Post ASVXnM45GCARbgnHlY by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
(DIR) More posts by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
(DIR) Post #ASVXmz0OziYY5btWKm by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:08:17Z
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I copied this from a tweet a few years ago. I don't remember who the author was, maybe (Elie, Prof JJ, or maybe Tremaine?). I followed some great Black writers & thinkers. I hope they join Mastodon.Whenever we talk about reparations owed for the free labor of enslaved people, someone will inevitably argue how few white people owned slaves. But it's Labor Day, so let me show you how everyone in America profited from slavery.
(DIR) Post #ASVXmzX12Sdzil9ZAW by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:14:34Z
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The Jamestown settlers were actually owners and employees of a joint-stock company called the Virginia Company of London. First, we have to remember that the first Americans came here to escape religious persecution, which explains why this country is founded on liberty and freedom...It was about money.The Jamestown settlers were actually owners and employees of a joint-stock company called the Virginia Company of London.What was their purpose?
(DIR) Post #ASVXn6gURdNjuAdjPM by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:19:48Z
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Well, aside from money, they wanted to civilize the "infidels and savages"Their get-rich-quick scheme worked because of slavery https://t.co/3igb3xiD88After the American Revolution, the U.S. could've been a poor country. They owed millions to Britain.How did we pay back our debt?We sold Native American landWell, we raised taxes on the richest people, namely the Southern Plantation owners and the northern manufacturersThe plantation owners and the manufacturers made so much profit...
(DIR) Post #ASVXnD1yqe8ZaYjyjo by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:22:22Z
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because very few slave owners offered 401k and medical insurance.I could talk about Wells Fargo, Barclays, & Brown Brothers Harriman (The largest private investment firm in the US) but let's start with the REAL $$We like to think of NY as the "financial center" of America but early on, the Dutch actually owned much of NY, so the real powerbrokers were in Philadelphia.In NY, they would let ANYBODY trade ANYTHINGUnlike the market in Philly, anyone could trade in NY.
(DIR) Post #ASVXnGRy8ThyC1vHA8 by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:25:51Z
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These country NY muhfuckas just met under a buttonwood tree and traded stocks, slaves, securities, slaves, bonds and slaves. (MOSTLY just slaves).That buttonwood tree became 1 of the biggest slave markets in the WORLD.But after the Revolution .... 24 of the NY dudes got together and signed the "Buttonwood Agreement." Modeled after the Philly Merchants Exchange, u had to register to trade.The company got so big, they decided to build a building.
(DIR) Post #ASVXnM45GCARbgnHlY by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:35:33Z
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After the US outlawed the importation of slaves, a businessman named Moses Taylor made so much dough shipping enslaved Africans to the Caribbean that he didn't have a place to keep all of his money, so he took over the National Bank of the City of NY.They built their headquarters at 111 Wall Street and made so much money that they literally financed the purchase of the Philippines, the War of 1812 and underwrote the ENTIRE Civil War.
(DIR) Post #ASVXnMXVUnhf4wYmcy by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:30:33Z
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They built it near the site of the original slave-trading tree bcs the area was protected by a huge stone barrier built by the Dutch.& that's how the New York Stock Exchange came to be built on a little road called "Wall Street"How did it become the financial center?Slaves.For instance, NY Life opened a Wall Street office in 1845. How did a local insurance company make so much money?Well, when NY Life was struggling, an enterprising agent had an idea on how to create a new insurance market:
(DIR) Post #ASVXnSI86sy4uzPaUa by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:38:54Z
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They also made another great financial acquisition:In 1825, after enslaved Haitians kicked France's ass, France demanded that slaveowners be repaid for the "theft of slaves."...They're the only country we let send warships to the Caribbean during the Monroe Doctrine years.NBCNY bought the debt from France & even made US marines seize the gold from Haiti's treasury and bring it to Wall Street. That debt is the MAIN reason Haiti, which was one of the richest countries, is now poor.
(DIR) Post #ASVXnSTTQi2fUAieAq by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:40:45Z
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But that bank is called CITIBANK now. https://t.co/EMnUYSdC0MBut EVERY SINGLE AMERICAN made a profit.Churches were built with slave labor AND received tithing from slave owners.The railroads were built with it.EVERY American was able to buy cheap food and clothes because cotton & plants were planted, grown & harvested with free labor.Even if you didn't own a slave, if you owned a retail outlet, you got more of a markup.If you built ships, you used cheap labor.
(DIR) Post #ASVXnT05TS877Jyh0a by MsSmartyPants@mstdn.ca
2023-02-09T15:34:36Z
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He bought ads in Southern newspapers informing plantation owners to insure their property. This wasn't a revolutionary idea because every insurance company sold hazard insurance. But he introduced another kind of policy:He sold insurance on slaves.James Ogden, who owned the company, never owned a single slave.He hated slavery. But by 1847, insuring slaves was one-third of his business.And that's why NY Life is STILL the third-largest insurance company in America.