Jewish American Long Fiction

Browse all of the Salem on Literature series

Jewish American Long Fiction (Critical Survey of Long Fiction)

Introduction

Approximately five hundred Jews lived in the United States in 1700. The majority lived in the Newport, Rhode Island, area, while the rest settled primarily in New York City, Savannah, Charleston, and Philadelphia. Newport was particularly attractive because of the relatively liberal political administration of Roger Williams, who vied for a strict separation of Puritan church and political state. There is little evidence to indicate a concentrated persecution of the Jews in any of the original American colonies. Many of the cultural values with which Jews were...

[The entire page is 5306 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

Lookup any word on eNotes with our dictionary. Highlight the word and press SHIFT + D for a definition, or SHIFT + T for a synonym.