JGSC Book Club: Once We Were Slaves by Laura Arnold Leibman
When: Thursday, April 24, 2025, 7pm ET
Where: Zoom
Join us for a moderated discussion of Once We Were Slaves: The Extraordinary Journey of a Multiracial Jewish Family by Laura Arnold Leibman.
About the Group:
We read books that bring Jewish genealogy to life, including memoirs that explore generations of a family's history, histories that explore Jewish families and make use of genealogical research, and other titles that explore the role of genealogy in our lives.
Book Synopsis:
An obsessive genealogist and descendent of one of the most prominent Jewish families since the American Revolution, Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Yet she found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmother's maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Moses's ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiress's assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Tracing the siblings' extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York, to show how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and--at times--white. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived, and sheds new light on the fluidity of race--as well as on the role of religion in racial shift--in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Download printable family trees for the families discussed in the book!
Position
Bio/Descriptioshe found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmother's maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Moses's ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiress's assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados. Tracing the siblings' extraordinary journey throughout the Atlantic World, Leibman examines artifacts they left behind in Barbados, Suriname, London, Philadelphia, and, finally, New York, to show how Sarah and Isaac were able to transform themselves and their lives, becoming free, wealthy, Jewish, and--at times--white. While their affluence made them unusual, their story mirrors that of the largely forgotten population of mixed African and Jewish ancestry that constituted as much as ten percent of the Jewish communities in which the siblings lived, and sheds new light on the fluidity of race--as well as on the role of religion in racial shift--in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Author:
Laura Arnold Leibman is the Leonard J. Milberg ’53 Professor in American Jewish Studies at Princeton University. Her work focuses on religion and the daily lives of women and children in early America and uses everyday objects to help bring their stories back to life. She is President of the Association for Jewish Studies, and the author of three award-winning books: The Art of the Jewish Family: A History of Women in Early New York in Five Objects (2020), Messianism, Secrecy and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life (2013), and Once We Were Slaves (2021). She also co-edited the collection Jews Across the Americas: A Sourcebook, 1492-the Present (2023). She is currently working on a book about Jews and textiles during the long nineteenth century.
Registration:
Registration is open only to JGSC Members and is limited to 10 participants. There will be a waiting list for each meeting. Registration closes on Wednesday, April 23, at which point participants will receive a Zoom link.
Contact:
Jane Rothstein at president@jgscleveland.org for questions.
