The Sacred Ride of Francis Salvador

Since 1960, there’s been a memorial that sits at the intersection of Christian Road (Old South Carolina Route 72) and Laurens Highway (U.S. 221) in South Carolina. Erected by the Jewish community of Greenwood, South Carolina, it’s one of the few testimonies to the memory of an individual some have called “the Jewish Paul Revere.”

It reads: “Francis Salvador, 1747-1776. This young English Jew settled near Coronaca in 1774, representing Ninety Six District in the provincial congresses of 1775-1776, and died in defense of his adopted home on Aug. 1, 1776. He was the first South Carolinian of his faith to hold an elective public office and the first to die for American independence.”

Salvador’s story, despite its tragic end, stands as witness to the sacrifices Jews made in support of the cause of American independence. He was, in fact, the first Jewish American ever elected to public assembly (The Library of Congress notes that while Joseph Ottolengui, born Jewish, was elected to the Georgia Assembly in 1761, he had become an Anglican before occupying public office.)

Francis was born in London into a wealthy family of Portuguese-speaking Jews who came to England from the Netherlands at the beginning of the 18th century. In the 1730s, his uncle, who was a major investor in the Dutch East India Company, purchased 200,000 acres in the Ninety-Six District of South Carolina, covering more than half of what is today Greenwood County, a region that was for years called Jews’ Land.

In 1774, Francis left his wife and four children, hoping to have them join him when he got settled. Establishing himself in Coronaca in western South Carolina, he quickly got involved in the stirring politics of the pre-Revolutionary era. South Carolina’s Committee of Correspondence convened two General Meetings to establish a body that would serve as a temporary government resistant to British rule. On Jan. 11, 1775, Salvador was chosen as one of 10 deputies from the Ninety-Six District. The assembly’s work included developing a state constitution, composing a bill of rights and drafting a missive to the royal governor of South Carolina laying out the colonists’ grievances against George III. He was strongly supportive of the Revolution, and worked to quell internal turmoil in the colony.

In 1776, local Cherokee allies of the British began raiding the South Carolina frontier. Salvador, learning of the attacks, rode roughly 30 miles to the plantation of Major Andrew Williamson and the homes of other militia men to warn them. Williamson, who would go on to serve as a Brigadier General in the Continental Army, then led the fighters in their response.

Sadly, on July 31, Williamson, Salvador and their 330 men were ambushed at the Keowee River. Salvador was shot in the fight, fell and was scalped by one of the Cherokee. Williamson found a dying Salvador after the battle and recounted: “When I came up to him after dislodging the enemy and speaking to him, he asked whether I had beaten the enemy. I told him ‘Yes.’ He said he was glad of it and shook me by the hand and bade me farewell, and said he would die in a few minutes.” Salvador was 29 years old, the first Jewish person known to have died for the cause of American independence.

Another memorial in his home state reads:

Born an aristocrat, he became a democrat;

An Englishman, he cast his lot with the Americans;

True to his ancient faith, he gave his life;

For new hopes of human liberty and understanding.

As Michael Freund has suggested in The Jerusalem Post, “Francis Salvador’s midnight ride through the Carolina wilderness belongs alongside Paul Revere’s charge through the towns outside Boston. Both men sounded the alarm in defense of freedom. Both understood that tyranny must be resisted early and decisively. And both demonstrated that the fight for liberty would demand sacrifice from every community, regardless of faith. Salvador’s story also reminds us that even though Jews numbered just 0.1% of the population at the time, they played an outsize role in America’s destiny. Just as they continue to do today.”

The first Israelite to die for American independence is to be remembered for his remarkable ride and his indelible faith that his newfound country would ultimately emerge victorious.

Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is Senior Adviser to the Provost of Yeshiva University and Deputy Director of Y.U.’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. His books include the newly released “Jewish Roots of American Liberty,” “The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada,” “Esther in America,” “Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth” and “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States.”