Salvador Award
ABOUT THE AWARD
THE PEARLSTINE FAMILY
Imagination and a keen sense of direction are family traits if you are lucky enough to be a member of the Pearlstine Family. From the Hebrew Orphan Society to the Jewish Federation to Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, from the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge Complex to MUSC's Hollings Cancer Center, from The Coastal Community Foundation to Operation Exodus, it is easy to track the positive impact of the Pearlstine Family. They have reached out to pets and people with no homes of their own and created homes away from home for cancer patients. They have airlifted Jews from the Soviet Union to the State of Israel and provided exemplary leadership for KKBE for decades. Along the way, Pearlstine Distributors has grown to be one of the Lowcountry's top family-own companies under Edwin , Larry, Jan and Susan's leadership. It is Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim's honor to award the third-ever Salvador Award for vision and leadership to the Pearlstine Family.ABOUT FRANCIS SALVADOR
Born in 1747 in London, Francis Salvador was the well-educated son of an aristocratic Sephardic family whose original name was Jessurun Rodrigues. Francis Salvador came to South Carolina in 1773, leaving his wife and four children in England, intending to bring them later. He came both to help his father-in-law Joseph, who had suffered severe financial losses but still owned about 200,000 acres of land in what is now Greenwood County, and also to rebuild his own fortune. Francis acquired 7,000 acres from his father-in-law and established a plantation known as “Corn Acres” on Coronaca Creek.
In 1774, as South Carolinians began serious efforts to gain independence from Great Britain, Salvador joined the revolutionaries, convinced of the justice of their cause. Impressed by his education, polish and commitment, his neighbors elected him as a representative of the Ninety-sixth District to the First Provisional Congress of South Carolina.
Salvador’s name appears frequently in the official records of the First and Second Provisional Congresses. He served on numerous committees concerned with creating a working administrative structure and providing for the defense of the area. The journals show that he influenced several colleagues, including John Rutledge, William Henry Drayton, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Edward Rutledge—all destined to play important roles in South Carolina’s future. One of his last acts in the Second Provisional Congress was to help with the final draft of a new constitution, which created the independent state of South Carolina. Salvador became a member of the new General Assembly.
Shortly after the declaration of American Independence on July 4, 1776, British forces began attacking upcountry settlers who supported the American cause. Salvador, aged 29,was a member of the state's militia that was ambushed in the evening of July 31, 1776, one of the earliest battles of the American Revolution.
His fellow patriot Henry Laurens wrote that Salvador’s death was “universally regretted” and William Henry Drayton, later chief justice of South Carolina, noted that Salvador had “sacrificed his life in the service of his adopted country.” In Washington Park in Charleston a memorial to Francis Salvador bears this inscription:
Born an aristocrat, he became a democrat;
An Englishman, he cast his lot with America;
True to his ancient faith, he gave his life
For new hopes of human liberty and understanding.
Salvador died fighting on the frontier without learning of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence—words in which he deeply believed.