Thread by @michaelharriot

Thread:
I try not to do things out of spite, there is a group of racists on Twitter targeting my inbox talmbout: "There was no Black Wall Street."

But the dude who was said "Maybe they bombed Black Wall street because of cultural appropriation" needs a history lesson.

The center of NY's financial district is called Wall Street because the Dutch actually built a wall there in 1652 because they thought England was going to attack. But it was just a regular street until it opened its first business in 1711:

The government-sanctioned slave market

By 1730, 42 percent of people in NY owned slaves, more than in any other city in the country except Charleston, SC.

They stopped selling slaves there in 1762, but that's just the beginning:

After the slave trade was outlawed, the REAL money was in trading securities. So, in 1792 24 rich white men met under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street and came up with rules how they would do this with no government interference.

The Buttonwood Agreement was actually what made Wall Street the financial center of America. It was the precursor to the NY Stock Exchange.

And what was the biggest security?

You already know. It was black people.

Long before it became Wells Fargo, in 1781, the Wachovia Bank of NY secured loans by trading slave labor. So did the Bank of America. NY Life issued its first 1,000 insurance policies on enslaved Africans.

But let me tell you about this dude named Moses Taylor

Moses Taylor started out as a clerk for a shipping firm that sold and imported things from South America. He quickly learned the business and opened up his own company. Because he didn't want to compete with his old company, Moses' shipped a different product.

He shipped human beings.

He was making a LOT of money importing Africans from the Carribean to America. He even traded enslaved people between Carribean countries.

Then, in 1791, something BAD happened:

Black Haitians overthrew the white slavemasters

Now we often look at this as something that happened in Haiti, but you gotta understand how shook white people in America were when they heard this shit.

Slave uprising? Nah, bruh, Haiti was too close? What if the word started to spread?

White America was scared AF because the black Haitians didn't just kick the slavemasters ass, they KILLED them or kicked them out of the country.

You gotta remember, America was a brand new country. They said " a revolution by Blacks definitely was something that could not be”

So when Haiti declared its independence in 1804, America got with all the other white countries and agreed that they wouldn't even acknowledge Haiti.

This was GREAT for Moses because in 1807, the US outlawed slavery. But Taylor CONTINUED trading slaves. Who was gon' tell on him?

But it got too dangerous for Taylor, so he got out of the slave business. He put some money into coal, iron and other businesses. But he had a bright idea: He was gonna open up a regular, schmegular bank in the heart of NY.

In 1837, 2 things happened: The Panic of 1837 cleaned out a lot of Wall Street investors, which allowed Taylor to use his slave profits to buy up half of Wall St including one of, if not the first bank on Wall St.

Also, some dude named Sam Morse moved to NY with a new invention

The telegraph, would revolutionize trading and make Moses Taylor richer than Uncle Phil, the first aunt Vivian (dark-skinned Aunt Viv is the only one we acknowledge), George and Weezy Jefferson and all the citizens of Wakanda combined.

By 1840, there were barely 25 people in NY worth $1 million. Moses Taylor was one of them.

But you know how white folks are: They gotta have MORE.

Remember when I said Haiti kicked out all the white people? Well, in 1825, the whitest thing that ever happened took place in Haiti

The French sent warships over to Haiti and demanded 150 million Francs (about $21 billion now) to be paid to the white people kicked out of Haiti.

Yes, the French wanted the FORMER SLAVES to pay reparations to the SLAVE OWNERS!

Now, in 1823, James Monroe told the world: "If any of you European motherfuckers come ANYWHERE near the Americas, you gotta ask us."

But because whites were afraid of a slave revolt, when France threatened Haiti, the US ignored the Monroe Doctrine and BACKED UP THE FRENCH!

So Haiti agreed to pay. After slavery ended and a revolt was no longer a threat, we agreed to recognize Haiti. Haiti was going broke paying France back and was dealing with its own revolutions, so America decided to help them out.

Between 1862 and 1915, America sent troops to Haiti 17 times. We also decided to help Haiti out by allowing a bunch of American banks to buy shares of the Haitian national bank.

In 1919, while occupying the country after the first World War, America was like:

"Y'all sure do have a lot of gold in y'alls bank. It sure would be a shame if something happened to it."

So Marines took $500,000 in gold to America for "safekeeping." Haiti would never see that money.

At one point, 80 percent of the Haitian Economy was spent on servicing that debt to France.

THIS is why Haiti is poor

You see, an American company had bought that debt way back in 1915.

And the American banks who brought shares of the Haitian National Bank? Well that same American company had purchased that

That American company owned 50 percent of the Haitian National Bank.

That American company also held the $500,000 in gold stolen from Haiti.

That American company was the company that Moses Taylor had bought with those slave profits. When he took it over in 1837, it was called the City Bank of New York.

But when Haiti made its last payment on slave reparations, it wasn't paying France.

It was paying that American company whose first headquarters was and STILL IS located at the same address:

111 Wall Street
New York NY

That company is now called Citibank.

So, if you think there was no Black Wall Street, you should know that America's entire financial system exists because of the exploitation of black people. Yes...

WALL STREET is "Black Wall Street," motherfucker.

Often, when I do these threads, people ask where they can find this info. It actually comes from a lot of sources. Luckily, in this case, I’ve actually written about this before:
theroot.com/as-haiti-burns…