-Caveat Lector-
Chase's Historical Ledger
Even as Chase Manhattan prepares to take over J.P.
Morgan, the bank's past is returning to haunt it.
Recently revealed documents show that Chase, which
was already known to have helped the Nazis, aided
slavery here at home as two of its predecessor banks
worked with an insurance company to insure slave
owners against loss. Chase is, as far as can be
determined, the first company whose forerunners have
been identified as aiding both the perpetrators of the
destruction of the Jews in Europe and those who
enslaved Africans and their descendants in America.
Chase currently faces a class-action lawsuit filed in the
United States by Holocaust survivors and victims'
relatives who say their assets were frozen by Chase
during World War II. Chase seized bank accounts and
safe-deposit boxes from Jewish customers in France and
did not return or properly account for them after the
war, according to Kenneth McCallion, a lead attorney in
the suit. In addition, a Treasury Department report
declassified a few years ago concludes that Chase's Paris
branch served as a banker for the Third Reich. J.P.
Morgan, whose Paris office also worked closely with the
Germans, is named in the lawsuit as well.
About a hundred years earlier, two US banks that were
later taken over by Chase were described in an 1852
information circular as servicers of insurance policies
issued on the lives of slaves. Titled "A Method by Which
Slave Owners May Be Protected From Loss," the circular,
put out by the National Loan Fund Life Assurance
Company of London, describes, among others, The
Merchants Bank and The Leather Manufacturers Bank,
both of New York, as having the legal authority "to
accept risks, adjust and pay claims." The Merchants
Bank merged in 1920 with The Bank of the Manhattan
Company, which in turn merged with Chase in 1955,
according to the New York State Banking Department
and Chase's website. The Leather Manufacturers Bank
merged with The Mechanics National Bank in 1904, which
then merged with Chase in 1926.
Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, the lawyer whose research
earlier this year forced the Aetna Insurance Company to
make a public apology for writing slave insurance
policies, uncovered the documents exposing Chase.
These revelations are certain to bolster the growing
movement for slavery reparations.
The presidents of the two banks are listed on the
circular as members of the New York board of directors
of the London insurance company. The circular names
medical examiners in Virginia, North Carolina and
Washington, DC, who were authorized to examine
slaves and also offers details about the insurance
policies. For example: "A Slave aged 30 years can be
insured for $500, for a year, for $11.25; and if he dies,
the owner, although deprived of the revenue of his
labour...will still not be unrecompensed for his loss; for
there will still remain to him--not his Slave--but the
$500 which constituted his value...." While it has still to
be determined whether the two banks actually serviced
any policies for slave owners, the existence of the
circular proves that the banks actively sought and were
part of such business.
Jim Finn, a Chase spokesperson, said that his
organization needs more time to study the circular and
related materials before he could comment.
Farmer-Paellmann, who is continuing her research, said,
"My hope is that if archival records show that policies
were written, then Chase will apologize for helping to
maintain that crime against humanity and pay restitution
into a trust fund to benefit heirs of Africans enslaved in
America."
In early September Chase agreed to permit an
investigator who had probed Swiss banks for their
Holocaust-era activities to review its records to
determine how Chase had helped the Nazis. Chase
should immediately open its archives to slavery
researchers as well. Only then will a full record be
available to determine what reparations, if any, should
be paid.
John Friedman
E-mail this story to a friend.
John Friedman is a journalist and documentary
filmmaker whose latest film, Stealing the Fire, on the
nuclear underground, is nearing completion.
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