HIS 312: Civil War and Reconstruction

A native of Charleston, SC, Rosen (Confederate Charleston: An Illustrated History of the Place and the People During the Civil War) uses his own background and experience to recount the lives of Southern Jews from the 1700s until well after the Civil War. Loyal Southerners, the Jews accepted living in a slaveholding society, and their young men flocked to enlist when war came. The author delves into the lives of a number of prominent individuals and families, among them two U.S. senators, Judah Philip Benjamin of Louisiana and David Levy Yulee of Florida. The experiences of many other enlisted men, officers, nurses, politicians, rabbis, doctors, and businessmen are also chronicled. Rosen also explains why so many Jews chose the South as their home and why they remained loyal to it, arguing that Southern society and the Confederate army and navy may have been more tolerant of Jews than the North.

A Good Morning America 2024 GMA Buzz Pick Purchasing a historic Savannah home unlocks the sweeping story of a Southern Jewish family As Jason K. Friedman renovated his flat in a grand townhouse in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, he discovered a portal to the past. The Cohens, part of a Sephardic community in London, arrived in South Carolina in the mid-1700s; became founding members of Charleston's Jewish congregation; and went on to build home, community, and success in Savannah. In Liberty Street: A Savannah Family, Its Golden Boy, and the Civil War Friedman takes the reader on a personal journey to understand the history of the Cohens. At the center of the story is a sensitive young man pulled between love and duty, a close-knit family straining under moral and political conflicts, and a city coming into its own. Friedman draws on letters, diaries, and his experiences traveling from Georgia to Virginia, uncovering hidden histories and exploring the ways place and collective memory haunt the present. At a moment when the hard light of truth shines on gauzy Lost-Cause myths, Liberty Street is a timely work of historical sleuthing.