Benjamin Smith (1717 – 1770) was an American slave trader, planter, shipowner, merchant, banker and politician who served as speaker of the South Carolina House of Assembly from 1755 to 1763.

Biography

He was born in St James Goose Creek near Charles Town and was the son of Thomas Smith and Sabina Smith, both of English descent; his father was a planter from

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British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were the territories in the West Indies under British Empire, British rule, including Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Antigua and Barb ...

, while his mother belonged to one of the oldest and most prominent families of South Carolina, as a daughter of the

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, judge and important colonial leader Thomas Smith II and a granddaughter of two royals governors, Thomas Smith and Joseph Blake. He was also descended from governors John Yeamans and James Moore. Benjamin Smith was also the uncle of North Carolina governor Benjamin Smith. He was one of the most prominent merchant bankers in the colony in his lifetime. He inherited a two-thousand-acre plantation located in the St James Goose Creek parish. He also owned the Accabee plantation on the Ashley River and several other properties, including a town house with twelve slaves in Charleston. The town house, the family's primary residence, was built in the 1740s and is located on 49 Broad Street in Charleston; it is now known as the Benjamin Smith House. He was active in the

slave trade Slave trade may refer to: * History of slavery - overview of slavery It may also refer to slave trades in specific countries, areas: * Al-Andalus slave trade * Atlantic slave trade ** Brazilian slave trade ** Bristol slave trade ** Danish sl ...

and the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

, and owned seven ships with some other merchants. He held numerous civic offices and served in the Royal Assembly from 1747 to 1765, including as Speaker for many years. He also funded a "negro school" run by the priest

Alexander Garden Alexander Gardens () was one of the first urban public parks in Moscow, Russia. The park comprises three separate gardens, which stretch along all the length of the western Kremlin wall for between the building of the Moscow Manege and the Kr ...

.Dorothy Middleton Anderson, Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman, ''St. Philip's Church of Charleston: An Early History of the Oldest Parish in South Carolina'', Arcadia Publishing, 2015, 9781625854070 Benjamin Smith was married to Mary Wragg, a daughter of Judith DuBose and

Joseph Wragg Joseph Wragg (1698 – 1751) was a politician and slave trader in the Province of South Carolina. Born Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Wragg immigrated to the American colonies where he became a pioneer in the slave trade. During the 1730s, Wragg was t ...

, who was for some decades the largest slave trader in North America. They were the parents of Judith Smith who was married to the revolutionary officer and lieutenant governor of South Carolina James Ladson.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Benjamin People from Charleston, South Carolina 18th-century American slave traders American bankers Merchant bankers People from colonial South Carolina 1717 births 1770 deaths 18th-century American politicians Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...