"M" is for Mordecai, Moses Cohen (1804-1888). Merchant, ship owner, legislator, civic leader. Mordecai was antebellum Charleston’s most prominent Jewish citizen. His firm, Mordecai & Company, was among the city’s most successful importers and ship owners, conducting an extensive trade in fruit, sugar, coffee, and tobacco from the West Indies. He later operated a steamship line between Charleston and Havana. Mordecai represented Charleston in both houses of the South Carolina General Assembly. He was a co-owner of the Southern Standard, a Unionist newspaper that rejected secession and promoted cooperation with other Southern states. Once South Carolina seceded, however, he supported the Confederacy. His steamer, the Isabel, became a famous blockade runner. Broken by the war, Moses Cohen Mordecai moved to Baltimore, re-established his company, and operated a steamship line between that city and Charleston.