 Judah Philip Benjamin was born on August 11 , 1811 , in St. Croix of the Danish West Indies ( today the United States Virgin Islands ) , a colony then occupied by the British during the Napoleonic Wars . His parents were Sephardic Jews , Philip Benjamin and the former Rebecca de Mendes . Philip and Rebecca had been shopkeepers in London , and emigrated to the West Indies in search of better opportunities . Rebecca 's family had been prominent in Spain before being forced to leave under the Expulsion Edict of 1492 . 
