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Author Leibman, Laura Arnold, author.

Title Once we were slaves : the extraordinary journey of a multiracial Jewish family / Laura Arnold Leibman.

Publication Info. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  B BRANDON FAMILY    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Bishop's Corner Branch - Biographies  B BRANDON FAMILY L    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Biographies  B BRANDON FAMILY L    Check Shelf
Description xvi, 294 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-275) and index.
Contents Origins (Bridgetown, 1793-1798) -- From Slave to Free (Bridgetown, 1801) -- From Christian to Jew (Suriname, 1811-12) -- The Tumultuous Island (Bridgetown, 1812-1817) -- Synagogue Seats (New York & Philadelphia, 1793-1818) -- The Material of Race (London, 1815-17) -- Voices of Rebellion (Bridgetown, 1818-24) -- A Woman Valor (New York, 1817-19) -- This Liberal City (Philadelphia, 1818-33) -- Feverish Love (New York, 1819-1830) -- When I am Gone (New York, Barbados, London, 1830-1847) -- Legacies (New York and Beyond, 1841-1860).
Summary "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 grandmother's maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Moses's ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiress's 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. Tracing the siblings' extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artefacts 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 fluidity of race-as well as on the role of religion in racial shift-in the first half of the nineteenth century"-- Provided by publisher.
Subject Jews -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century.
Moses, Sarah Brandon, 1798-1828.
Brandon, Isaac Lopez, 1793-1855.
Brandon family.
Moses family.
Jews -- Barbados -- Bridgetown -- History -- 19th century.
Racially mixed people -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century.
Racially mixed people -- Barbados -- History -- 19th century.
Bridgetown (Barbados) -- Biography.
New York (N.Y.) -- Biography.
HISTORY / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
Brandon family. (OCoLC)fst00217062
Moses family. (OCoLC)fst00213373
Jews. (OCoLC)fst00983135
Racially mixed people. (OCoLC)fst01086595
Barbados. (OCoLC)fst01205547
Barbados -- Bridgetown. (OCoLC)fst01205546
New York (State) -- New York. (OCoLC)fst01204333
Chronological Term 1800-1899
Genre/Form Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Added Title Extraordinary journey of a multiracial Jewish family
Other Form: Online version: Leibman, Laura Arnold. Once we were slaves New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2021 9780197530498 (DLC) 2021016424
ISBN 9780197530474 (hardback)
0197530478 (hardback)
9780197530498 (epub)
9780197530627
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