Brown Brothers Harriman’s slavery links exposed by Liverpool campaign
Brown Brothers Harriman’s slavery links exposed by Liverpool campaign
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Liverpool Black History Research Group accused America’s oldest private investment bank of sanitising its history. The links between the founders of the US’s most prestigious investment bank and enslavement have come under scrutiny after a campaign by historians in Liverpool.
![[Laurence Westgaph headshot looking at the camera wearing a jacket over a light blue T-shirt ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d55eb24f21b05216476b09e693b16cd3cf387c1a/0_233_1399_839/master/1399.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) is Wall Street’s oldest private investment bank, known for the role alumni have played in shaping US politics and the global economic order, with former partners including Prescott Bush, patriarch of the Bush political dynasty.
The bank’s roots go back to the early 19th century, when an Irish merchant, Alexander Brown, migrated to Baltimore and moved into banking, having made a fortune in the cotton trade. His sons spread out to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Liverpool in the UK, establishing businesses including Brown Brothers & Co, the institution which, through a merger, would become Brown Brothers Harriman in 1931.
In an account of its history on its website titled “The Cotton Trade”, the bank had claimed “there is no known instance of slaves being owned by members of the Brown family”, who they also described as “firmly coalesced behind abolition” in the years leading up to the American civil war.
However, research by the Liverpool Black History Research Group (LBHRG), whose members include broadcaster Laurence Westgaph , revealed a different story. “Brown Brothers Harriman is a really important bank, their story is modern capitalism as we know it and the rise of America as a superpower,” Westgaph said.
