Grace Seixas Nathan

Grace Seixas Nathan (1752–November 8, 1831) was an American Jewish poet and a member of a prominent Western Sephardic family. Although her poetry was not published during her lifetime, her correspondences and poems have been published post-humously.

Early life Grace Seixas was born on November 11, 1752, in Stratford, Connecticut. According to some sources, she was born on November 24, 1752 in New York City. Seixas was the seventh child of Isaac Mendes Seixas, a Sephardic Jew, and Rachel Levy, an Ashkenazi Jew. Her father was from a converso family who fled Portugal in 1725 after being accused of being Crypto-Jews.

As a young girl, she enjoyed writing poetry. She had three brothers: Gershom, Benjamin, and Abraham, who were all active Patriots during the American Revolution. Gershom was the cantor for New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel. merchant and a supporter of the American Revolution.

In 1780, she married Nathan.