Tonight I was watching a new program, "Black and Jewish American: An Interwoven History," First showings, February 2023, when I saw a short segment on Judah P. Benjamin. I was shocked! Did Henry Louis Gates, Jr., get this idea from me? Did I put something similar on my blog a few years ago? Or did I get the idea from him in some earlier discussion? One thing for sure, a few days ago I raised a similar topic for my book. I will consult with my editor, but if ok, will add a page or 2 on my blog, that you, and Henry L. Gates Jr., might enjoy Keep tuned. Hugh Murray
What I had written prior to watching the H L Gates Jr. tv program.
Chpt. 1, Part 2
We all learn from our experience, and sometimes cumulative experiences lead us to stereotypes. Many times they are helpful; sometimes not. Who was the first American Sec. of State of Jewish heritage? Henry Kissinger, who was born in Bavaria, Germany and left after the Nazis came to power. His family settled in Washington Heights in the northern tip of Manhattan. The neighborhood had many refugees from fascist Europe, and if I recall correctly, the department store just across a small bridge to the Bronx was called a Kaufhaus, or Warenhaus, but my memory may be wrong on that. Soon after Kissinger, Madeline Albright became the American Sec. of State; she was also of Jewish heritage.
But there was a practicing Jew who was selected for a Presidential cabinet post, and worked his way up before Kissinger. He became Sec. of State long before either Kissinger or Albright. Judah P. Benjamin was the first openly Jewish in his religion to be elected to the US Senate, from Louisiana, then appointed to the Cabinet of Pres. Jefferson Davis of the CSA. Some say he fled after the war to Britain because as Sec. of State, he may have been in charge of sabotage and assassins. Because a conspiracy to kill Yankee leaders led to the assassination of then Pres. Lincoln, some may have held resentment toward Benjamin. At any rate, Benjamin had a most successful career in law in Britain, law rather different from that of Louisiana, which had no English Common Law, but relied as a basis on the Napoleonic Code instead.
During the Civil War, officer Ulysses Grant was rising with his victories in the Wester sector. At one point Gen. Grant was in charge of a large swath of territory, western Kentucky, Tennessee, and other lands near by. To prevent the Confederates from selling their cotton - Britain had been their main buyer, but the Northern naval blockade prevented that trade. Grant believed that Jewish businessmen were now trading with the Rebels from his territory. Grant then ordered all Jews in his territory, which was larger then Rhode Island, to get out within 24 hours. We know he was not reading from a WWII German playbook. It was perhaps the most anti-Jewish command ever issued in America. When Lincoln heard of it, he quickly rescinded Grand's order. But in today's classrooms, one thinks - the North was for freedom and liberal; the South for slavery and reactionary. The North was sympathetic to minorities like Jews; the South was hostile. But was it quite like that?
We call the South the Bible Belt, but Massachusetts began as a very strict puritanical colony. When the first baby was born, the elders checked the documents for when the couple married, and discovered the baby came too early - the couple must have fornicated BEFORE they were married. So both husband and wife the first parents in the Mass. Bay colony, were whipped by its leaders. As the colony grew, the religious leaders found it necessary to rid the area of witches (by killing them) expelling Baptist Roger Williams as his preaching was not sufficient; and the woman preacher Ann Hutchinson also exiled, both having to depart to Rhode Island (or Rogues Island). In New England Quaker missionaries were executed.
In time, there was a major revival led by xxx, raising the religious temperature shortly before the American Revolution. After the Revolution, when most colonies/states disestablished their various religions (for which all had had to pay taxes), but the Congregational Church in New England remained the established church there until 1830.
Yet, it was there that a new church began to win converts, the Unitarians. Unorthodox in many views, they were also influenced by Transcendentalists from Europe, Unitarians, along with Quakers, utopians, and others partook in early communes. Emerson had at one point been a Unitarian minister; Harvard Divinity was suddenly Unitarian On a small scale, just as Jews became the intellectuals in NYC from the 1940s - ?, so the Unitarians were the early "Jews" of the Republic, which then had few Jews.
