(Cedricmuhammad.com) Just as a rule, whenever the mainstream media (American cable and print in particular) is in a 24 hour wall-to-wall frenzy of coverage over an individual, institution, event or circumstance – substantive or superficial in nature – I always tend to focus more close on financial and geopolitical coverage to see what other news is being ignored, overshadowed, underreported or marginalized.
This morning (June 27th), one such newsworthy event appears on the cover of the Financial Times – the leading world business newspaper out of London. The headline of the Weekend Edition reads, “Rothschild and Freshfields founders had links to slavery, papers reveal.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7c0f5014-628c-11de-b1c9-00144feabdc0.html)
Here are the first several paragraphs of the story:
Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed.
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefited financially from slavery, records from the National Archives show, even though both have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.
Far from being a matter of distant history, slavery remains a highly contentious issue in the US, where Rothschild and Freshfields are both active.
Companies alleged to have links to past slave injustices have come under pressure to make restitution.
JPMorgan, the investment bank, set up a $5m scholarship fund for black students studying in Louisiana after apologising in 2005 for the company’s historic links to slavery.
The archival documents have already prompted one of the banks named in the records to take action in the US.
When the FT approached Royal Bank of Scotland with information about its predecessor’s links with slavery, the bank researched the claim, updated its own archives and amended the disclosures of past slave connections that it had previously lodged with the Chicago authorities.
But it is the disclosures about Mr Rothschild and Mr Freshfield that are likely to prompt the biggest stir.
In the case of Mr Rothschild, the documents reveal for the first time that he made personal gains by using slaves as collateral in banking dealings with a slave owner.
This will surprise those familiar with his role in organising the loan that funded the UK government’s bail-out of British slave owners when colonial slavery was abolished in the 1830s. It was the biggest bail-out of an industry as a percentage of annual government expenditure – dwarfing last year’s rescue of the banking sector.
The chief archivist of the Rothschild family papers, Melanie Aspey, reacted with disbelief when first told of the contents of the records, saying she had never seen such links before.
Niall Ferguson, Laurence A.Tisch professor of history at Harvard and author ofThe World’s Banker: A History of the House of Rothschild, said the documents showed “how pervasive slavery was in the structure of British wealth in 1830”.
In Mr Freshfield’s case, the records reveal that he and his sons had several slave-owner clients, mostly based in the Caribbean. The lawyers acted as trustees of the owners’ estates and in one case tried to claim unpaid legal fees for the firm through the government scheme set up to compensate owners after abolition.
The story is especially striking for two reasons:
One, it comes just one week after the U.S. Senate apologized for slavery but went out of its way to ensure that the apology, in and of itself, did not make the U.S. government legally liable for reparations due to slavery – an issue that placed the Congressional Black Caucus and National Association For The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on opposite sides. The apology comes 150 years and a Black president later.
Secondly the revelations that the Rothschild family – and N.M. Rothschild in particular – profited directly slavery debunks the popularly held view that perhaps the most influential family in the modern history of Western geopolitics and finance, not only stayed away from earning money through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, but that they were one of slavery’s biggest opponents. This popular image of the Rothschild family has persisted, even though it is well documented that the family was instrumental in providing loans to the government of Portugal secured or backed by Brazilian revenues, which included profits from slavery; and, in the face of documented evidence that the Rothschild family – notably Nathan Mayer and James – in the 1830s were involved in loans to American states involved in the slave economy and backed several U.S. banks and held American securities and bills backed by proceeds from the cotton and tobacco industries (which were dependent upon slave labor). To associate the Rothschild family with slavery, even in the face of such evidence (available in such respected historical works like The House of Rothschild: Money’s Prophets 1798 – 1848 by Niall Ferguson) of a direct connection with slave-related income streams as these (and more) is a taboo undertaking. It is usually met by the two charges or labels which more than any others are used to stifle legitimate historical inquiries and investigation : ‘anti-Semitism’ or ‘conspiracy theory.’
