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David Levy Yulee
Summary
David Levy Yulee (born David Levy; June 12, 1810 – October 10, 1886) was an American politician and attorney. Yulee was born on the island of St. Thomas, then under British control to a Sephardic Jewish family; his father was a trader from Morocco and his mother, also of Sephardi descent, was born in Sint Eustatius and raised in St. Thomas. The family moved to Florida when he was a child. He later served as Florida's territorial delegate to Congress. Yulee was the first person of Jewish ancestry to be elected and serve as a United States senator, serving 1845–1851 and again 1855–1861. He founded the Florida Railroad Company and served as president of several other companies, earning the nickname of "Father of Florida Railroads." In 2000 he was recognized as a "Great Floridian" by the state.
Levy added Yulee, the name of one of his Moroccan ancestors, to his name soon after his 1846 marriage to Nancy Christian Wickliffe, daughter of ex-Governor Charles A. Wickliffe of Kentucky. Though Yulee converted to Christianity, becoming an Episcopalian,) and raised their children as Christian, he encountered antisemitism throughout his career.
Yulee was in favor of slavery and the secession of Florida. After the Civil War, he was imprisoned at Fort Pulaski for nine months for having aided the escape of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After being pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, he returned to his Florida railroad interests and other business ventures.
He was born David Levy in Charlotte Amalie, on the island of St. Thomas. His father was Moses Elias Levy, a Sephardi Jewish businessman from Morocco who made a fortune in lumber in the British colony. His mother, Hannah Abendanone, was also Sephardi; her ancestors were expelled from Spain to the Netherlands and England. His grandfather Eliyahu ha-Levy ibn-Yuli served as an undersecretary to Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah while his paternal grandmother Rachel was from Tangiers and was said to have spoken fluent Spanish.
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