Moses Levy was a prominent Jew, from a prominent Jewish family, in Colonial America. His father, Samson Levy

Samson Levy

Samson Levy was a prominent Jewish merchant in Philadelphia during the Colonial Period. He was one of the originators, in 1748, of the City Dancing Assembly, a famous social organization of Philadelphia. In Nov., 1765, he signed, with other merchants of the city, including six Jews, the celebrated...

, was a signatory of the celebrated resolutions not to import goods from England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 until the Stamp Act

Stamp Act

A stamp act is any legislation that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents, making them legal documents. The taxes raised under a stamp act are called stamp duty. This system of taxation was first devised...

 had been repealed. Moses was educated at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, from which he graduated in 1772. On March 19, 1778, he was admitted to the bar

Bar association

A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...

; from 1802 to 1822 he was recorder of Philadelphia; and from 1822 to 1825, presiding judge of the district court for the city and county of Philadelphia. At one time he was a member of the Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 legislature, and he was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania for twenty-four years.

Levy was one of the few Jewish plantation owners in the entire South and owned as many as five Slave ship

Slave ship

Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly purchased African slaves to Americas....

s. Despite this fact, he was also an abolitionist and published a pamphlet against slavery, during an extended stay in London in 1828.