Francis Salvador - Emigration To America

Emigration To America

Francis Salvador, along with the DaCosta family of London, hoped to settle poor Jews and their own family members in the New World. They sent 42 Jews to Savannah with the original settlers in 1733. When Spain attacked Georgia in 1740, most of the Jewish families fled to Charleston, fearing the Spanish Inquisition. Jews from London began arriving in Charleston in the 1730s, and were later joined by Jews from Germany, the Netherlands and the West Indies. Francis Salvador was the only Jew to settle on the frontier. The Salvador and DaCosta families in London bought 200,000 acres (810 km2) in the new district of Ninety-Six (known as "Jews Land"), and began to populate it. The Salvador family was financially ruined by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and subsequent failure of the East India Company, retaining their land in South Carolina and little other wealth. Francis Salvador bought 7,000 acres (28 km2), and moved there in 1773, intending to send for his wife, Sarah, and their children as soon as he was able.