St. Eustatius in the Dutch Antilles, Dutch school, late eighteenth century / Courtesy of the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Public Entity of St. Eustatius

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The First Salute: An Untold Story of the American Revolution

On July 4, 1776, no one could assume that the Declaration of Independence’s vision for a new nation would become reality. It took eight years of war and powerful, exhilarating idealism for American Patriots to overthrow Great Britain and change the world.

introduction Highlights 1776: A New Perspective Small but Mighty For Liberty Press Programs Sponsors

For happily the Government of the United States…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.
– George Washington to the Jewish community of Newport, RI, August 1790

The Weitzman’s landmark exhibition marking America’s 250th will take you on an adventure through this fight for freedom as you’ve never seen it before. Filled with new information about the Revolutionary era, The First Salute is a thrilling exploration of how religious liberty, communal networks, and individual courage positioned Jews to play crucial roles in securing independence and shaping the nation.

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1776: A New Perspective

In the eighteenth century, Jews lived in many places in North America and Europe, including, the tiny, lush Caribbean island of St. Eustatius. There, 1,700 miles south of Philadelphia, Jewish merchants supplied countless tons of munitions to American revolutionaries. There, the United States received its first international recognition. There, a British admiral’s persecution of Jews led to a strategic error that helped determine the Revolution’s outcome. Below, explore some of the key artifacts and stories featured in The First Salute. Click on each of the four images to learn more–swipe to the right if you are using a mobile device.

Model of the Andrew Doria

By Greg McKay, 2006

Courtesy of Allen C. and Elizabeth A. Rawl

Captain Isaiah Robinson assumed command of the fourteen-gun brigantine Andrew Doria on October 10, 1776. [Josh–this conflicts with statement in the label for the letter below, which refers to him as captain of the Andrew Doria when the latter was written on 9/21/1776] One week later, he embarked on a voyage to obtain munitions and other military supplies from the Dutch island of St. Eustatius. Shipbuilder Allen Rawl commissioned this model of the Andrew Doria with funding from St. Eustatius. It has been displayed on the island and in the Dutch embassy in Washington, DC.

Print, Veduta di S. Eustachio

1763

Courtesy of the Gilmore family

This view of St. Eustatius appeared in the Italian edition of The American Gazetteer: Containing a Distinct Account of All the Parts of the New World, originally published in London in 1762. St. Eustatius’ Jewish population grew rapidly as the island’s stature increased. In 1776 the island’s European population numbered around 2,000, of which Jews comprised at least thirty percent, augmented annually by the arrival and departure of transient sailors. About 2,500 enslaved Africans and a few free Blacks also lived on St. Eustatius. Jews established a cemetery in 1730 and built a synagogue, Honen Dalim (Gracious to the Poor), in 1739. Under Dutch rule, they thrived. Jews’ mercantile skills, honed over generations due to European restrictions on land ownership and other professions, promoted the island’s primary activity: commerce.

Letter, Secret Committee of the Continental Congress

Robert Morris to Thomas Mumford, 1776

American Philosophical Society

During the Revolution, the Secret Committee of the Continental Congress negotiated arms deals for the fledgling nation. Robert Morris organized a covert network of merchants to move gunpowder and vital supplies through the Caribbean to American ports. “The supplies of powder and other articles from St. Eustatius are of the utmost importance,” Morris wrote. Delay would be “extremely injurious to the service of the United States.” Transcription Philada. August 22d. 1776 We have unanswered your favour of the 31st July & are well pleased to find you had recd more Powder. We hope the same good luck will attend you throughout and that in time we may receive the whole quantity safe. We have lately recd here 44 half barrells shipped by your Friends in St Eustatia per the Schooner Pluto, Cap Davis, by which we recd. a letter for you & sent it forward per Post not having time to write to you then. We now request that you will deliver any Salt you may have on hand to Nath Shaw junr Esqr at New London as it will be wanted for the use of the Navy & send us his receipt for it. Its well you had recd the Powder from Govr Cooke & we remain, sir, Your obed Servants. By order of the Secret Committee, Robt Morris, Chair Man

Zeevaartswoordenboek (maritime dictionary)

David Franco Mendes, ca. 1780

Collection Ets Haim - Livraria Montezinos, Amsterdam

David Franco Mendes (1713-1792) created this illustrated dictionary of maritime terms written in Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. A merchant by trade, Franco Mendes achieved prominence as a prolific poet, religious scholar, and translator – including works by Horace and Voltaire.

Small but Mighty

History – along with favorable winds and tides – led directly to the Dutch colony of St. Eustatius. Nicknamed the “Golden Rock,” this Caribbean island, one-third the size of Manhattan, boasted one of the eighteenth century’s busiest ports, an international thoroughfare for sugar, coffee, tobacco, rum, hides, textiles, and enslaved Africans. When the Revolution broke out, new cargo began flowing through St. Eustatius: secret shipments of gunpowder, weapons, and supplies passing from European allies like Holland to American Patriots, often on ships owned or operated by Jews. Click on each of the four images to learn more–swipe to the right if you are using a mobile device.