Bank of America insists it can't find slave profits in its past

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 30,2005 | FRAN SPIELMAN

[Founding Father]

Bank of America insists it can't find slave profits in its past

April 30, 2005

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Under fire from the City Council's champion for slave reparations, Bank of America stuck to its guns Friday: The bank has hired a researcher to dig deeper but has so far has uncovered no evidence that a predecessor bank invested in or profited from the slave trade.

To the contrary, Bank of America said its research suggests that the predecessor, Providence Bank, "distanced itself from and declined to support slavery-related activities." That's even though John Brown -- Providence Bank's founding president, director and shareholder -- was a well-known slave owner who arranged for the transportation of slaves.

Founded in 1791, Providence Bank is a predecessor of Fleet Boston, which was acquired by Bank of America last year.

"First, the research disclosed no evidence establishing that the Providence Bank had investments or profits from slavery. Second, there is no indication of the source of the funds used by Brown to purchase his 23 shares in the bank. Last, the evidence suggests that the bank, in fact, avoided slave-related activities of John Brown or any other bank customer," said the bank's attorney V. Duncan Johnson.

'We won't stop'

Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) accused "arrogant" bank officials of providing "selective and fraudulent" information to a joint City Council committee.

Tillman said research conducted by her daughter at some of the same places Bank of America looked -- the Rhode Island Historical Society and Brown University Library -- has already produced evidence that Providence Bank made loans used to purchase ships that transported slaves.

"The whole reason the bank was founded was so that the merchants could have a bank for their money to go through. Their whole existence was slavery. They had no other existence," she said.

"They thought they could bring this lawyer in and lie and just say, 'Moses Brown [John's brother] was an abolitionist. You see, they were good guys.' The lawyer's job was to protect Bank of America -- not to get to the truth. And we won't stop until we get to the truth."

Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) cautioned Tillman not to "toss around the words 'fraud' and 'misrepresentation.' "

"It is the opinion of the chair that there has been no fraudulent conduct on the part of these witnesses," he said.

Black, Jewish aldermen clash

Ald. Burton F. Natarus (42nd) also urged Tillman to take a deep breath -- prompting an uncomfortable clash between black and Jewish aldermen.

"Prior to the Civil War, you're going to find almost every one of these corporations were involved with the institution of slavery. You're going to find it, and no matter what you do, you can't hide it. But the problem is, how long are you going to badger them with it?" Natarus said.

That infuriated Tillman, who reminded Natarus that African-American aldermen had supported him in the threat to punish Swiss banks that ultimately resulted in the return to Holocaust victims of hundreds of millions of dollars in gold looted by conquering German armies.

"The Jewish community -- your community -- received reparations. What happened to them was wrong. And you were relentless in making sure that anybody and everybody who had anything to do with the Holocaust would be brought to justice . . . What we're saying is, we have a right to be repaid," Tillman said.

Ald. William Beavers (7th) added, "You want to know how long it's going to go on? It's going to go on as long as the Holocaust. The Holocaust is never going to end, and this is never going to end. So when we support you, you support us."

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[samtheman]

I don't "want to discuss reparations". I want to REFUTE it. Certain segments of the African American population keep bringing it up. I think it's important that we always knock it right back down. I don't really think "reparations" is going anywhere. Although I hear there is an attempt to broaden the support-base by including Mexican Americans as "victims of colonization" and Asian Americans for some othe reason (forget the details).

The bottom line is: if you're of European decent (even if your great grandpa was a soldier in the Union Army), you gotta pay!

[Redgirl]

I think it was unAmerican to have my ancestors' city burned down and their property stolen and getting raped and murdered by Union Soldiers.

[muawiyah]

The Mexican-American thing involved folks who happened to be US citizens who were literally taken to the Mexican border and kicked out of the country. Their abductors then seized their property.

The California legislature was all set to pass a law to recompensate these people until they realized that they would end up having to give back most of Los Angeles county to the decendants of the Japanese-Americans who used to own it before it was taken in similar manner.

[samtheman]

You mention one aspect of "the Mexican American thing".

I've read different versions of "inclusion".

One involves classing all decendants of Native Americans in both North and South America as "victims of colonialism" and apportioning "reparations" to them based on a) their country of origin and b) the supposed ties of that country to "US imperialism".

Of course the concept isn't going anywhere, for now. But the idea lingers on. The only bad guys in all of history are the Europeans who came to the Americas, including those (like my grandparents) who were landless peasants living in harsh conditions back "home".

