The Broker that Helped Free the Colonies

Today as we celebrate our independence, it’s easy to think of those founding fathers, like Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, or Hancock, that we attribute so much of our country’s success to. However, there’s one name you probably

haven’t ever heard of, yet his role in our freedom was instrumental in so many ways, Haym Salomon. He is the broker that helped free the colonies. His contribution included making sure the Continental Army received the necessary financing to keep going during the American Revolution. Not only did he keep the money rolling in to prevent them from throwing in the towel, but he also helped found the country’s first national bank, the Bank of North America.

Born in Poland in 1740, Salomon a Sephardic Jew, traveled through Western Europe learning the ins and outs of banking and financing. Eventually, he immigrated to the colonies, just prior to the Revolution, landing in New York City without a dime to his name. However, his expertise in the area of finance coupled with his multilingual abilities landed him a job as a financial broker for the merchant community in NYC. This role led to a key friendship with the street leader of the Sons of Liberty, Alexander MacDougall.

A Key Friendship

When the group took to the streets of NYC in the summer of 1776 with the intention of burning the city to the ground, the Brits captured Salomon. Held on a boat and tortured for the next 18 months, Salomon eventually convinced his captors he could be of assistance to them. They soon employed his multilingual skills to their advantage, or so they thought. Salomon used the role to access military secrets and undermine support from the Germans for the British. Once they discovered his treachery, they imprison Salomon yet again. However, not for long as he bribed a guard to let him escape.

By this time, the continental army was turning the tide, yet completely underfunded. General Washington requests funding from Continental Congress but gets little. That’s when Haym Salomon, steps up ready to serve as a broker to the emerging new country. Solomon begins using his own profits from his merchant business to directly fund the revolution. History shows he extended no-interest loans, never repaid, to James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and more.

Salomon’s brokerage business grew to the point that it made him largest depositor in Robert Morris’s Bank of North America. Together Morris and Salomon funded the battle of Yorktown, leading to the defeat of Lord Cornwallis and the demise of the British brigade.

After the War

With the newly formed country getting off the ground, Salomon found the money to keep the country afloat in the very beginning. According to legend, George Washington offered Salomon anything he wanted for his help in establishing the new nation. It is said that Salomon wanted nothing except for the Jewish people to be recognized. And so it goes that Washington purportedly arranged for the thirteen stars representing the colonies on the Great Seal to be laid out in the shape of a Star of David. However, there’s no record of this conversation, so it stands as still today as mere folklore.

Haym Salomon went on to attempt to rebuild his fortune, however, in 1785, at age 44he died of tuberculosis. At the time of his death, his estate measured $350,000. While that may seem like a nice chunk of change at that time in history, it’s a rather paltry amount when you consider the estimated $600,000 in principal and interest owed to him from the loans he made during the Revolution.

So today, as we celebrate our freedom and honor those heroes of the American Revolution we learned about in school, let’s not forget the contribution Salomon made. Neither of Brit or American descent, not a brave soldier, nor a haughty statesman, never a wealthy landowner, yet he was undoubtedly a patriarch that we should on honor along with the other Founding Fathers. Without his money and brokering skills, Washington’s army may not have seen victory at Yorktown and United States of America as we know it may never have existed.