Billy Simmons

Last updated
Billy Simmons
Born1780
Died1860
Occupation(s)Scholar, newspaper deliverer

Billy Simmons (also known as Billy Simons) was an African-American Jew from Charleston, South Carolina, one of the few documented Black Jews living in the Antebellum South. Simmons was a scholar in both Hebrew and Arabic. [1]

Contents

Life

Simmons was born in Madagascar. Simmons claimed to be a descendant of a Rechabite tribe, a claim that two cantors and other Jewish authorities supported. Purchased by white Jewish enslavers, Simmons was taken into captivity and brought to South Carolina. A newspaper editor in Charleston enslaved him and forced him to deliver newspapers. [2]

Despite anti-Black restrictions in the constitution of Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim that banned Black converts from membership, Simmons was among the few African-American Jews known to have attended the synagogue during the antebellum period. [3] [4] Simmons attended the synagogue during the 1850s and was known to members as Uncle Billy. Simmons was known to attend Shabbat services wearing a black top hat, black suit, and frilly shirt. [5]

Legacy

A drawing of Billy Simmons is held by the Special Collections Library of the College of Charleston. [6]

See also

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References

  1. "The Jews of Nineteenth Century Charleston: Ethnicity in a Port City". University of Göttingen . Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  2. "Black Jews You Should Know, Part 1". Tablet Magazine. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  3. O'Brien, Michael (2004). Conjectures of order: intellectual life and the American South, 1810-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN   0-8078-6373-4. OCLC   57759012.
  4. Haynes, Bruce D., 1960- (August 14, 2018). The soul of Judaism : Jews of African descent in America. New York. ISBN   978-1-4798-1123-6. OCLC   1006531808.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. "Jews in Antebellum South Carolina" (PDF). Association of Jewish Libraries . Retrieved 2022-05-06.
  6. "Carologue Index" (PDF). Carologue . Retrieved 2024-01-30.