After spending his early years in Charleston, Mordecai M. Noah was raised in Philadelphia by his grandparents Jonas and Rebecca Phillips. He returned to South Carolina in 1812 and began a career in journalism. Noah became a center of controversy, first in a duel with artist John Canter, then in a flap over his removal as consul to Tunis. This was the incident that provoked Isaac Harby’s admonition to Secretary of State James Monroe that Jews are “a portion of the People.”