RIM and
Slavery Dear Rebecca, When you lived, you just assumed that slavery was part of the normal, natural order of things—at least that is what I imagine. I think slavery was something you so took for granted, that you never questioned the propriety of the institution. It was accepted. John Loche, famous as a champion for freedom of religion for men of all religions who drafted the constitution of South Carolina did not advocate abolishing slavery. Today the issue of slavery is sensitive, among many, including Jews. Anti-Semites (including an African-American academic professor at a fine college) reviles Jews for having been slave traders. American Jewish historian Eli Faber claims not many Jews were slave traders, and he enumerates a few. I found myself reading the list with trepidation, hoping that none of your ancestors (and mine) were slave traders. None was listed. That was a relief to me personally. Even though I do not think we can apologize for actions of the past for which we had no responsibility, I am uncomfortable knowing you were a slaveowner. Edward Ball published a book in 1998 about the slaves and descendants of slaves owned by his family in South Carolina. I heard him speak soon after to an audience that included descendants of slaves. The eagerness of the descendants of slaves to know their ancestries was a revelation to me. Since it was illegal for slaves to learn to read and write, the primary records that existed on family origins were the records of the slaveowners. Hearing how eagerly Ball was received by the black African-American descendants of slaves has prompted me to write about you and slavery. It was something that happened, something that you did. Even though the subject of slavery is distasteful, I want to make available your records on your slaves, in the event they would help the descendants of former slaves in their searches for their ancestors. On the chance that it might be of help, I am going to send a copy of this letter to the Avery Research Center for African-American History and Culture in Charleston. First I want to review what I know of your (our) family background on slavery. I don’t know if you know that your great, great grandfather, Moses Michael, who died in Curacao in 1740 owned slaves that he mentioned in his will. In his will, he stipulated that his Negro named Piro be granted freedom "and release from all slavish services." The two other Negroes he owned, Thom and Prins, two slaves he stipulated be sent back to the United States, to be remitted to his children and heirs. His will speaks of his slaves as property, along with his clothes and gold, and a pair of Rimonim or silver clocks bought by him in Holland. Moses Michael was a principal of the Dutch West Indies Company of Holland. He was buried in Curacao, identified on his tombstone as Ashekenaz, meaning German, the first to be buried in the Jewish Sephardic cemetery on Curacao. He was said to be from Herzfeld or Ertzfeld in Germany. The documentation that he owned slaves, written in his will, is the only documentation I have—but I imagine you were aware of other ancestors who owned slaves. Your father Jacob Phillips is listed in the first U.S. census of 1790 U.S. Census as a head-of-household in the 96th District, Abbeville County, South Carolina. Others listed for the household were one other "free white male over 16", four "free white males under 16," four "free white females", but no slaves. At the time he had a wife (your mother Hannah Isaacks Phillips), two young daughters (your sisters Rachel and Frances), a young son Abraham. Who were the others in the household? Indentured servants? Wage-earning servants? Boarders? Tenants? Relatives? Whether your father ever did own slaves, I don’t know. The following story is told about you that in a family history: When you heard a newsboy calling the news that Lee had surrendered you had a stroke that left you partially paralyzed. That was in 1865 and you were living in the home of your daughter and son-in-law, Cecilia and A.A. Solomons in Savannah where you had moved after your husband Isaiah died in 1857. This story is sure an indication of your decidedly southern sympathies on the subject of slavery. When Isaiah your husband owned the Oaks plantation in Goose Creek, he owned 35 slaves. He had bought the Oaks in 1813, and he sold it in 1841. The U.S. economy fell on hard times in the late 18-teens, and the Charleston and South Carolina situation did not recover in any way that made his plantation economically viable. Moreover, the house on the plantation burned to the ground in 1840, so there was no incentive to re-built. He sold the plantation at a loss of $2,000. I suspect that his involvement in religious activities by this time, plus his advancing age--he was almost 70 years old by then--lessened his interest in owning a plantation. I saw it written that he sold the plantation to pay off a loan to Karen Kayemet, a charity fund of Congregation Beth Elohim, but I think all the factors combined to make him sell—and be glad to be free of the responsibility. Isaiah made his wealth from his dry goods business in Charleston which had enabled him to buy a plantation and slaves. At the time Isaiah died in 1857, the main form of his wealth was in slaves. These were listed in his will. He owned 18 slaves, plus three children with their mothers. At one time he owned 35 slaves at his plantation The Oaks in Berkeley County. By the time he died, he owned half that number, including intown slaves. His slaves in Charleston were household servants or workers in his business. Once he sold the Oaks, he or his wife leased out slave workers for hire, a common practice of the day. You kept a daybook, some few pages of which came to me as photostatic copies. I do not know what happened to the original, nor how many pages there were. What I have is difficult to read but I can decipher quite a bit. Of the pages I have, one page documents sales of slaves, and also deaths of infant slaves. There is also a reference to your hiring out slaves. At least some of your slaves were leased out with arrangements made by your son and son-in-law; your daybook records one slave leased in Montgomery where your son Levi lived at one time. ended up, one in Atlanta. You note having sold several slaves who ran away, and one for stealing cotton, the one in Montgomery. My impression from reading your daybook is that you were a very practical-minded person who did what you needed to do, that you were sentimental toward your family, but not toward your slaves who were, in your mind, property. I don’t really know more about how you were with
slaves, how you interacted with them, how you treated
them. Your great-, great-, great-granddaughter , References to Slaves in RIM Daybook Sara was put with Maria Wall to Learn to Sew in 1850 Came home 1 July 1853 I offered Nancy to Mr. illegible in Atlanta by the year at 7 dollars for month in the charge of Mr. Bride July 18, 1854 Cash Received from Mr. Brady thirty five dollars for Nancy for 5 months, wages to 1 July 1954 Charleston February 1839 Inventory of Isaiah Moses’ Estate, including Negroes listed An inventory of Moses’ estate made in December, 1857, eleven months after his death, reveals that most of his assets were in slaves--his twenty-one slaves were valued at eight thousand one hundred fifty dollars, or about eighty per-cent of the net value of his estate The following Negroes held in Trust for
Mrs. R. I. Moses
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