Jacob Jacobs

Jacob Jacobs (1742-1797) was a wealthy merchant and auctioneer operating in Charleston during the nation’s founding. According to articles in the South Carolina Gazette and General Advertiser, Jacob was working as a vendue master, or auctioneer, on Bay Street in 1783. While few surviving records preceding this date survive to verify his years of operation, Jacob had likely been in working in Charleston for some time. Often auctioning off estate “property,” Jacob sold furniture, carriages, livestock, and enslaved men, women, and children. In one newspaper, he advertised “the effects of James Donavan deceased, consisting of fourteen valuable slaves, among whom are carpenters, bricklayers, washers, and ironers…at the same time will be sold a small parcel of household furniture.”¹

In 1790, the Charleston directory noted that he worked an auctioneer on Exchange Street, managed a shop at 82 King Street, and lived at 20 Meeting Street. Census record from the same year reveal that his household also included three white boys under the age sixteen, three white women, and eleven enslaved people. When he died seven years later, he left ten enslaved people to his wife Katey: Toby, Scipio, Jack, and Jenny—with her three children, Peter, John, and Eve—as well as Flora—with her daughters Rachael and Lucy.² He left instructions that the remaining boys and men he enslaved should be sold and the profits given to his wife. In the event she died before him, he further dictated that the money be left to his friends and fellow Jewish merchants, Gershon (1748-1802) and Rebecca Cohen (1761-1840). Jacob also left land in Georgia and South Carolina—including 189-192 King Street and a lot on Trott Street—to his wife and the Cohen’s children.

¹ “To Be Sold at Public Vendue,” South Carolina Gazette and General Advertiser, February 22, 1783, 4.
² It is possible that Jacob’s wife was Katey or “Caty” Hays (1745-1798), the widow of Abraham Sarzedas (1740-1775) and mother of Rebecca Serzedas Cohen (1761-1840).