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

Blanche Moses, a descendant of a prominent Jewish family, discovered her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, were once poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Leibman's book "Once We Were Slaves" explores their journey through the Atlantic World, revealing how they transformed themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and sometimes white. Their story sheds light on the fluidity of race and the role of religion in racial shift in the first half of the nineteenth century.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 224 pages
\n Publication date: 09 December 2021
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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Blanche Moses, an ardent genealogist and a direct descendant of one of the most illustrious Jewish families since the American Revolution, firmly held the belief that her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. However, she encountered a roadblock when tracing her grandmother's maternal lineage. To unravel the mystery of Moses's ancestors, Once We Were Slaves challenges the reclusive heiress's assumptions about her family history. It reveals that her grandmother, Sarah Brandon, and her great-uncle, Isaac Brandon, actually started their lives as impoverished Christian slaves in Barbados. Leibman meticulously traces the siblings' extraordinary journey across the Atlantic World, examining artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and New York. Through this exploration, Leibman demonstrates how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, ultimately achieving freedom, affluence, Jewish identity, and, at times, even whiteness. While their wealth made them exceptional, their story resonates with the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry, constituting as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which they resided. Moreover, their story sheds new light on the fluidity of race and the role of religion in racial shifts during the first half of the nineteenth century.

\n Weight: 620g\n
Dimension: 166 x 243 x 31 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780197530474\n \n