Francis Salvador Memorial, City Hall Park
In 1950, during a citywide celebration of the Jewish community’s bicentennial, a memorial to Francis Salvador was dedicated in Washington Park behind Charleston City Hall. Born in London in 1747 to a prominent Sephardic family, Francis Salvador came to South Carolina in 1773 with the intention of planting indigo on 7,000 acres he purchased from his uncle Joseph, who had acquired a 100,000-acre tract in Ninety-Six District in 1755, henceforth known as the “Jew’s Land.” Swept up in the excitement leading to the American war for independence, Salvador was elected to South Carolina’s First and Second Provincial Congresses, the first professing Jew in North America to represent the people in a legislative assembly.
He is also known as the first Jew to die in the Revolution. On August 1, 1776, his militia troop was ambushed by Tories and their Cherokee allies near the town of Seneca; Salvador was killed and scalped.
Plaque commemorating Francis Salvador
Photo by Jack Alterman, 2020.