But it is very unlikely that you know the name Haym Solomon. This is unfortunate, because he’s the guy who arranged financing to keep the Continental Army alive during its darkest days, finding the money to keep the revolution going when many were ready to throw in the towel. He was also instrumental in the founding of the Bank of North America – the country’s first “national” bank. Solomon’s contributions to the war and the founding of the nation, though seldom discussed, were of major importance.
Haym Solomon is born to a sephardic Jewish family in Poland in 1740. He travels widely through the banking and finance capitals of western Europe, learning a thing or two and then moving on. He arrives penniless in New York City via England as the colonies are on the cusp of revolution. His expertise with money, along with his ability to converse in several European languages, makes him extremely valuable to overseas traders – he becomes a financial broker to New York’s bustling merchant community.
Solomon also establishes what will become a key friendship with Scottish maniac Alexander MacDougall, a businessman and erstwhile “politician” who was known for his aggressive disdain for class systems, hereditary titles and everything else British rule in the colonies reminded him of from back home. MacDougall, a merchant seaman by trade and privateer (pirate) during the French and Indian wars, was the street leader of the Sons of Liberty in New York. He liked to surround himself with other self-made men like Solomon and he especially liked busting heads and railing against the King.
MacDougall might be proud his "aggressive disdain for class systems and hereditary titles".... lives on.
In the summer of 1776, the Sons of Liberty attempt to burn New York City to the ground, thus denying shelter to the British army stationed there. This was General Washington’s whim and the Sons nearly destroy a quarter of all standing buildings before being rounded up. Solomon is captured by the British army in September of that year and held for 18 months, some of that time confined on a boat and tortured as a spy. He successfully convinces his captors that he is more helpful to them as a translator and is employed as a liaison between the English officers and their Hessian mercenary allies.
Solomon uses this role to access enemy military installations and to undermine German support for the Brits. He is sabotaging from the inside, talking the Hessians out of fighting for the English king. When these insurgency activities are discovered, Solomon is arrested again. This time, he pulls out a gold coin that had been sewn into his clothes and bribes a guard to let him escape. He flees to Philadelphia and arranges for his wife and son to meet him there. For the second time, Solomon has arrived in a new American city penniless and forced to start over.