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has been, & to feel the slavery of their freedom." Having believed that her slaves reciprocated the love she was sure she had bestowed upon them, Mordecai was distraught that they would want to leave. While staying with her sister-in-law Rose, she expressed exasperation in her diary that a slave
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forces. Mordecai became increasingly frustrated by the unwillingness of her slaves to work or relocate, writing that "To have to submit to the
Yankees is bad enough, but to submit to negro children is a little worse. They will, I hope, get ready to go soon." Several weeks later after she witnessed
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Mordecai spent her formative years, ages seven to nineteen, living at the Spring Farm slave plantation near
Richmond, Virginia. At age nineteen, her father sold the slave plantation and the Mordecai family moved into Richmond. Her family owned eighteen enslaved African-Americans, some of whom were
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In her personal diary, she wrote prayers for the victory of the
Confederacy and her own safety, documenting each day of her life. Mordecai's journals between 1864 and 1865 are preserved as part of the Mordecai family papers at the
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South, Mordecai remained an observant Jew her entire life. She devoted most of her life to educational and religious causes, founding the Jewish Sunday school at
Congregation Beth Shalome of Richmond.
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Emma
Mordecai, Richmond VA studio portrait (courtesy Mordecai House, Raleigh, NC). From General Negative Collection, State Archives of North Carolina.
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sold, some of whom were hired out as contract laborers, and some of whom remained with the family in
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109:(October 6, 1812 – April 8, 1906) was an American educator, diarist, slave owner, outspoken supporter of the
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her slaves packing their bags she wrote again, "They will now begin to find out how easy their life as
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Emma
Mordecai was born in 1812, one of thirteen siblings of the Mordecai family. Her father was
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and the values of the Old South, and active member of the Jewish community in 19th-century
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152:. Moses immigrated from Germany to London and later from London to Philadelphia.
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During the spring and summer of 1865, slaves owned by
Mordecai living in
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A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the
Confederacy, 1861-1868
265:"Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Richmond, Virginia"
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who married Esther (Elizabeth Hester
Whitlock), an English-born
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345:. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. p. 12.
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began to assert themselves after Richmond was captured by
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Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights
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Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
367:"Mordecai family papers, 1649-1947 (bulk 1810-1850)"
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137:and her paternal grandfather was
293:State Library of North Carolina
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475:People from Richmond, Virginia
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495:American proslavery activists
480:19th-century American writers
188:Mordecai died at age 93 in
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505:19th-century American Jews
312:Rubin, Anne Sarah (2009).
212:Kahal Kadosh Beth Shalome
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500:Jews from North Carolina
485:American women diarists
425:American Ashkenazi Jews
190:Brevard, North Carolina
430:American Orthodox Jews
245:Jewish Women's Archive
460:American slave owners
339:Webb, Clive (2011).
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70:Transylvania County
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150:convert to Judaism
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289:"Mordecai, Jacob"
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374:. Retrieved
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177:came back."
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119:antisemitism
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60:(1906-04-08)
415:1906 deaths
410:1812 births
371:ArchiveGrid
111:Confederacy
404:Categories
376:2022-05-09
298:2022-05-09
274:2022-05-09
250:2022-05-09
218:References
146:German Jew
81:Occupation
143:Ashkenazi
89:Relatives
200:See also
95:(father)
84:educator
121:in the
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347:ISBN
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129:Life
55:Died
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