Executive Admits J.P. Morgan Profited from Slavery
/- Originally published in the Boston Globe, 5/4/2004
A
senior officer with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. acknowledged to aldermen
yesterday that J.P. Morgan Jr.'s grandfather, Junius, had a business
relationship in the 1800s that profited from the slave trade-- but said
that should not preclude the financial giant from doing business withthe
city in the 21st century.
A senior officer with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. acknowledged to aldermen yesterday that
The partnership between Junius Morgan and
businessman George Peabody was not a ''predecessor company" to what is
now J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and should not be considered proof of a
legacy of profiteering from slave labor on the part of the current
company, said Frederick W. Hill, the firm's executive vice president
and chief of marketing and communications.
''The institution of slavery and all that it stood for is completely
antithetical to everything that we stand for," Hill, who is black, told
aldermen at a meeting of the City Council's Finance Committee.
Hill's testimony was given during ongoing hearings into whether
officials at the New York-based financial firm lied about ties to the
slave trade on financial disclosure records to secure lucrative bond
underwriting deals with the city. Such a finding could cost the company
future underwriting fees.
Alderwoman Dorothy Tillman, a council activist who has long pressed the
issue of slave labor and reparations, had introduced in hearings last
week what she said was proof that Peabody's firm, in the 1830s,
purchased items for slaves, had a client who placed newspaper ads for
the sale of slaves, and helped transport slaves aboard at least one
ship.
Tillman said the documents, including receipts, were found by her daughter, Ebony Tillman ,33, while doing research.
Hill did not dispute the documents and proposed an amendment to the
company's original disclosure statement acknowledging that firms tied
to Peabody and Junius Morgan ''may have profited from business
relationships with persons or companies that owned or used slaves." The
proposed amendment would add that J.P. Morgan Sr., Junius's son, ''was
affiliated with the Peabody firm before he founded Drexel, Morgan, and
Company, the New York partnership that in 1895 became J.P. Morgan and
Co."
The proposed amendment would also state that Junius Morgan and his son
used their own capital as seed money to launch Drexel, Morgan, and
Company in 1871. What remained unclear, Hill said after the hearing, is
whether that seed money amounts to profits or compensation they
received from the Peabody firm and, therefore, profits from the slave
trade.
Chicago's City Council has been outspoken in recent years about
persuading companies to confront past ties to slavery, and in 2002,
aldermen passed an ordinance--the first of its kind in the
country--requiring that all firms seeking to do business with the city
disclose whether the company, or any of its predecessors, profited from
slave labor.
Hill said J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. researchers had traveled to
Europe and to several US states, but found no evidence directly tying
the company to forced labor.
''We searched our corporate records, including those of our predecessor
entities, and located no documents on investments or profits from
slavery, the slavery industry, or slaveholder insurance policies," Hill
said.
Tillman questioned why Hill, and not a more senior company official,
appeared before the committee. Tillman, who said other business
entities linked to the Morgan empire also had ties to slavery, said
chairman and chief executive William B. Harrison should have been
called to testify. The Finance Committee could vote next month on
whether to subpoena other J.P. Morgan Chase officials.
''They lied," Tillman said after the meeting.
The company said Tillman was wrong. ''Our disclosures were proper, and
we strongly disagree with the alderman's assertions," said company
spokesman Joseph Evangelisti.
"The [disclosure statement] was filled out accurately," Hill said
later. "In a political environment like [Tillman] has created with this
issue, anyone that disagrees with her, she casts aspersions on."
Tillman spearheaded a council resolution in 2000 calling on Congress to
study slave reparations. At the time, Mayor Richard M. Daley said he
believed reparations were due, and urged the nation to formally
apologize for its slavery history