HISTORY

How Black People Built Wall Street Yet Were Treated as Chattel

Enslaved people built the wall that "Wall Street" was named for

When we think about Wall Street, the first thing that comes to mind is a room filled with men wearing suits, carrying suitcases or slips of paper, running to and fro, a chaotic scene as portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street. And yet, few Americans understand the role slavery played in creating this marketplace — how their forced labor created this foundation of economic prosperity. Nevertheless, Wall Street, the financial district in New York City, was named after a wall built using enslaved labor.

In December of 1711, the City Council passed a law requiring "that all Negro and Indian slaves" available "be hired at the Market House at the Wall Street." Indeed, the irony wasn't lost on enslaved Africans that the Dutch were forcing them to build a defensive wall to keep out Indigenous tribes. In essence, to protect their empire. And yet, the violent nature of their oppression all but silenced this perspective. White colonists maintained control over enslaved Black people through violent means. A poignant reminder is the 1712 Slave Revolt, which occurred only one year after the market opened.

A small group of Black people, approximately twenty-three armed with "swords, knives, hatchets, and guns," rebelled against their White enslavers on April 6, 1712, hoping to inspire a wide-scale uprising. They set fires and killed several slave owners who tried to force them back into chains. However, their dream of freedom and a broader uprising amongst enslaved New Yorkers were crushed by local militia who hunted them down. At least twenty-seven were found hiding in swampland near modern-day Canal Street. The vast majority endured a brutal end, publically executed, some burned alive, and "hung in chains in the center of town." Some took their own lives rather than face a trial and subsequent lynching. Sadly, chattel slavery continued in New York until 1827, and until 1841, White people could temporarily bring those they enslaved when they traveled there.

According to historian Chris Cobb, the slave market in New York "was a city-run slave market because they wanted to collect tax revenue on every person who was bought and sold there." Enslaved people were expected to build roads, walls, and many buildings, and yet were brutally mistreated and deprived of the opportunities extended to White people. Not only did enslaved Black people build the street that Wall Street was named after, but as chattel, they were bought and sold as commodities. They were exploited from nearly every angle.

For instance, JP Morgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, acknowledged in 2005 that two of their subsidiaries, Citizens' Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana, accepted enslaved people as collateral for loans. Since the value of enslaved people was used to assess a plantation owner's wealth, they could insure them and receive compensation if they "were injured or killed." As historian Tiya Miles noted, "Southern planters who wanted to buy more land and black people borrowed funds from New York bankers and protected the value of bought bodies with policies from New York insurance companies."

The Slave Market, established in 1711 by a Common Law Council, provided a space for White colonists to buy and sell Africans and some Indigenous people. While slavery began in Manhattan in 1626, this market further legitimized the trade and ensured the city wouldn't be left. Initially, this market was known as Meal Market because of the grains sold there, on the East River. It wasn't until May 17, 1792, that New York City stockbrokers and merchants met outside of 68 Wall Street to sign The Buttonwood Agreement and establish the New York Stock Exchange, which Americans today know. And yet, the exploitation of black bodies had long since been baked into the wall they stood by and the financial processes they engaged in.

Black people not only suffered the indignity of being forced to build the wall that Wall Street is named after, but also their descendants have been systematically deprived of opportunities for advancement in the American market, sold as commodities, and stripped of their humanity. And in the aftermath of slavery, racial disparities persist. It's more difficult for a Black person to be approved for a loan to buy a car or a house, start a business, or be offered a fair price when they sell.

Despite the contributions of enslaved people who built the wall Wall Street is named after and the indignity they suffered being sold as commodities in the market or deprived of their freedom by White men and their local militias, Black Americans are still facing racial discrimination in the financial industry. Still deprived of loans because of the color of their skin or assumed to be engaged in wrongdoing. In March of 2022, the Pinal County Federal Credit Union manager in the Valley called the police on a Black man who was trying to cash a check. This incident is indicative of a broader problem, a phenomenon called "banking while Black."

When we think of Wall Street, we often imagine predominately White men conducting business in suits, sometimes getting lucky and sometimes losing their shirts. Still, it's essential to understand how Wall Street and the broader financial industry in America have deep ties to slavery. As Tiya Miles described, during "the early decades of the 1800s — that New York City gained its status as a financial behemoth through shipping raw cotton to Europe and bankrolling the boom industry that slavery made," something impossible to achieve without using cotton cultivated in the South, produced by enslaved people.

What Wall Street represents to you may depend on your status in society, how much history you know, and your beliefs regarding ethical labor practices and individualistic vs. collectivist societies. And yet, for Black people, there's an added layer of meaning, this feeling that Wall Street represents economic prosperity for White people and not for themselves. It's like being invited to a party, and you're part of the only group deprived of pizza. You know it's unfair, yet if you speak about the injustice, someone may accuse you of bursting their bubble. Perhaps one day, Wall Street and all of its financial institutions will reckon with their legacy of chattel slavery and eradicate racist policies and practices, but if history is any indication, we shouldn't hold our breath.

References

Curriculum Concepts International. (n.d.). Slave Market. Mapping the African American past. https://maap.columbia.edu/place/22.html

Lewis, D. (2016, April 6). The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 was a bloody prelude to decades of hardship. Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-york-slave-revolt-1712-was-bloody-prelude-decades-hardship-180958665/

Miles, T. (n.d.). Municipal Bonds: How Slavery Built Wall Street. Excerpt

Thomas, Z. (2019, August 28). The hidden links between slavery and Wall Street. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49476247

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