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Flames of Freedom traces the life of the family of Diogo Nunes Ribeiro and Gracia Caetana da Vega, Converso Jews known as New Christians, as they navigate the perils of the Portuguese Inquisition and their arrest in 1703, only to ascend to the heights of Portuguese society. Then, in 1726, they were once again arrested for Judaizing and assisting other Conversos to escape to England. Their journey includes their perilous escape, the disappointments of living in the prejudicial world of 18th-century England, and their fateful decision to depart for the new Georgia Colony without a guarantee that they would be allowed to settle there.
Episode One: narrow Places
The story opens in 1790 as Zipporah Jacobs, the daughter of Samuel Nunes, feels called to share with her grandson, Benjamin Phillips, the tale of her ancestors as they traversed a world hellbent on eradicating Jews from Spain and Portugal, the forced conversions of her ancestors in 1497 in Lisbon, and her parents’ torture by the Inquisition for the crime of Judaizing.
Episode Two: Exile
Beginning with the ruination of Diogo Nunes’s reputation after losing all of his possessions when he and his wife were arrested in 1703 for Judaizing, we trace the slow rehabilitation of his career culminating in his appointment as the physician to the new Inquisitor General as well as Portugal’s king, a position that Diogo uses to his advantage to assist other Conversos to escape the grip of the Portuguese Inquisition.
Episode Three: Exodus
With the family’s rearrest on charges of Judaizing and aiding other Conversos to escape, Diogo confronts the Inquisitor General, who is also his patient. The Inquisitor General is faced with a dilemma—he needs Diogo’s medical care and can’t afford to jail him, but his reputation is also on the line if word gets out that he is being too lenient with apostates. His solution is to place two Inquisition priests in Diogo’s home to keep an eye on his every move. Gracia implores Diogo to find a path forward for this dilemma, even if it means finding a means to escape from Portugal.
Episode Four: Lost in the Wilderness
After the family’s daring escape from Lisbon aboard a British frigate, they face a host of unknowns upon their arrival in London. They have fallen from the pinnacle of society to become indigent. Not only are they facing economic ruin, but they must now face the gap between their expectations of what it means to revert to Judaism and leave the strictures of Catholicism behind and the reality of assimilating into a faith that is foreign and filled with its own set of dogmas.
Episode Five: Wandering
As Samuel’s sons Moses and Daniel confront the ugly face of antisemitism that is rife throughout English society, Gracia, who adopts the Jewish name Rebekah, confronts the fact that Orthodox Judaism makes her feel like a second-class citizen. The men must confront another stark reality. To become fully recognized as Jews, they must be circumcised. To complicate their lives, Rebekah who is now in her fifties announces that she is pregnant, offering a moment of hope that proves to be tenuous at best.
Episode Six: Darkening Clouds
Samuel confronts the hard reality that his medical skills and reputation mean little within London’s physician community and is forced to open a practice serving mainly indigent refugees. Daniel and Moses continue to struggle to find meaningful employment, and tragedy strikes when Rebekah goes into labor prematurely, leading to a crisis in her commitment to the Jewish faith.
Episode Seven: Troubled Times
Moses’s arrest for a gambling debt leads to his incarceration in Marshalsea Prison. Samuel’s quest to free him results in two significant encounters—one with Antony da Costa, one of the wealthiest Jews in England, and one with James Oglethorpe, who discovers that his best friend has died in the same prison after being thrown into a cell with forty other prisoners with smallpox. Both meetings foreshadow significant turns in the lives of all concerned.
Episode Eight: Winds of Change
James Oglethorpe sets out to win parliamentary approval to change the laws related to the incarceration of people for the mere crime of owing someone money. This move leads to his pursuit of an idealistic dream of creating a colony where the poor can have a fresh start and where slavery is prohibited. Oglethorpe’s dream becomes the perfect vehicle for the wealthy Jews of London to solve a problem of their own—ever-escalating charitable support for the growing number of refugees showing up on the doorsteps of Bevis Marks Synagogue.
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Episode Nine: Promise of a New Beginning
Daniel and Moses become enamored with the idea of a clean start in America, an idea that their father, Samuel, rejects out of hand. When King George approves the new colony, the Trustees are faced with a thorny dilemma—what to do with the efforts of the richest Jews of England to send their fellow Jews to Georgia? Their debate and subsequent decision have unexpected consequences that will echo throughout the history of the fledgling colony even after Oglethorpe departs for America in November 1732 with 120 adventurous souls.
Episode Ten: Dark Night of the Soul
Samuel Nunes agrees to lead the Jewish settlers to the Georgia Colony, and they depart some weeks after Oglethorpe on a ship requisitioned and paid for by London’s wealthiest Jews. But the ship encounters turbulent weather, an omen for what will be a nearly disastrous journey across the Atlantic Ocean, foreshadowing the loss of life. While they faced horrendous trials at sea, Oglethorpe and his settlers arrived safely at Charles Town, South Carolina in January 1733.
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Episode Eleven: Precarious Times
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Divisions begin to appear among the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews on their journey to America, while James Oglethorpe, with the help of Colonel Bull, selects Yamacraw Bluff for the new settlement. Oglethorpe also meets Mary Musgrove, a woman of English and Indian descent who is an invaluable partner in the years ahead as Oglethorpe navigates relations with the neighboring Creek Indians. The ship carrying the Jews faces its most trying challenge yet as severe storms threaten to crash it on the Outer Banks of North Carolina
Episode Twelve: Journey’s End
While they await the repairs on their ship, the Jews disembark and learn invaluable lessons about surviving in the American wilderness. While they labor away, Oglethorpe is faced with growing dissension among his settlers around issues of slavery and drinking rum and then faces an even bigger challenge as an epidemic threatens to wipe out the entire colony. When Samuel Nunes and the Jews finally arrive, Oglethorpe is faced with a major dilemma: accede to the verbal wishes of the Trustees to exclude Jews from the Colony or enlist the assistance of Dr. Nunes to fight the raging epidemic. His decision will have repercussions for decades to come.