David Isaacs
David Isaacs was a prominent Charlottesville merchant in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was one of the most prominent members of the early Jewish community in Charlottesville.
Biography
David Isaacs was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1760.[1]
He and his brother, Isaiah, moved together to Richmond, Virginia, where they helped to found the first synagogue in the colony. In the 1790s, David moved to Charlottesville, where he established a store on Main Street. It is known that he sold a wide variety of items to an even wider clientele, including Thomas Jefferson. It was Isaacs who sold Jefferson the twine used to mark the outline of Pavilion VII, the first building constructed at the University of Virginia. He also educated Jefferson on Judaism, as surviving letters between the two reveal that Isaacs provided Jefferson with a pamphlet entitled "Elements of the Jewish Faith", translated from Hebrew into English for him to read.[2] It is believed that the final purchase Jefferson made before his death was cheese from David Isaacs' shop.
When he first moved to Charlottesville, Isaacs' first landlord was Thomas West, a white man who had several children, including Nancy West with an enslaved woman named Priscilla. Nancy established her own business next door to Isaacs' and the two began a relationship shortly after Isaacs arrived in Charlottesville. Legal or religious marriage was impossible, as interracial relationships were illegal in Virginia, and her lack of Jewish background made a religious ceremony impossible.[1] At first, the two lived apart, as the 1810 Census recounts, but they were living together with their seven children by 1820.[2]
In 1822, Isaacs and West were brought to court for two charges: being a married interracial couple and for cohabitating without a marriage. Despite the fact that these charges could not simultaneously be true, it took the court five years to dismiss the charges. Soon after this case was settled in 1827, Isaacs was the subject of more legal action, as he had to deal with issues related to his brother Isaiah's will and the inheritance of his young nephew, Hays. His appeals in the case were funded by Nancy, who had established herself as a skilled woman, with an estate worth around $7,000, which made her the wealthiest non-white person in Albemarle County
David and Nancy raised seven children together, all of whom were recognized as members of the Charlottesville Black community at the time. Their son Tucker married Ann-Elizabeth Fossett, the daughter of Joseph Fossett, one of the few enslaved people freed in Thomas Jefferson's will. Her freedom was later purchased by Joseph, allowing Tucker and Ann-Elizabeth to move to Ohio. Their daughter Julia Ann married Eston Hemings, one of the sons of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings in 1832, and for a time Sally lived with them in Charlottesville, in property owned by Nancy.
In 1837, David Isaacs passed away. His will left instructions to have him buried in Richmond, at the cemetery associated with the Beth Shalome synagogue.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Web. Early Jewish Settlement in Charlottesville
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Web. How an Interracial, Interfaith Family Became Tied to Monticello, Olivia Brown and Kyle Chattleton