David Franks: Colonial Merchant

Introduction

Introduction A substantial body of written material describes the origins and development of the Jewish community in America. Most of the authors were themselves Jewish and tended to focus on various elements of settlement related to Jews while paying scant attention to the general population. A number of societies and religious organizations have sponsored extensive programs for collecting historical materials related to the Jewish experience in America, including archival libraries and museums, and they have employed historians to document findings from these materials, resulting in the publication of annual and periodical journals and other works. Over time, every aspect of daily life has been examined—where Jews settled, how they earned a living, how and where they prayed, how they commingled with the non-Jewish majority, how they participated in government at every level, how they took part in military service—these subjects and more have been covered in numerous texts. Out of this body of information, interesting trends have emerged and outstanding individual contributors have been recognized. Most American Jews today would recognize the name of Haym Salomon, who achieved fame for his financial support of the Continental Congress. A smaller number are aware that Judah Benjamin was secretary of state for the Confederacy , but only a handful know who the Gratz brothers were and what they contributed to the growth of this country. Unfortunately, many of the individual Jews who played significant roles in the growth of the United States are lost in the blizzard of information, primarily because the primary intent of authors has been to cover Jewish activities over long periods of time. So books about Jewish military contributions typically devote no more than a paragraph to a given individual, and sometimes less than that. Similarly, books about westward expansion, or the growth of cities, or the founding of the first synagogues in the United States tend to give bare outlines of the work of individuals and to give more weight to broad historical trends than to individual achievements. Every book about Jews in early Philadelphia mentions David Franks. All the books about the fur trade with the Indians and the development of Introduction xx commercial enterprises in western Pennsylvania mention him. All the books about individuals who participated in import and export activities, including those who commissioned the building of cargo vessels, mention Franks. Franks appears briefly in the histories of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which include reference to the Ohio Company, the Vandalia Company, the Indiana Company, and the Illinois-Wabash Company. Elements of his business life and his connections with the British army and the Continental Congress are documented in a number of works, as is the story of his various arrests and imprisonments and his banishment from the colonies. David Franks’s appearance in so many histories of early America is no coincidence. He was a prime mover in the growth of the Ohio Valley region. None of that growth transpired without conflict. His marriage outside the Jewish faith and his ensuing family life produced considerable conflict as well. His commercial enterprises grew to the point that he held a subcontract from the British Treasury and took direction from the Continental Congress simultaneously. Escalating conflicts marked his life until his final years of peace. Throughout his life, David Franks contended with three major issues upon which everything else was superimposed. In his early twenties, he married a Christian woman and permitted his wife and children to practice their own religion. As a young man, too, he engaged in a business collaboration with his father, brother, brother-in-law, and a collection of wellestablished British and British-American businessmen of high social rank that endured for more than thirty years and led to considerable financial success. Misfortune also came his way, however, first in the form of huge financial reverses due to destruction of his property by Indians who rose up against the incursion of whites into their territory, and second, when the American revolutionaries accused him of treason. Franks dealt resourcefully with all of his problems and interests. To make his marriage easier, he came to an understanding with his wife whereby he could enjoy the pleasures of family life by allowing his children to be raised as Christians. Historian Isaac Markens incorrectly asserted that Franks “abjured the Hebrew faith,” and Sabato Morais contended that he “was lax in his adherence to Judaism,” but in fact Franks was a member, for at least twenty-seven years, of New York’s synagogue Shearith...