Jewish Colonists in 18th Century Jamaica (Edward Hauck)

Eighteenth-century Jamaica was mainly Christian, specifically Anglican, reflecting its conquest by English colonists who had displaced the Roman Catholic Spanish. Despite the dominance of Christianity, other religions also existed within its borders. One such religion was Judaism, whose followers fled the Spanish Inquisition to the Caribbean; some may have even arrived in Jamaica, converting to Christianity and becoming known as conversos. Although small in number, by 1700 they had become an important part of the region’s identity. In Jamaica, as in other parts of the Caribbean, Jewish colonists spent the eighteenth century struggling to build lives for themselves that were not possible elsewhere amidst widespread antisemitism.

Jews had lived across the Caribbean since the early years of European colonization, escaping religious persecution and seeking religious freedom. By the third or fourth generation, Jewish colonists had achieved these goals and established themselves throughout the Caribbean, especially in Jamaica; for instance, before the 1692 tsunami and earthquake that destroyed the city, Jews in Port Royal were the most successful merchants in the colony. Their family ties positioned them at the heart of thriving trade networks that reached as far as India and as close as Barbados. These connections made Jewish merchants a class with significant economic influence throughout the eighteenth century.[1]

Antisemitism followed Jewish colonists to the Americas, as their fellow colonists sought to limit this minority group’s influence. After the 1692 destruction of Port Royal, the colonial government introduced a relief fund tax that specifically targeted the colony’s Jewish population, marking an early step toward formalizing antisemitism. Frustrated by repeated appeals to Parliament in London by Jewish colonists demanding equality, in 1711, lawmakers prohibited Jews from practicing law or holding public office, aiming to suppress challenges to colonial authority. By the time the First Maroon War broke out in 1728, the antisemitism that had been growing privately for decades worsened when it was discovered that a Jewish merchant from Kingston had been supplying gunpowder to the Maroons for years.[2]

Meanwhile, perhaps in response to the rise in antisemitism, there was an increase in more formal representations of the Jewish community through larger, more enduring synagogues that started appearing across Jamaica. In 1704, Neve Shalom was built in Spanish Town, and nearly thirty years after its destruction, the Jews of Port Royal built a new synagogue in 1719, reaffirming their presence in the community. The passage of the 1740 Naturalization Act, which extended naturalization to colonists after seven years, significantly impacted the Jewish community throughout the English Caribbean, leading them to build new synagogues. The start of the Seven Years’ War in 1754 stopped such construction, although the Jewish community in St. Jago de la Vega renovated theirs early in the 1760s.[3]

The war triggered another rise in antisemitism in the colony. Similar to their roles on different war fronts, Jamaican Jews provided the British with military supplies, yet colonial authorities still regarded them with suspicion, viewing them as a greater threat than the nearby French fleet. These hostile attitudes towards Jews worsened after Tacky’s Revolt, a slave uprising in which Jews fought as militiamen. Despite this service, colonial authorities kept targeting Jews for their alleged unity with the enslaved. These accusations kept Jews out of the colony’s expanding racial hierarchy.[4]

This exemption became a challenge for Jamaica’s Jews in the final decades of the 18th century, especially given the numerous calamities affecting the British Empire during those years. The American and Haitian Revolutions disrupted their intercolonial and international trade networks and again made them targets of suspicious colonial authorities. Alongside the American Revolution, several hurricanes struck Jamaica, further disrupting trade and destroying multiple areas across the island. In October 1780, four Jews were killed among 300 others in Montego Bay; a hurricane in May 1782 that devastated Savanna-la-Mar also killed wealthy plantation owner Abraham Lopes Parra and others. These events led to a significant decline in Jamaica’s Jewish population. For example, between 1769 and 1795, the Jewish populations of Kingston and St. Jago de la Vega declined by as much as fifteen percent, with many relocating to points across North America.[5]

The Jewish residents in Jamaica faced another challenge in the late 18th century. The Second Maroon War, which broke out in 1795, heightened fears of rebellion during the Haitian Revolution. Many Jamaican Jews, many of whom had French roots, were again suspected of treason against the Empire. In 1779, accusations of treason and trials of Jamaican Jews occurred because of their family ties to France. This paranoia reemerged and was even justified by the 1799 arrest of Isaac Yeshurun Sasportas, a Haitian agent attempting to incite revolution among the Maroons; his execution by hanging in December of that year marked the end of a century of hardship and resistance for Jamaica’s Jewish community.

For the Jews of colonial Jamaica, the eighteenth century was a century of struggle and hardship. The loss of Port Royal in 1692 led to a rise in antisemitism, which was further compounded by the series of wars and revolutions which colonial authorities quickly associated with their island’s Jewish population. Despite this discrimination, the Jews of eighteenth century Jamaica managed to triumph in several ways. They built new synagogues across the island,  achieved citizenship, and restored and even expanded their influence upon Caribbean, American, and global trade throughout the century. Despite the pair of hurricanes in the 1780s which greatly reduced the island’s Jewish population, those who remained thrived in the nineteenth century, eventually achieving full political rights and further expanding their influence on the trade networks established by their ancestors. Ultimately, the trials and successes of eighteenth century Jews set a course for greater victories for their descendants, creating a legacy which still endures today.

[1] Mirvis, Stanley. The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a Diaspora in Transition. Yale University Press, 2020, 31, 51-54.