He continued his father's publishing house and printed many important seforim. Together with his brother Rav Pinchos they were both imprisoned during the infamous libel of the year 5699. He was sentenced to flogging and exiled to Siberia although he remained in Moscow.
"They were punished and sentenced to run the gauntlet between rows of soldiers who flogged them with cruel blows and due to Hashem's kindness and chessed they survived the ordeal. The efforts of their friends and relatives bore some fruit and the Siberian exile was delayed to Moscow. There for seventeen years the brothers remained until the death of the wicked Czar Nikolai the first. When his benevolent second Czar Nikolai II emancipated and liberated many he also granted the brothers some clemency and they were finally allowed home.
On the 11th of Adar 5601 (1840) a fire broke out that consumed the Vilna press, all the seforim and machines went up in flames and two workers lost their lives in the deadly fatal blaze, the partners were left impoverished and the Vilna Romm Press's fate was seen by some as the hand of Divine Punishment." (MeOran Shel Yisroel)
Chabad tradition has it that as the two Shapiro brothers, Rav Shmuel Abba and Rav Pinchos of Slovita ran the gauntlet between the blows of the soliders who carried out the Czar's decree to flog them over the false libel as is known, in the midst of the ringing blows as they were flogged, they sang a niggun, a song of the soul's lofty ascent, the power of Yaakov's pride with trust in Hashem! This Niggun's notes have been recorded in Chabad's Sefer Niggunim Niggun 41 and can be heard sung by Chabad chassidim to this very day, known as the Niggun Slovita. (cited by Likkutei Imrei Pinchos Sha'ar Sippurim 125)
