THE STOLEN WEALTH OF SLAVERY

A sharp account of the massive wealth extracted from enslaved people in America.

In this follow-up to Kickback: Exposing the Global Corporate Bribery Network, Montero shows that this wealth is responsible for America’s rise to world leadership. The author is a diligent researcher, and he marshals his facts meticulously. Unpaid Black labor created immense quantities of agricultural and industrial production, as well as infrastructure that enriched white Americans, especially in the north. Many of today’s large corporations grew and prospered from slave labor, while southern farmers, including all but a minority of plantation owners, were “chronically in debt, many on the verge of being broke.” The author is convincing in his declaration that this extraction was “the largest money-laundering operation in American history,” although scholars might deny Montero’s claim that historians have paid little attention; indeed, he quotes liberally from their writing. Just as drug cartels profit not by growing their product (which is not terribly profitable) but by transporting and supplying it, northern businesses did the same with cotton and other commodities. Montero devotes most of the book to detailed accounts of 19th-century entrepreneurs, corporations, and banks who prospered off the backs of enslaved people, using the money to create purportedly legitimate businesses. Corporations do not perish with their founders, and many have long boasted of their staying power without mentioning the source of their vast financial reserves. A robust reparations movement emerged early in the 21st century, but its future remains uncertain. The author concludes by recounting legal actions against banks and corporations that have profited from slavery. Public demands for reparations have produced a flurry of apologies and some voluntary contributions to Black institutions, but no significant payments to date. Perhaps this book, featuring a foreword by Michael Eric Dyson, can invigorate the movement.

An expert history and defense of the reparations movement that will hopefully persuade detractors.