[bdfromlv]

Not to mention the reparations this doofus is whining about was for the actual gold and art the banks knew they received from the thieving Germans, not for slave labor done or pain and loss. The historically illiterate a$$ also doesn't understand that the Japanese that got money were only the ones that were actually imprisoned.

[Rytwyng]

The bottom line is: if you're of European decent (even if your great grandpa was a soldier in the Union Army), you gotta pay!

As the great-great-grandson of a Union vet, I find the very idea of reparations insulting.

[samtheman]

As the great-great-grandson of a Union vet, I find the very idea of reparations insulting.

The idea is ridiculous beyond belief. All Americans ... red, white, black, brown, yellow... should be insulted by such a ridiculous idea.

[PJammers]

Thank you!

Freed slaves and blacks were not allow to fight until late in the war. They were also normally kept in the back line as support units. They were also not allowed to fight along side their white counterparts. They were kept in all black units. The vast majority of deaths were people of European decent. Most were poor farmers who had very little to loose. Most volunteered and gave their lives freely.

I believe someone else needs to check their civil war facts.

v/r

[wolf2005]

I hope that was sarcasm.

I can't think of ever reading about any culture that DIDN'T practice slavery at one time or another (in ten thousand years of human civilization). That uncludes Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, etc. It also include both North and South America.

BTW, the Africans sold into slavery in the period you mention (1500-1865) were captives taken from interior tribes that the Coastal African tribes didn't want to retain as their own slaves.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

In ten thousand years of human civilization, the only recorded instance of slavery was during the period of 1500- 1865 in the American south, by White Christian European men.

I was afraid someone would uncover that little overlooked fact.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

"The Jewish community -- your community -- received reparations. What happened to them was wrong. And you were relentless in making sure that anybody and everybody who had anything to do with the Holocaust would be brought to justice . . . What we're saying is, we have a right to be repaid," Tillman said.

The holocaust entailed the systematic extermination of over six million Jews in industrialized Nazi deathcamps. My hisory may be fuzzy, but I don't remember any such death camps in the antebellum South, with millions of resulting slave deaths. Consequently, the comparison is simply false. The fact of the matter is that slavery, bad as it was, was a completely legal institution until the Civil War and the ultimate ratification of the 13th amendment in December 1865. As a legal institution, the whole antebellum American economy was entangled with slavery, and in fact, New York City, of all places, was the South's banking center. With that said, these banks and insurance companies did nothing illegal based upon the context of those times, and should not be forced to undergo this enforced self-flagellation for something that happened over 140 years ago. Moreover, the institution of slavery is not even remotely close to the horrors of the holocaust, and so the whole issue of reparations is nothing but a brazen shakedown, based upon the threat of bad publicity. Further, the idea of reparations based upon the idea of compensating SURVIVORS, and to my best knowledge, the last known former black American slave died in either the 1950s or early 1960s. Second, third, or even fourth generation descendents need not apply.

[cgbg]

The group reparations concept is fundamentally a Marxist one, that the "collective", race, is more important than the individual.

[xkaydet65]

I'd forgotten BoA had taken over Fleet. I wondered what the hell was going on here. BoA was started as Bank of Italy by Giannini in San Francisco around the time of the earthquake. I didn't know slaves were still kept in 1906.I am curious about one thing. Fleet Bank had been around for quite a while and this Chicago alderman made no effort to extort money. Only after it's taken over by BoA does he make his move. Bigger target??

BTW The equation of this with Holocaust reparations is spurious at best. Reparations are paid to survivors, not descendants of surviviors.

[fhayek]

I hope that was sarcasm.

of course. ; ^)

[F16Fighter]

[Bank of America] has hired a researcher to dig deeper but has so far has uncovered no evidence that a predecessor bank invested in or profited from the slave trade.

Has Jesse Jackson yet called a news conference to "boycott" the bank until his Swiss account is a few decimal points heavier?

[Redgirl]

You're right, southern women LOVED getting raped by soldiers....

FIRGIT, HELL!! LOL

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Actually, in 1864, a great many black soldiers saw action and died , most notably at Petersburg (in the Battle of the Crater), and at Fort Pillow, Tennessee and at Saltville, Virginia (where, in both cases, those that surrendered were massacred by their outraged Confederate captors). By the end of the Civil War, roughly 179,000 black men (10% of the Union Army) had served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 had served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war—-30,000 of infection or disease, and the rest in battle.

[iconoclast]

Hasn't this silliness dried up and blown away yet?

[DumpsterDiver]

Well Bank of America has lots of slaves today paying for their credit cards! :-)

They're also doing their best to assist illegal aliens with wire transfers, home loans, etc.