Forever Present and Silent No More:

doi:10.1017/9781009314008.004

Chapter 2 - Forever Present and Silent No More:

Early Sephardic Voices in the Spanish North American Atlantic

from Part I - Transacting

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2025

Emily Colbert Cairns

Edited by

Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez and

Elisa Sampson Vera Tudela

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Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez: Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University
Elisa Sampson Vera Tudela: Affiliation:
King's College London

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Summary

This chapter reposits the dominant narrative of the United States to shift away from a monolithic identification whereby American means English speaking and Christian, to one that embraces plurality and difference in its origins, and specifically includes the Sephardim as a group that was part of this foundational effort. The Sephardic Diaspora in New England was connected through trade to the early modern Atlantic world (1640–1830). Within the boundaries of the present-day United States, Charleston, South Carolina, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were key nodes in these commercial and slave networks. These merchants who fled from religious persecution in the Iberian Peninsula and sought religious freedoms in New England, also became slave traders who made huge profits on trafficking the freedom of others. Although often espousing endogamous ideals for unions, the lived reality of those members of the Sephardic Diaspora demonstrates how race became a contested site of identity for practitioners of the Jewish faith living in widely disparate places.

Keywords

Sephardim Diaspora Religious Identity Trade Colonial North America letters Aaron Lopez

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Type: Chapter
Information: Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886 , pp. 55 - 78

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009314008.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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