June 02, 2005

Wachovia Admits Foreclosing on Slaves

Prompted by a Chicago law that requires businesses to disclose former profiteering from slavery, Wachovia has issued an amazing report. The report shows that its predecessors in interest not only held slaves directly to work on the Georgia railroad, they also accepted slaves as collateral to secure loans--and even foreclosed on this "collateral" when the loans went unpaid.

The Bank of Charleston, founded in 1834, issued loans and mortgages where enslaved individuals were used as collateral. A review of the bank’s account ledgers revealed a minimum of 24 transactions involving reference to 529 enslaved individuals being used as collateral. In most cases, the loan was paid on schedule, and the bank never took possession of slaves that were pledged as collateral on the loan. In several documented instances, however, customers defaulted on their loans and the Bank of Charleston took actual possession of slaves. The total number of slaves of whom the bank took possession cannot be accurately tallied due to the lack of records.

Posted by Anupam Chander on June 2, 2005 at 11:15 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink