Jews were readily accepted in only one colony, South
Carolina. The Lord Proprietors of South Carolina had grandiose schemes of getting rich
quick from the sale of deer hides, Indian slaves, and later rice and indigo. They saw
the key to this prosperity as encouraging settlement to anyone regardless of religious
preference, thus Jews were welcomed into the State. The earliest Jewish congregation and
synagogue were established in Charleston, S.C.
Jews were
not welcome in other parts of the colonies, including Jamestown, where members were
expected to pay nominal service to the Anglican Church. In New England, no one except
those who subscribed to their Puritan beliefs were welcomed, they even hanged a group of
Quakers once who refused to leave. Obviously, non-believers were heartily NOT welcomed.
Anti-semitism was alive and well in Europe, so Jews there suffered from time to time;
but in the Americas, only in South Carolina were they allowed to emigrate at all until
the late nineteenth century.
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