Mapping Jewish Charleston

1 Judah P. Benjamin

King Street

2 Cardozo Family

8 Courthouse Square

3 Cohen Family

Broad Street

4 Mordecai Cohen

119 Broad Street

5 Mordecai Cohen

97 Broad Street

6 Philip M. Cohen

63 Broad Street

7 Coming Street Cemetery

189 Coming Street

8 Dacosta Cemetery

55 Amherst Street

9 Dr. Jacob Canter DeLaMotta

106 Broad Street

10 Dr. Jacob Canter DeLaMotta

Logan Street

11 Morris Goldsmith

Magazine Street

12 Harby Cemetery

25 Hanover Street

13 Henry Jefferson Harby

Church Street

14 Isaac Harby

100 Tradd Street

15 Nathan Hart

220 King Street

16 Hebrew Orphan Society

88 Broad Street

17 Hertz Family

King Street

18 Myer Jacobs

Calhoun Street

19 Jewish Auctioneers

East Bay Street at Vendue Range

20 Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim

90 Hasell Street

21 Benjamin D. Lazarus

Tradd Street

22 Joshua Lazarus

East Bay Street

23 Marks Lazarus

109 Tradd Street

24 Rachel DeTorres Benjamin Lazarus

229 King Street

25 Elias & Lyon Levy

Atlantic Street

26 Jacob C. Levy

301 East Bay Street

27 Mary Ann Suares Levy

King Street

28 David Lopez, Jr.

Logan Street

29 Abraham Moïse II

College Street

30 Theodore Sidney Moïse

222 (today 234) King Street.

31 Moses Cohen Mordecai

69 Meeting Street

32 Isaiah Moses

King Street

33 Raphael J. Moses

Beaufain Street

34 Abraham Ottolengui

Pinckney Street

35 Gustavus Poznanski

387 King Street

36 Reformed Society Of Israelites

Meeting Street

37 Benjamin A. Rodriguez

Corner of Meeting and Hasell Streets

38 Shearit Israel Synagogue

34 Wentworth Street

39 Judith Suares

King Street

40 Samuel Valentine

Clifford Street

41 Isaac And Sarah Woolf

King Street

42 Rachel Woolf

Orange Street

Judith Suares

King Street

Caribbean immigrant and her sons

Judith Alberga (1770–1853) married Jacob Suares (1755–1818[?]) in Kingston, Jamaica. Jacob moved to Charleston first and Judith joined him in 1799. He gave her permission to become a sole trader, allowing her to carry on a business for herself, keeping her own inventory and entering into contracts on her own behalf. The fact that Jacob Suares had recently lost a civil suit may have been their motive: as a feme sole,A married woman who had the legal right to manage her own commercial affairs. Otherwise, women in this era were the virtual property of their husbands. Judith Alberga Suares would not be liable for her husband’s debts.

As a widow, Judith continued her small-business career. At least by 1825 she had a store here on King Street, at the center of Charleston’s commercial district, and soon left her residence on Henrietta to live above her shop. Her sons shared her home and likely were involved in her business as well: by 1835, Benjamin Suares (b. 1816) was a merchant tailor, and Abraham Suares was a clerk. Judith Suares’ daughters, Mary Ann and Caroline, probably lived here as well until their 1841 marriages.