During the American Revolution, Mordecai Sheftall was the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Continental Army, serving as the deputy commissary of issues (supplies) for the Southern Department of the war. 

Around Christmas in the winter of 1778, he and his 15-year-old son Sheftall Sheftall — also a Continental officer — were taken prisoner by the British when the redcoats overtook their hometown of Savannah, at least partially as an example because of their chosen faith. 

Also taken prisoner was the Reverend Moses Allen of Savannah, charged with the crime of treason against the king because he preached of the concept of “freedom” to his congregation. 

After being held in the state house, they were all sent aboard the British prison ship “Nancy” some three miles off the Georgia coast. The British interrogated the Sheftalls under great duress, depriving them of food for two days. 

Refusing to provide information, the British deliberately offered Mordecai no meat other than pork. Allen wrote in his diary: “ “Pork for dinner…the Jews Mr. Sheftall & son refused to eat their pieces, & their knives & forks were ordered to be greased with it. It is a happiness that Mr. Sheftall is a fellow sufferer. He bears it with such fortitude as is an example to me.”

Allen also wrote in his diary:

“29th December 1778, Tuesday. A Battle at Savannah & the town taken by ye English.

Number lost not known. 

30th. Between three and four hundred prisoners shut up in ye State house. 

31st. Citizens & soldiers drove into a prison ship, no distinction between ye Gentlemen of property, & a rascal 

Jan’y 1st: Officers allowed their Parole, Chaplain [himself] exempted. Parole signed by all except the chaplain & he ordered to the common jail. 

2nd. Ordered on board ye ship Nancy, a prison ship. Mr. Sheftall…His case is peculiarly hard, & his son suffers with him. The Cap’n seems willing to serve us, gives us a room between the Cabin & ye steerage. We are thankful for the distinction made between us. 

3rd. Sunday. Our allowance, three gills of rice (about 1 1/2 cups) & eleven ounces of beef per [day]. Some officers on board spoke ill-natured things of Mr. Sheftall the Cap’n ordered us out of the steerage into ye hole with ye common prisoners.

A man dead onboard, the Chaplain not allowed to bury him. 

4th. Nothing particular. I pity Mr. Bryan. 5th. Cap’n of transport called to Agent [Noles). The question asked the Cap’n of the Nancy by ye Agent Noles, “Have you a Parson Allen on board?” “Yes.” “Take care of him, he’s ye damnedest rebel upon the continent.” Poor consolation for a man in distress & denied a hearing. 

6th. Ordered to Cockspur (Island). A man dead on board. The Lieutenant of ye Vigilant forbid ye Chaplain’s burying him. 

7th. Head wind. Moved but little today. Got down to Tybee Island. Buried another.”

On February 8, Moses jumped overboard with two other men and swam for land three miles away. As he neared the shore he turned back to help one of the other men. A cramp suddenly seized him and he sank and drowned within 20 yards from the shore. His body was found by the British, and the prison ship’s commander had it dumped in a nearby swamp, saying, “The rebel preacher deserved only a traitor’s grave.”

His body was recovered by some friends who requested from a British officer some boards for a coffin. They were refused, so the body of Moses Allen was taken out to sea to be given a burial. 

But when his body was found in the swamp, his friends also found four pages of his diary he had kept while in captivity. Those pages were returned to the Allen family, where they remained until recently being discovered in the basement of a descendant. 

Making the story even more intriguing, Moses Allen was no country bumpkin preacher. Massachusetts born, New Jersey educated, he started preaching in Charleston before landing in Savannah. His Midway Congregational Church in Liberty County was comprised of some of the more influential coastal families of the day. 

Think of it. That fate would bring Mordecai Sheftall, an important lay leader of congregation Mickve Israel, the third-oldest Jewish congregation in the colonies, and the minister of one of Georgia’s leading early protestant congregations together on the same side of revolutionary fervor … and, in the dank circumstances of being on a British prison ship together, then lead them to find mutual respect and charity in maintaining their dignity and equanimity in the face of dehumanizing treatment at the hands of the British ship captain is, in a word, remarkable. 

Those incredible pages from Moses Allen’s diary were recently auctioned, and thankfully secured by the Sheftall family in hopes they will be used to educate and enlighten future generations of Americans several important lessons dating back to the very earliest days of our nation’s founding. 

Because all told, those four small sheets of waterlogged paper not only told the important story of the fall of Savannah, but also of the bravery and persecution of Mordecai Sheftall because of his Jewish faith and how his strength in the face of that persecution thusly inspired others.  

And, perhaps even more importantly, they showed how as a Christian pastor Allen stood in solidarity with Sheftall in one of the earliest documented examples of persecution in our state, perhaps one of the earliest examples of Americans standing together — in spite of their differences.