–elected to the US Senate
Born David Levy on the island of St. Thomas in the Caribbean, Yulee studied and practiced law in St. Augustine, Florida, where he subsequently represented the Florida territory. He was elected to the US Senate in 1845, the same year that Florida was admitted to the Union.
In 1846, now a US senator, he officially changed his name to David Levy Yulee, adding on his father’s ancestral Sephardic (Jewish) surname.
Yulee was re–elected to the Senate in 1855 and served until January, 1861, when he withdrew from the office to join the Congress of the Confederacy, as Florida had seceded from the Union.