Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multi-Racial Jewish Family b

Description: Once We Were Slaves by Laura Arnold Leibman An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Yet she found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmothers maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Mosess ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiresss assumptions about her family history to reveal that hergrandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Tracing the siblings extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examinesartifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York, to show how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and--at times--white. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived, and sheds new light on the fluidityof race--as well as on the role of religion in racial shift--in the first half of the nineteenth century. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Laura Arnold Leibman is Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, OR. Her work focuses on religion and the daily lives of women and children in early America, and uses everyday objects to help bring their stories to life. She is the author of The Art of Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects (BGC 2020), winner of three National Jewish Book Awards, and Messianism, Secrecy andMysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (Vallentine Mitchell, 2012), which won a National Jewish Book Award, a Jordan Schnitzer Book Award from the Association for Jewish Studies. Known, too, for her scholarship inDigital Humanities, Laura served as the Academic Director for the award-winning multimedia public television series American Passages: A Literary Survey (2003). Table of Contents IllustrationsPrefaceChapter 1: Origins (Bridgetown, 1793-1798)Chapter 2: From Slave to Free (Bridgetown, 1801)Chapter 3: From Christian to Jew (Suriname, 1811-12)Chapter 4: The Tumultuous Island (Bridgetown, 1812-1817)Chapter 5: Synagogue Seats (New York & Philadelphia, 1793-1818)Chapter 6: The Material of Race (London, 1815-17)Chapter 7: Voices of Rebellion (Bridgetown, 1818-24)Chapter 8: A Woman Valor (New York, 1817-19)Chapter 9: This Liberal City (Philadelphia, 1818-33)Chapter 10: Feverish Love (New York, 1819-1830)Chapter 11: When I am Gone (New York, Barbados, London, 1830-1847)Chapter 12: Legacies (New York and Beyond, 1841-1860)EpilogueAppendix: Family TreesAbbreviationsBibliographyNotes Review Once We Were Slaves most definitely "works." It is a book one needs to dive into, step back from, and then reread as the story of this far-flung multiracial family begins to emerge ... Leibman has done a remarkable job of evoking time and place in a vast Atlantic world in which identities were made and remade ... Her discussion of pandemics has an eerily contemporary ring as she reminds us that they are nothing new -- and neither are our responses to them. * Julie Winch, The Civil War Book Review *This book is a must read for both academic historians and for those who simply love a good story. * Jessica V. Roitman, Studia Rosenthaliana *Laura Leibmans essential new biography of two nineteenth-century Barbadian Jews of color marks an important paradigm shift in this scholarly discussion...Leibman is not only an indefatigable researcher but also a wonderful storyteller. She brings to life the various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century locales in which Sarah and Isaac lived through vivid narration that is at times almost novelistic. * Sarah Phillips Casteel, New West Indian Guide * Promotional Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Mosess ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiresss assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Long Description An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Yet she found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmothers maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Mosess ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiresss assumptions about her family history to reveal that hergrandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Tracing the siblings extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York, to showhow Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and--at times--white. