The role Jews played in the Atlantic slave trade both as traders and as slave owners, and their disproportionate role in the enslavement of African Americans, has long been acknowledged by historians, that this fact has been covered up has made the topic a controversial one - Did Jews really own slaves?
Yes. Jacob Rader Marcus historian and Reform rabbi wrote in his four volume history of Americas, that over 75 percent of Jewish families in Charleston, South Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia, owned slaves, that nearly 40 percent of Jewish households across the country did.
The Jewish population in these cities was quite small so the total number of slaves they owned represented just a small fraction of the total slave population; Eli Faber, a historian at New York City’s John Jay College reported that in 1790, Charleston’s Jews owned a total of 93 slaves, and that “perhaps six Jewish families” lived in Savannah in 1771. NewAfrikan77.
TankTinker 2 points 1.3 years ago
"I wonder who the biggest slaveholders were.."
Yes. Jacob Rader Marcus historian and Reform rabbi wrote in his four volume history of Americas, that over 75 percent of Jewish families in Charleston, South Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia, owned slaves, that nearly 40 percent of Jewish households across the country did.
The Jewish population in these cities was quite small so the total number of slaves they owned represented just a small fraction of the total slave population; Eli Faber, a historian at New York City’s John Jay College reported that in 1790, Charleston’s Jews owned a total of 93 slaves, and that “perhaps six Jewish families” lived in Savannah in 1771. NewAfrikan77.