General Discussion

American financial history has long been sanitized to suggest that slavery was a Southern sin. In reality, Northern banks, insurance companies, and investors were deeply entangled in the slave economy. Acknowledging this would undermine the narrative of moral distance.

Reckoning is not just about apology. It is about understanding how the past shapes the present.

The wealth accumulated by banks through slavery helped build modern financial empires.

The poverty imposed on enslaved people and their descendants helped create the racial wealth gap that persists today.

The refusal to acknowledge this history allowed myths of innocence to flourish.