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Jonas Phillips: Business and Finance\Businessperson\Merchant
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.97.189
Exhibition Label
Born Buseck, Germany
Jonas Phillips immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1756, as an indentured servant. He ultimately rose to become a prominent businessperson and advocate for the Jewish faith. By 1758 he had worked off his debt and moved to Albany, New York, as a freeman. The next year, he started his first of many businesses: selling goods during the French and Indian War (1754–63). Ever entrepreneurial, though not always successful, he started new ventures, moved between cities, married, and eventually had twenty-one children. In 1782, in the midst of the Revolutionary War (1775–83), he helped found Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia.
During the war, Phillips found success as a merchant-shipper. A patriot, he was mustered into service in 1778. Afterward, he urged the new government to endorse religious freedom. In 1787, he wrote to George Washington to ask that all Americans, “live under a government where all Religious societys [sic] are on an Eaquel [sic] footing.”
Unidentified artist
Nacido en Buseck, Alemania
Jonas Phillips inmigró en 1756 a Charleston, Carolina del Sur, con un contrato de servidumbre. Con el tiempo llegó a ser un prominente hombre de negocios y defensor de la fe judía. Para 1758 había pagado su contrato con su trabajo y, ya libre, se mudó a Albany, Nueva York. Al año siguiente inició su primer negocio: venta de mercancías durante la Guerra Franco-Indígena (1754–63). Emprendedor, aunque no siempre exitoso, inició diversas empresas, vivió en varias ciudades, se casó y tuvo 21 hijos.
En 1782, en medio de la Guerra de Independencia (1775–83), colaboró en la fundación de la Congregación Mikveh Israel en Filadelfia.
Durante la guerra, Phillips tuvo éxito como exportador. En 1778 se alistó en el servicio militar del lado de los patriotas. Luego instaría al nuevo gobierno a endosar la libertad religiosa. En 1787 escribió a George Washington pidiendo que todos los estadunidenses vivieran “bajo un gobierno donde todas las sociedades religiosas existan en un plano de igualdad”.
Provenance
Mrs. Amelia Mayhoff, descendant; (Argosy Gallery, New York); purchased c. 1953 by Mark Bortman, Boston; his daughter, Jane Bortman Larus, Sarasota, Flor.; purchased 1997 NPG
