By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Did Jews own slaves in the antebellum American South? Did these same Jews support the Confederate cause? While it may be distressing to contemporary American Jews to learn that their co-religionists supported slavery and the Confederacy, Jews were found on both sides of the slavery debate and the Civil War. In fact, for some Jews, there was no question that God supported the Confederacy’s cause. Examples of this belief can be found in “The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai” edited and with an introduction by Dianne Ashton with Melissa R. Klapper (New York University Press). While the majority of the work features Mordecai’s diary, it’s the 80-plus page introduction – originally written by Ashton, but revised by Klapper after Ashton’s death – that is the most interesting portion of the book.
During the time the diary was written, Mordecai was living with her sister-in-law Rosina in a farmhouse near Richmond, VA. When the family home in Richmond proper was closed, Mordecai had little choice but to find a relative to give her lodging. At age 51 and never married, it would have been considered improper for her to live on her own. Although Mordecai remained connected to Judaism, including acknowledging Shabbat and attending synagogue services when she was in Richmond, her sister-in-law was a practicing Christian. In fact, many members of Mordecai’s family either married a Christian or converted to Christianity. Writing about her religious practice in her diary was one way she expressed her Judaism in a Christian household that might not welcome the outright practice of her faith. 
While the Jewish population in the South was extremely small and antisemitism did exist, life for Jews was much easier there than it had been in Europe. That was because Jews were considered white: the authors note, “Scholars of the tiny Jewish population of the antebellum South have shown that although Jews like the Mordecais generally were seen as white from the start, they made sure to cement their racial privilege by absorbing – and performing – the racism on which much of Southern culture was based. Whether or not they embraced slavery in an instrumental fashion, in order to solidify their whiteness, at least some of them became, like Emma, true believers in white supremacy.” The most cringe-reading parts of the diary show this everyday racism, although, on the whole, Mordecai ignored the presence of those whose hard work made her life of relative ease possible.
The authors trace Mordecai’s family tree, positing that her grandfather arrived in the United States in the late 1700s. This was unusual: in 1864, the majority of Jews living in the U.S. had been born in Europe. The fact that the family had been in the country since before the American Revolution may have made them feel truly American and truly white. With the exception of one relative, all the Mordecais supported succession and truly believed in the Southern cause. Mordecai believed that God had sanctioned the social order of the Confederacy and that it went against God’s wishes for the slaves (whom she normally refers to as servants) to be free. The authors note that “Emma believed not only that the system of slavery suited the inferior abilities of Black people, but also that it was actually beneficial because owners took care of their slaves when they were babies, ill, infirm, old, or otherwise unable to work.” Yet, she was willing to sell disobedient slaves without thinking about the effect that would have on them and their family and friends.
The authors note that Mordecai was not alone in keeping a diary. Diaries written by Protestant women were common in the 19th century. Even though public school systems were not often found in the South, most women – at least, well-to-do, white women – were taught to read and write. However, women were not the only ones recording their thoughts about the Civil War. The authors write that the war “proved to be a diary-making machine. A basic search of the Library of Congress’s online catalog turns up thousands of such diaries, written by both men and women in both the North and the South. Generals and ordinary soldiers published memoirs, military units produces collective reminiscences, and women wrote personal reflections and accounts of their experiences. Dozens of Civil War-era Southern women’s diaries have been published to date, and many more lie unpublished in historical societies, libraries, and private collections. An untold number have been lost to the passage of time.” 
Most of the diary entries are not particularly exciting: Mordecai wrote about daily life, including what they ate, who came to visit and whether members of the household were able to travel into Richmond. The entries that stand out were those related to the war and the fighting that periodically occurred near them. Life at the farm was relatively safe, though, and, except for food shortages and some nearby fighting, the war didn’t directly affect them on a regular basis. Living on the farm also meant that they didn’t go hungry, even if they were lacking some staples and luxuries. The biggest worry was for the safety of Rosina’s sons, who were fighting for the Confederate army, and that of other relatives who were also serving.
“The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai” offers a lesser known view of Jewish American life. Jewish Civil War buffs will definitely be interested in this personal look at the war. Those interested in American Jewish women’s history will also appreciate reading what they may see as a not-so-flattering portrait of the past. However, Mordecai was a product of her times, and reading the introductory essay and her diary shines a light on a part of American Jewish history that is often not discussed.