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived, and sheds new light on the fluidity of race--as well as on the role of religion in racial shift--in the first half of the nineteenthcentury. Review Text "Once We Were Slaves most definitely "works." It is a book one needs to dive into, step back from, and then reread as the story of this far-flung multiracial family begins to emerge ... Leibman has done a remarkable job of evoking time and place in a vast Atlantic world in which identities were made and remade ... Her discussion of pandemics has an eerily contemporary ring as she reminds us that they are nothing new -- and neither are our responses tothem." -- Julie Winch, The Civil War Book Review"Leibman highlights the fluidity of early Americas racial boundaries and the multiracial threads of Jewish history..." --Publishers Weekly"A richly contextual history of multiracial Jews and their travails and triumphs in the New World." --Kirkus"...Once We Were Slaves is an engaging work of historical scholarship that follows a family through its rises and collapses of fortune and, in the process, strips away damaging misconceptions about the homogeneity of Americas Jewish community." --Foreword Reviews"...the research is meticulous, a tour-de-force of historical reconstruction that eventually leads Leibman to present-day descendants of the Brandon-Moses family." --Forward"Leibmans extensive research is supported by almost a hundred pages of acknowledgements, family trees, notes and bibliography. But the book is never dry...The authors passion for her subject is apparent in her engaging style, along with the numerous illustrations that illuminate Leibmans words, including photographs of the Moses family and artefacts of the Brandons." --The Jewish Chronicle"With a tone that is both frank and intimate, Leibman helms a tale of two multiracial Jews and the communities they lived between and among, bringing to light a long and turbulent legacy of multiracial Jewry in the Americas." --The Jewish Book Council2021 National Jewish Book Award Finalist Review Quote "Once We Were Slaves most definitely "works." It is a book one needs to dive into, step back from, and then reread as the story of this far-flung multiracial family begins to emerge ... Leibman has done a remarkable job of evoking time and place in a vast Atlantic world in which identities were made and remade ... Her discussion of pandemics has an eerily contemporary ring as she reminds us that they are nothing new -- and neither are our responses to them." -- Julie Winch, The Civil War Book Review "Leibman highlights the fluidity of early Americas racial boundaries and the multiracial threads of Jewish history..." --Publishers WeeklyR "A richly contextual history of multiracial Jews and their travails and triumphs in the New World." --Kirkus "...Once We Were Slaves is an engaging work of historical scholarship that follows a family through its rises and collapses of fortune and, in the process, strips away damaging misconceptions about the homogeneity of Americas Jewish community." --Foreword Reviews "...the research is meticulous, a tour-de-force of historical reconstruction that eventually leads Leibman to present-day descendants of the Brandon-Moses family." --Forward "Leibmans extensive research is supported by almost a hundred pages of acknowledgements, family trees, notes and bibliography. But the book is never dry...The authors passion for her subject is apparent in her engaging style, along with the numerous illustrations that illuminate Leibmans words, including photographs of the Moses family and artefacts of the Brandons." --The Jewish Chronicle Feature Selling point: Provides a rare historical portrait of life as a Jewish American of colorSelling point: Examines the history of racial "passing" in an international contextSelling point: Uses an intersectional lens to untangle a family history New Feature Illustrations Preface Chapter 1: Origins (Bridgetown, 1793-1798) Chapter 2: From Slave to Free (Bridgetown, 1801) Chapter 3: From Christian to Jew (Suriname, 1811-12) Chapter 4: The Tumultuous Island (Bridgetown, 1812-1817) Chapter 5: Synagogue Seats (New York & Philadelphia, 1793-1818) Chapter 6: The Material of Race (London, 1815-17) Chapter 7: Voices of Rebellion (Bridgetown, 1818-24) Chapter 8: A Woman Valor (New York, 1817-19) Chapter 9: This Liberal City (Philadelphia, 1818-33) Chapter 10: Feverish Love (New York, 1819-1830) Chapter 11: When I am Gone (New York, Barbados, London, 1830-1847) Chapter 12: Legacies (New York and Beyond, 1841-1860) Epilogue Appendix: Family Trees Abbreviations Bibliography Notes Details ISBN0197530478 Short Title Once We Were Slaves Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 0197530478 ISBN-13 9780197530474 Format Hardcover Subtitle The Extraordinary Journey of a Multi-Racial Jewish Family Publisher Oxford University Press Inc Imprint Oxford University Press Inc Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States Author Laura Arnold Leibman NZ Release Date 2021-12-09 US Release Date 2021-12-09 Publication Date 2021-12-09 UK Release Date 2021-12-09 Affiliation former Professor of International Politics, University of Edinburgh Position Director Illustrator Daniel Egneus Edited by John Peterson Birth 1797 Death 1851 Qualifications Ph.D. DEWEY 974.71004924 Audience General AU Release Date 2021-09-14 Pages 320 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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