On February 19, 2009, I authored a blog at Cedricmuhammad.com called “Securitization As Satan” (http://www.cedricmuhammad.com/securitization-as-satan/). It explains the process of securitization – where a written ownership claim or debt relationship between two parties – is sold to a third party, and possibly re-sold, again and again.
The mortgage backed securities market, I explained, was a classic extreme example of this kind of activity where thousands of mortgages were made by lenders and bundled into securities and then resold in America, on Wall Street, over and over again, and all over the world. The result is the Financial Panic of 2007-2008.
The reported process by which N.M. Rosthschild was personally involved in slavery is also a classic example of securitization. In an article accompanying the bombshell Financial Times cover story we learn more details. In “Paper Trail Loosens Shackels On Hidden Past” Carola Hoyos writes:
Among the boxes he sifted through was T71/1222, which contained a claim for £3,000 in compensation made by Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his brother Baron James de Rothschild, scions of the banking dynasty.
The documents describe an agreement between the two brothers that £3,000 owed to Lord James O’Bryen by the purchaser of his estate in Antigua should be secured to NM Rothschild himself by a mortgage over 88 slaves on the estate. The slaves served as collateral in case the debtor defaulted.
After that buyer went bankrupt, NM Rothschild used the compensation scheme set up by the government after the abolition of slavery to secure the £3,000. The money was eventually awarded to the NM Rothschild estate after his death.
This practice – making loans and having them secured by slaves or revenues derived from the slave trade or slave economy - was common practice in the 18th and 19th century.
It will be interesting to see if perhaps the most dramatic publicly documented and reported account of the intersection of Western wealth and arguably the most inhumane experience and institution ever recorded, will not just break through the headlines currently dominated by the tragic death of Michael Jackson; but also, whether they will revive a reparations movement that has been languishing (and some suggest compromised, or satisfied, by recent settlement agreements with banks).
Mourn for Michael, and monitor developments associated with his death, but keep your eyes on the rest of the news.
You may be surprised at what you learn.
Cedric Muhammad
June 27, 2009
http://cedricmuhammad.com/
As one whose shock at the death of the composer of the soundtrack to many of my life stories kept me glued to the TV for about six hours - feverishly flipping channels - I thank you for the slap to the face return to present day, up-to-the-minute and practical realities.
Thank you for such a revealing piece. The truth shall set you free. One day the marginalized will stand up, and realize that they have been had, took, etc…
Once again, very good work.
Method Man said it best, “behind every fortune is a crime”.
This is good information. So the original bailout was to bailout slaveowners after abolishing slavery.
it has been written “that there is nothing new under the sun” your uncovering of this trick repeat is brilliant
Your work is phenomenal. We need critical thinkers and researchers such as yourself to help the community at large attain a higher level of consciousness which can only be done by efforts such as the one you have purported on today. Thanks!
Great Piece! There is a huge difference between a Apology (A plea of pardon…) and Repentance ( Feeling self-reproachful and changing one’s ways…) and we must decide which one we prefer. It is obvious that the beneficiaries of the slave trade know the difference and are trying to Securitize a Apology to sell to us and the rest of the world.
Peace
you are an inspiration through your dedication and the practicality in and of your pursuit. When I finish the pursuit of my professional liscense I hope to join your ranks in what ever way is productive!
7/6/09
I appreciate your frankness in telling it just as it is.Keep up the good work.May the blessings of Almighty God Allah be with you always ,and make true Believers worthy to be used by him for his divine purpose.
Someone forward this link to me. This is my first time reading your commentary, thank you for being a still small voice in the backdrop of the frenzy. Your reporting and commentary on this subject is very thought provoking. Certailing the death of Micheal is a tragic lost and millions feel that lost, but you were on-it to look beyond the noisy cries to see what was brewing in the outskirts that would directly impacted our lives. Very good information, keep me informed, Thank you!