Voices of Rebellion

Abstract

While Moses Lopez sought acceptance in Philadelphia, Isaac Lopez Brandon fought his own battles in Barbados. Before leaving the island, Brandon signed the Jews’ 1819 petition to the island legislature asking it to make the synagogue a vestry and give Jews the vote. For lower middle-class Jews, the bill was deeply distressing: they lacked property to vote anyway, and they didn’t want pay the mandatory taxes the change entailed. They were also enraged that Isaac Lopez Brandon, a “man of colour,” would gain privileges that white Jews of a middling sort could never hope to attain. Eventually the bill passed, but only after Isaac had been demoted and lost his right to vote in the synagogue. Isaac’s battle was part of a larger religious war waged by the Gill family, a battle that underscored the intertwined role of minority religions and rights on the island.