Last month, America marked 250 years since Paul Revere’s legendary nighttime ride on April 18, 1775, that daring dash on a horse through the Massachusetts countryside, warning patriots, “The British are coming!” in advance of the battles of Lexington and Concord.
It was an audacious act that galvanized colonists and hastened the birth of a new nation.
Yet as America celebrates Revere’s famous exploits, it is also fitting to remember another, lesser-known figure who followed a similar path in the Southern colonies, a Jewish patriot whose heroism ended up costing him his life.
His name was Francis Salvador, and in the raw wilderness of South Carolina, he, too, mounted a horse to sound the alarm of approaching danger.
Francis Salvador: A testament to the Jewish contribution to the creation of the US
His courage earned him the title “the Jewish Paul Revere,” and his sacrifice stands as a testament to the Jewish contribution to the creation of the United States, making it a story that is worthy of being retold.
FRANCIS SALVADOR was born in 1747 into a distinguished, wealthy Sephardi Jewish family in London. He was raised in a family of privilege but one with a keen sense of public service. His grandfather, after whom he was named, was a philanthropist devoted to helping impoverished Jews; and his uncle, Joseph Salvador, was president of London’s Portuguese congregation.
Tragedy struck when a catastrophic earthquake hit Lisbon in 1755, destroying much of the family’s wealth. Seeking opportunity, Salvador left his wife and children in England and immigrated in 1773 to the backcountry of South Carolina, planning to send for them later. He settled in a rugged, untamed area known as Ninety-Six District.
There, on the remote frontier, Salvador found not only a new home but also a new cause: the rising struggle for American independence.
At a time when Jews were facing significant discrimination, Salvador became one of the first Jews to be chosen for public office. Just a year after his arrival, he was elected to serve as a member of South Carolina’s Provincial Congress, an extralegal body representing the colonial cause. He was reelected in 1775 and became close friends with some of the colony’s leading patriots such as Charles Pinckney, who would later sign the US Constitution; and John Rutledge, who would become one of the first justices on the US Supreme Court.
Salvador was an early champion of American independence and was widely respected by his colleagues for his eloquence, intellect, and fierce dedication to liberty.
His political courage was matched by his personal bravery. When tensions escalated into open warfare, Salvador chose to leave behind the safety of the legislative halls and venture out to the battlefield.
In the summer of 1776, just a few weeks after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the British incited their Cherokee Indian allies to attack patriot settlements across the South Carolina frontier.
Learning of the imminent danger, Salvador leaped into action. Like Revere in Boston a year earlier, Salvador mounted his horse and raced through the countryside, riding nearly 50 km. to warn his neighbors and rally the local militia, headed by major Andrew Williamson, who later became a Continental Army brigadier general.
Thanks to Salvador’s efforts, the colonial forces were able to muster a defense and went out to confront the Cherokee attackers near the Keowee River.
On August 1, 1776, amid a brutal skirmish, Salvador was shot and fell into the bushes. After Cherokee warriors found him, they scalped him and left him to die.
According to Williamson, who reached him before his demise, Salvador remained lucid until his final moments, asking whether the enemy had been defeated. “I told him ‘Yes,’” Williamson later wrote. “He said he was glad of it, and shook me by the hand and bade me farewell and said he would die in a few minutes.”
And so, Francis Salvador, the Jewish Paul Revere, became the first Jewish soldier to die in the American Revolution.
He was 29 years old.
Salvador was laid to rest at the Coming Street Cemetery in Charleston, the oldest Jewish burial ground in America’s South.
At the time, his death was mourned by South Carolina’s revolutionary leaders. Newspapers paid tribute to his heroism, and a memorial plaque erected later in Charleston summed up his life with these words:
“Born an aristocrat, he became a democrat; an Englishman, he cast his lot with the Americans; true to his ancient faith, he gave his life for new hopes of human liberty and understanding.” The reference to his faith indicates that he lived his life as a proud Jew.
Today, Salvador’s memory endures in South Carolina’s Hall of Fame in Myrtle Beach and on a few historical markers.
However, his example deserves far wider recognition, particularly as the US prepares to celebrate its semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) next year.
Francis Salvador’s midnight ride through the Carolina wilderness belongs alongside Paul Revere’s charge through the towns outside Boston.
Both men sounded the alarm in defense of freedom. Both understood that tyranny must be resisted early and decisively. And both demonstrated that the fight for liberty would demand sacrifice from every community, regardless of faith.
Salvador’s story also reminds us that even though Jews numbered just 0.1% of the population at the time, they played an outsize role in America’s destiny.
Just as they continue to do today.
The writer served as deputy communications director under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.