The first person of Jewish ancestry to serve in the United States Senate, David Levy Yulee was born on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas to Moses Elias Levy Yulee and Hannah Margarite Levy. His were Sephardim, his mother born on St. Eustatius and his father in Morocco. David was one of four children, and when he was nine he was sent to Norfolk, Virginia to attend school.
He studied Law in St. Augustine, in the territory of Florida, where he was admitted to the bar in 1836, and thereafter practiced law. He served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1838 and as a clerk to the territorial legislature in 1841. Yulee elected as a Whig-Democrat to two terms as a territorial delegate to Congress, from 1841 to 1845.
That year, Yulee married Nannie Christian Yulee Wickliffe, daughter of Margaret and Charles A. Wickliffe, former governor of Kentucky and postmaster general. They would have five children.
When Florida was admitted as a state, he was elected as Democrat to the United States Senate, serving from 1845 to 1851. After failing in his bid for reelection, Yulee was again elected to the Senate in 1855, serving until Florida’s secession in 1861. He was imprisoned at Fort Pulaski, in Georgia, for aiding in the escape of Jefferson Davis.
In addition to his political work, Yulee came to be known as the “father of Florida Railroads” having served for many years as president of the Florida Railroad Company.