Judah Mordechai Cohen was a Dutch-born London-based Jewish merchant and slave plantation owner with interests in Jamaica. With over 1255 slaves on his plantations, Cohen was one of the most extensive slave owners in Jamaica and the British West Indies in general at the time of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. He had been involved in trade in the West Indies as a partner of his older brother Hymen Cohen since 1804.
Biography
Judah Mordechai Cohen was born at Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands to Mordechai Levie Cohen and his wife Rachel Coenraad Blits, a Dutch Jewish couple born in Amsterdam who relocated to Herne Hill, Surrey, England. Along with his brother, Hymen Cohen, Judah Cohen was a co-partner in Hymen Cohen & Company which was listed in the London Gazette in 1804 and operated out of 58 Mansell Street: it dealt with trade in the West Indies. Another partner was Ellis Wolfe of Kingston, Jamaica. In August 1822, a ship owned by the Cohens, the Vittoria, carrying coffee from their Jamaican slave plantations, was plundered by pirates operating out of Spanish Cuba and ended up being sold in Havana. The pirates also took from the ship expensive Nicaraguan wood, lignum vita and lancewood spars. Hymen Cohen, Judah Cohen, Andrew Cohen, Alexander Haim Cohem and Judah Hymen Cohen, the joint owners, reported loses of over £27,000. According to the Legacies of British Slave-Ownership at the University College London, Cohen was awarded a payment as a slave trader in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 with the Slave Compensation Act 1837. The British Government took out a £15 million loan with interest from Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Moses Montefiore which was subsequently paid off by the British taxpayers. Cohen was associated with forty-five different claims in total, the largest slave plantations he owned were Potsdam in St Elizabeth, Corby Castle in St Elizabeth and Mons in Manchester. Cohen owned 1255 slaves in Jamaica and received a £23,946 payment at the time. With all of his claims combined, Cohen was one of the people with the largest number of slaves in Jamaica particularly, but the British West Indies in general in 1833; a few did own more such as the Lowland Scots slave owners John Gladstone and James Blair, but their interests were more associated with British Guiana. Some of the slave plantations in Cohen's possession had been assigned to him by Nathan Joseph of Kingston, Jamaica, who had bought up a large number of holdings. Judah Cohen's brother and business partner, Hymen Cohen, also had a large number of slaves in Jamaica and was the recipient of a large payout after slavery was abolished.
Personal life
Cohen was married to Grace Gomes da Costa, the daughter of Aaron Gomes da Costa. The couple had a large number of children, including Judah, Jacob, Andrew, Miriam, Sarah Frances, Fanny, Rachel, Sarah Esther, Albert, Eliza , Abigail, Rebecca, Matilda and Henry Cohen. Cohen was buried at Brady Street Cemetery in Whitechapel in the East End of London, where he has a tombstone.
