in a letter dated January 31, 1927, to her cousin Harry A. Alexander; the letter also pokes fun at Isaiah Moses's piety:

"Once when he was Vice President of the Synagogue, he had indigestion, couldn’t keep anything on his breadbasket, so the doctor told him to eat raw oysters – Great Mercy! What! Never! Against all Jewish law. No shell fish. Here our wonderful Grandma spoke up. She said, "take them as medicine, your health requires it to be done." Well in order not to set a wicked example to his family, he went out to the furthest corner of the Oaks with a trusted servant to open the oysters and began to eat the oysters – but alas! At that very corner just over the fence was a lot belonging to the Synagogue property. Just at that time two members came out to inspect it. What did they behold? Mr. Isaiah Moses, that pillar of the Synagogue, eating oysters!!! He was ordered to face the powers of the Congregation, but here again our Grandma came to the front. She brought the Doctor. He was absolved."

Rebecca was also active in Isaiah’s business, probably from the beginning of her marriage, but especially after Isaiah bought the plantation. Her daybook lists accounts with family members over a period from 1846 to 1863, though the only known public listing of her as a businesswoman is the 1837 city directory that listed her as having a dry-goods business. In several pages of her daybook, photostatic copies of which are extant, she is shown to be a practical woman who kept detailed records on various transactions. A married woman could not generally do business legally on their own behalf unless granted the status of a sole trader by her husband. There is no evidence that Rebecca was ever made a sole trader as was a kinswoman, Ann Irby Huguenin Alexander, and her own daughter Hannah Moses Abrahams. As Isaiah’s interests shifted from running his business to his plantation and then to intense involvement in the Esnoga, Rebecca undoubtedly played a larger role in running the business and may have run it herself for a number of years. It also appears from the dates of her daybook entries that she took over keeping track of transactions involving slaves once Isaiah had sold the plantation and probably lost interest in managing matters outside of congregational politics. Rebecca appears to have leased the services of slaves on an annual basis and commissioned her son Levy and son-in- law Adolph J. Brady to manage this business. In her daybook she lists the sale of a slave who had run away in Montgomery, Alabama, the town where Levy and his sons lived.

By the time of the Civil War, Rebecca’s husband had died, and she was living with daughter Cecilia Moses Solomons and husband Abraham Alexander Solomons, a druggist originally licensed in S.C. but later a resident of Savannah.

A family story relates that in 1865, she heard a newsboy outside her bedroom window shouting the news that Lee had surrendered, and she had a stroke. Rebecca died in 1872, when she was 80 years old. She is buried next to Isaiah at the Comings Street Cemetery in Charleston.

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