Through the Sands of Time: A History of the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

5. Development: 1848–1867

c h a p t e r 5 Development 1848–1867 It will be thus seen that there is light and intelligence even beyond the great centers of enlightenment, and the community of St. Thomas can compare favorably with all others in this country and Europe . . . —Reverend Isaac Leeser, 1867 On July 2 to 3, 1848, eight thousand slaves converged on Frederiksted, a tiny but influential port city on the western end of St. Croix. Having successfully organized a bloodless uprising, the slaves demanded immediate emancipation from the Danish government. Governor General Peter von Scholten, recently returned to St. Croix from St. Thomas, held a meeting with his advisors to discuss the options. Just the previous year, the government had instituted a hopelessly compromised policy that intended to free all slaves in gradual steps through 1859. Now, faced with the prospect of an all-out battle, von Scholten saw he had little choice but to grant freedom immediately. In a famous scene recounted in numerous Virgin Islands history books and at least one commercial movie, the Governor General mounted his horse and rode through the streets of Frederiksted, shouting, “Now you are free, you are hereby emancipated!”1 With these words, the Danish West Indian slavery system slid into the past. While a success in the long-overdue journey to freedom for enslaved Africans, emancipation proved an economic nightmare to the Danish West Indies. It devastated the already-shrinking sugar trade on St. Croix, forcing 87 planters to pay increased wages for an ever-diminishing return. Emancipation also dealt an economic blow to the active port city of Charlotte Amalie, though the situation there was somewhat less dire. Money was plentiful and work always needed. Many slaves already received a wage (albeit minimal) for their labor, and saved it for the eventual purchase of their freedom; emancipation on its most immediate level generally meant a small pay raise. House slaves, meanwhile, ceased to be the property of their owners, and could theoretically work wherever they wished. Although the white and free black communities had to make some economic adjustments to accommodate these changes, the stable capitalistic trade system prevented drastic transitions from taking place too rapidly.2 A tiny Jewish community still existed on St. Croix, mostly in Christiansted. Too small and scattered to organize or employ a leader, they continued to keep up a little burial ground on a rolling hill, right across the street from the expansive Moravian cemeteries. On St. Thomas, meanwhile, Reverend Moses Nathan Nathan continued to lead services to the great satisfaction of a burgeoning congregation. Never before were the proceedings more organized and more unified on Saturday mornings, with a resuscitated choir and a demeanor that even attracted non-Jews to attend services on occasion. While adhering to developments in the British prayer ritual, the St. Thomas congregation relied heavily on the United States for its ritual and religious items. From Isaac Leeser in Philadelphia, it ordered prayerbooks and Pentateuchs , as well as Lesser’s Catechism for young Jewish children. From James Henry, Esq. in New York came matzah, the unleavened bread prepared annually for the Passover feast.3 In the other direction, St. Thomas probably served as a supplier and distributor of locally grown citrons to North American and British Jewish communities for the celebration of Sukkot.4 The books and matzah came through the Main Street dry-goods store of Morris B. Simmonds, an accomplished merchant and an illustrious lay-leader in synagogue and island life. First coming to public mention in 1835 as the secretary of the island’s Harmonic Lodge, Simmonds eventually held positions as secretary pro tem of the Commercial Marine Insurance Corporation and trustee of the St. Thomas Savings Bank. His Jewish activism supplemented , or even predated, that of Aron Wolff: Three years before Wolff’s Sunday school opened, Simmonds was teaching evening Hebrew classes on St. Thomas.5 An extensive Caribbean traveller, he was known to perform rituals occasionally in small Jewish communities without a minister. On February 8, 1847, for example, he circumcised David Baiz in the port town of Barcelona, Venezuela; the next year, he officiated at a Jewish wedding in 88 | through the sands of time Caracas.6 Simmonds also served as the Jewish correspondent for the island’s almanac, providing annually a Jewish calendar and a list of the synagogue wardens for publication.7 After constructing a home...