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Revision as of 04:05, 13 May 2008 by Malik Shabazz (talk | contribs) (Creating article)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Aaron Lopez (born Duarte Lopez; 1731–1782) was a Jewish merchant and philanthropist. He became one of the wealthiest merchants in Newport, Rhode Island, in British America. He helped build the Touro Synagogue. In 1761 and 1762, Lopez unsuccessfully sued the Colony of Rhode Island for citizenship.
Early life
Duarte Lopez was born in 1731 in Lisbon, Portugal. He belonged to a family of conversos who professed Catholicism while they continued to practice Judaism in secret. In 1750 Lopez married a woman named Anna, and within two years the couple had a daughter, Catherine.
Aaron's older brother José had left Portugal years earlier, reclaimed his Jewish identity, and taken the name Moses. Moses had become a successful merchant in Newport, and in 1752 Duarte and his family moved to Newport, where they lived as Jews and became Aaron, Abigail, and Sarah.
Business
Lopez established himself as a shopkeeper in Newport shortly after his arrival. By 1755 he was buying and selling goods throughout Rhode Island and dealing with agents in Boston and New York.
One of Lopez's chief business interests was the trade in spermaceti, a wax extracted from whale oil that was used to make candles. Lopez built a candle-making factory in Newport in 1756. By 1760, a dozen competitors had built a similar plants in New England. Whalers couldn't supply the factories with enough spermaceti to meet the demand, and the price of whale oil was climbing. In 1761, Lopez joined eight other merchants to form a trust to control the price and distribution of whale oil.
During the 1760s Lopez expanded his trade beyond the North American coastline. He started sending ships to Europe and the Canary Islands. Then he began to finance slave ships, a practice he continued until 1774. By the beginning of the American Revolution, Lopez owned or controlled 30 vessels.
By all accounts, Lopez was among the wealthiest merchants in Newport. The reason he was successful was that his business interests were so diverse. He manufactured spermaceti candles, ships, barrels, rum, and chocolate. He had business interests in the production of textiles, clothes, shoes, hats, and bottles. Ezra Stiles, the Congregational minister in Newport and future president of Yale College, described Lopez as "a merchant of the first eminence" and wrote that the "extent of commerce probably surpassed by no merchant in America".
In the mid-1770s, with growing tensions between Britain and its American colonies, Lopez's fortunes began to decline. The Continental Association enforced a boycott against trade with Britain. In October 1775, the British navy anchored outside Newport's harbor and the population began to evacuate the city. In early 1776 Lopez relocated to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, then to Providence, Boston, and Leicester, Massachusetts. Historian Marilyn Kaplan describes Lopez's losses during the American Revolution as "monumental".
Citizenship
In 1761, Lopez applied to the Rhode Island Superior Court to become a naturalized citizen. Under the British Naturalization Act of 1740, anyone who had resided in the colony for seven years could become a British citizen, regardless of religion. Although he met the conditions set by law, Lopez's request was denied. Another qualified Jew, Isaac Elizer, was also denied citizenship.
Lopez and Elizer appealed to the Rhode Island General Assembly. The lower house approved their request and required that the men return to the Superior Court to take an oath of allegiance, but the terms of their citizenship would be limited: while Jews would be permitted to become citizens of Rhode Island, they could not vote or serve in public office.
Lopez and Elizer fared worse in the upper house of the legislature. There they were told that Parliament had given the courts, not the legislature, jurisdiction over naturalization. If they wished to become citizens, Lopez and Elizer would have to appeal to the Superior Court.
The Superior Court heard the pair's appeal on March 11, 1762. Their application was denied a second time. The court reasoned that the 1740 act was intended to increase the population of the colony, and since the colony had grown crowded the law no longer applied. The court also noted that under a 1663 Rhode Island law, only Christians could become citizens. Lopez and Elizer could not become citizens of Rhode Island.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Determined to become a citizen, Lopez made inquiries to learn whether he could become naturalized in another colony. In April 1762 he moved temporarily to Swansea, Massachusetts. On October 15, 1762, Lopez became a citizen of Massachusetts and then returned to Newport. Historians believe Lopez was the first Jew to become a naturalized citizen of Massachusetts.
Death
On May 28, 1782, while returning with his family from Leicester to Newport, Lopez drowned when his horse and carriage fell into a pond. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Newport.
References
- ^ Davis, Paul (March 13, 2006). "Plantations in the North: The Narragansett Planters". The Providence Journal. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Brody, Seymour (1996). "Aaron Lopez - Merchant King Who Kept The Revolutionary Army Supplied". Jewish Heroes and Heroines in America from Colonial Times to 1900. Florida Atlantic University Libraries. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ^ "Guide to the Papers of Aaron Lopez (1731–1782)". American Jewish Historical Society. 2004. Retrieved 2008-05-11.
- ^ Feldberg, p. 12.
- Kaplan, p. 13.
- ^ Kaplan, p. 18.
- Kaplan, pp. 18–19.
- Kaplan, p. 19.
- Friedman, pp. 123–127.
- Jacobs, et al., p. 294.
- Kaplan, p. 21.
- Marcus and Saperstein, p. 94.
- Kaplan, p. 22.
- ^ Smith and Sarna, p. 3.
- Feldberg, pp. 12-13.
- ^ Feldberg, p. 13.
- According to Marcus and Saperstein, the law was enacted around 1699, not 1663 (p. 93).
- Marcus and Saperstein, p. 92.
- Marcus and Saperstein, pp. 94–95.
- Jacobs, et al., p. 295.
- Marcus and Saperstein, p. 95.
Sources
- Feldberg, Michael (ed.) (2002). "Aaron Lopez's Struggle for Citizenship". Blessings of Freedom: Chapters in American Jewish History. New York: American Jewish Historical Society. ISBN 0-88125-756-7.
{{cite book}}:|first=has generic name (help) - Friedman, Saul S. (1998). Jews and the American Slave Trade. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0-7658-0660-6.
- Jacobs, Joseph (1906). "Newport". In Isidore Singer and Cyrus Adler (eds.) (ed.). Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help);|editor=has generic name (help); External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Kaplan, Marilyn (2004). "The Jewish Merchants of Newport, 1749–1790". In George M. Goodwin and Ellen Smith (eds.) (ed.). The Jews of Rhode Island. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press. ISBN 1-58465-424-4.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help) - Marcus, Jacob Rader (1999) . "Rhode Island Refuses to Naturalize Aaron Lopez, March 1762". The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315–1791. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press. ISBN 0-87820-217-X.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Smith, Ellen (2004). "Introduction: The Jews of Rhode Island". In George M. Goodwin and Ellen Smith (eds.) (ed.). The Jews of Rhode Island. Waltham, Mass.: Brandeis University Press. ISBN 1-58465-424-4.
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