Wachovia admits slave trade profits
After initially denying ties to slavery in January, executives at Wachovia Bank disclosed in a June 2 report that the bank's predecessor institutions — the Bank of Charleston, S.C., and the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company — "owned" at least 162 enslaved Africans and accepted 529 more as "collateral" on loans.
The 111-page report was prepared by the History Factory, a firm specializing in corporate archival work. It also revealed that war financier Robert Morris — a founder of a forerunner institution, Bank of North America — used profits from the slave trade to start Wachovia in 1781.
And the Bank of Charleston provided financial assistance to the confederate government throughout the Civil War.
