Америка Тәуелсіздік Соғысындағы Франсис Сальвадор

American politician

Francis Salvador (1747 – 1 August 1776) was an English born American plantation owner in the colony of South Carolina from the Sephardic Jewish community of London; in 1774 he was the first professing Jew to be elected to public office in the colonies when chosen for the Provincial Congress. He had joined the independence cause and in 1776 was the first Jew killed in the American Revolutionary War, fighting with the militia on the South Carolina frontier against Loyalists and their Cherokee allies.

Francis Salvador was born to Jacob Salvador and his wife in London, where a Spanish and Portuguese Jewish (Sephardic) community had developed since the 17th century. His uncle, Joseph Salvador, was a prominent businessman, investing in the British East India Company. His grandfather Francis Salvador was the boy's namesake. Francis' father died when he was two, and his younger brother Moses was born soon after. The Salvador family was financially ruined by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, as they still held properties there, and subsequent failure of the East India Company, in which they had interests. They retained their land in South Carolina and little other wealth.

Francis Salvador acquired in Ninety Six District, Carolina Colony, and emigrated intending to send for his wife, Sarah, and their four children as soon as he was able. Arriving in Charleston in December 1773, Salvador quickly joined the American cause. He became close friends with the rising leaders of the Revolution in the South, including Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Rutledge, William Henry Drayton, Henry Laurens, and Samuel Hammond. Buying African slaves to work his land, Salvador settled at Coroneka (commonly called Cornacre) in 1774, joined for a while by his friend Richard A. Rapley, as neither wanted to live alone. They were joined by Andrew Williamson, then a major in the militia. When the Provincial Congress first met in Charleston in January 1775, Salvador was chosen for important committee assignments: drawing up the declaration of the purpose of the congress to the people; obtaining ammunition; assessing the safety of the frontier, and working on the new state constitution. The group also framed a bill of rights and composed an address to South Carolina's royal governor, setting forth the colonists' complaints against the Crown. Salvador was appointed to a commission that tried to convince the Tories in the northern and western parts of the colony to join the American cause. The second Provincial Congress assembled in November 1775. Salvador was one of the champions for independence; he urged his fellow delegates to instruct the colony's delegation to the Continental Congress to cast their vote for independence. Salvador chaired the Ways and Means Committee of this second Provincial Congress, at the same time serving on a select committee authorised to issue bills of credit as payment to members of the militia. He was also selected for a commission to preserve the peace in the interior parts of South Carolina.