If you see the film, Glory, about the xxx54th Massachusetts Regimen, an all black one led by the white Col. Shaw, of a prominent Unitarian family in Massachusetts. They were staunch abolitionists. Indeed, as late as 1960?, former Pres. Harry Truman was blaming (not slavery) but the New England busy bodies for causing the Civil War. Democrats called Truman the Civil Rights President, as he was the first to address the NAACP. When then NAACP employee, W E B Du Bois, refused to endorse Truman in 1948, W E B was promptly fired by the organization he helped organize.
Image vs. reality. I was once quite active in the Unitarian Church in my native New Orleans. It was one of only 2 such churches that survived the war in the South, one in New Orleans and one in Charleston. Two Unitarian Churches were founded by a prominent figure - the only American to be Vice President to two different Presidents, John C. Calhoun. When I looked at a Wikipedia article on Unitarians, I urged them to add the name of Calhoun. Calhoun was not merely prominent, he was a strong defender of slavery, owned many himself, and pushed the notion of nullification to protect "Southern rights." Nullification was a 19th century term for defying national law, like sanctuary cities and states today. Today's Unitarians were probably the ones vetoing any discussion of Calhoun and pro-slavery individuals in their abolitionist wiki "history." Like it or not, Calhoun founded the Unitarian churches in Charleston and Washington, DC. But today's left wing seeks to cleanse Unitarian history so one reads only of its abolitionist heritage. I do not deny the importance of abolitionists, but contend it is better to be true to history than to be politically correct. Abolitionist Unitarians may have been the large majority, but the pro-slavery minority was important, too.
PS- I had never seen the Confederate money bills with the picture of Judah Benjamin on them. I did not notice the denomination of the bills. I guess one can accurately declare, there were Benjamins (for Judah) long before the Benjamin (Franklins) that were made famous by US Rep. Omar's comments in the 21st century. Indeed, has a Jew ever been pictured on currency of the USA, or is it only in the CSA? On 7 Sat. 2026 I saw a repeat of the Gates program on a Milwaukee PBS station. Now I saw clearly, Judah Benjamin appeared on the Confederate $2 bill. There are some recent scholars (on google AI) who might contend he should have been on the $3 bill. If one traveled in the 19th century and had to sleep over, there may not have been enough beds, and men, like Lincoln apparently on many occasions slept in the same bed with another man. Probably some occasions when 3 in a bed. There may have been some snuggling, or even playing around, but I think ir wrong to jump to modern conclusions. Benjamin's case is different; he was married but his wife resided in Paris, where she apparently played around. Just as modern changes in attitude toward views of slave owners meant a lower approval rating for John Calhoun, it may be the reason for new questions about Judah Benjamin. Another reason I am skeptical of the recent speculation that Benjamin was gay - because he was a Jew, he would have come under more scrutiny at the time, especially by wives of those of who were jealous of his position. Rumor, gossip, can have a powerful effect, ir true, and sometimes if not true. That the "brains of the Confederacy" or Pres. Davis's "pet Jew" was not fired but promoted seems to work against the supposition of some modern historians.
There are fashions in history just as there are in women's skirts. Some may help us to discover truths that contradict the old story; and some that may confuse the issue even more.
Liberal North, reactionary South. Recall the draft riots in NYC, beginning in mid-July 1863, working-class whites, mainly Irish, resented a new law exempting those rich enough to pay $300 to be exempt from the draft. They also resented going to fight to free blacks who would then become competitors with them for jobs. 5-days of burning homes of the rich, and a black orphanage, and attacks killing up to 1,200 people, and stopped only withthe arrival of 4,000 Yankee troops who had just left Gettysburg. It is easier to write about the good guys vs. the bad, but . . .
Tonight I watched Part 2 of the H L Gates PBS Series on Blacks and Jews.. I hoped to write a review, but I received an injection in my right eyeball today, and the computer light is too strong - I am crying, I should have a review up soon of Part 2.
