Grant's Expulsion Order and Its Impact

December 17, 1862,

an order goes out from Grant's headquarters that

Jews as a class are hereby expelled

from his territory within 24 hours.

Grant's order, December the 17th, really comes

just a couple of weeks before the Emancipation Proclamation

is finally issued, January the 1st, 1863,

and that juxtaposition was truly understood by people at the time.

One paper actually printed the two documents

one above the other.

In Jewish eyes, it suggested that

perhaps black Americans were now to be freed,

and the new persecuted minority would be the American Jew.

Jews, I think, were petrified.