Misplaced Pages

Billy Simmons (also known as Billy Simons; c. 1780 - c. 1860) 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.

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.

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. 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.

Legacy

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

See also

• History of the Jews in Charleston, South Carolina
• Isaac Lopez Brandon
• Sarah Brandon Moses
• Lucy Marks

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.

External links

• African Americans, ambivalence, and antisemitism, Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

• 1780s births
• 1860s deaths
• 19th-century American Sephardic Jews
• 19th-century American slaves
• Immigrants to the United States
• African-American Jews
• American slaves literate in Arabic
• American Arabic-language writers
• Hebrew-language writers
• Jewish scholars
• People from Charleston, South Carolina
• Jews from South Carolina
• 19th-century American writers
• 19th-century African-American writers