Moses Lindo was a British indigo sorter, merchant, planter and Inspector General of Indigo, Drugs & Dyes in the

Province of South Carolina Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monar ...

Early life

Moses Lindo was the son of Elias Lindo (1690-1727), a broker on the Royal Exchange, and Rachel Lopes Fereira. He was a grandson of Isaac Lindo, one of the earliest Jewish brokers of London (1681).

Career

He was involved in the

Cochineal The cochineal ( , ; ''Dactylopius coccus'') is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the natural dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessility (motility), sessile parasitism, parasite native to tropical and subtropical Sout ...

and

Indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

trade at the Royal Exchange in London before moving to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

in November 1756. He specialised in fabric dyes. His advertisements began appearing in the

South Carolina Gazette The ''South Carolina Gazette'' (1732–1775) was South Carolina's first successful newspaper. The paper began in 1732 under Thomas Whitmarsh in Charlestown (now Charleston), but within two years Whitmarsh died of yellow fever. In 1734 anot ...

during 1756. He became a wealthy planter and ranked among the prominent merchants of Charleston. He was instrumental in the development of indigo industry in South Carolina where it became one of the most important industries. He helped to establish the reputation of Carolina indigo and procure a subsidy from

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

. Indigo became the second largest revenue crop after rice, bringing great wealth to the colony. From his arrival in Charleston until his death in 1774, indigo production increased fivefold, to more than one million pounds annually. In 1757, he sold the ''Lindo Packett'' to John Gordon. In 1762 he was appointed "Surveyor and Inspector-General of Indigo, Drugs, and Dyes". Lindo affixed a special seal to each parcel he inspected.

Jonas Phillips Jonas Phillips (17361803) was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and an American merchant in New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the immigrant ancestor of the Jewish Phillips family in the United States. Emigrating from Ge ...

worked off his passage to the U.S. as an indentured servant to Lindo. In a letter published in the Royal Society’s ''Philosophical Transactions'' for 1763, Lindo announced the invention of “a superior crimson dye” derived from pokeberries. He also claimed to have used a concoction of pokeberries, tobacco, and Roman vitriol to cure yaws, an infectious skin disease common in the crowded slave quarters. The archives of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

provides a record of its transaction with Lindo on September 6, 1770. “The sum of twenty pounds having been reported as a subscription from Mr. Moses Lindo… it was thereupon ‘Voted, That the children of Jews may be admitted into this Institution, and entirely enjoy the freedom of their own religion without any restraint or imposition whatever. And that the Chancellor and

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

do write to Mr. Moses Lindo of Charleston, South Carolina, and give him information of this resolution.’" Moses had written a letter explaining that if their admissions policy was indeed as he had been informed, “my donation shall exceed beyond the bounds of th’ir imagination.” On August 20, 1772, he published a letter to

Henry Laurens Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...

explaining his reasons for refusing to continue to act as Inspector-General of Indigo, Drugs & Dyes. The

(March 15, 1773) states that Lindo purchased a stone which he believed to be a topaz of immense size, and that he sent it to London by the

Lord Charles Montagu Lord Charles Greville Montagu (1741 – 3 February 1784) was the last Royal Governor of the Province of South Carolina from 1766 to 1773, with William Bull II serving terms in 1768 and 1769-1771. He also was the commander of the Duke of Cumbe ...

to be presented to The Queen of England. Moses was shipping more than one million pounds a year from Beresford Wharf on the Cooper River before the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. He was reputed to be the largest exporter of indigo north of

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

Popular culture

The character Solomon Lindo, played by

Allan Hawco Allan Hawco is a Canadian writer, actor, and producer from Bell Island, Newfoundland. He is best known for his roles in the series ''Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan'', ''Republic of Doyle'', and '' The Book of Negroes'', and the television limited series ...

The Book of Negroes (miniseries) ''The Book of Negroes'' is a 2015 television miniseries based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill. The book was inspired by the British freeing and evacuation of former slaves, known as Black Loyalists, who had l ...

is based on Moses Lindo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindo, Moses British merchants Living people