Esther Friebody on Aaron Lopez's Death

Aaron Lopez (1731-1782)

Aaron Lopez immigrated to the colonies from Portugal with his family in the 1740s. To avoid persecution, they had lived under a Catholic name, but immediately embraced their Jewish roots upon settling in America and became fully observant Jews. This change caused citizenship problems. Lopez attempted to fight the Rhode Island court system to attain a certificate of naturalization, but the state refused to grant a Jew citizenship. He worked around the issue by temporarily moving to Massachusetts, where he could gain citizenship, and then returned to his home in Rhode Island. Lopez became a successful merchant who owned more than eighty ships. He traded rum, dry goods, fish, candles, wooden goods, and slaves. His success began to fade as the Revolutionary War began, but he recovered quickly by moving to Massachusetts to supply the Patriots with necessities. After the war, Lopez returned to his business in Rhode Island. He drowned in a pond in 1782.