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Corporations, companies, and institutions whose business empire began during colonization, especially those that participated in the slave trade or whose founding partners owned enslaved Africans.

Historical involvement

Ties to the slave economy

Many companies, financial and chartered corporations had direct or indirect ties to the transatlantic slave trade, plantation economies, colonial expansion, or the ownership of enslaved people by their founders and partners. Their involvement ranged widely — from actively transporting enslaved Africans to offering insurance, funding plantations, processing commodities produced by enslaved people, or having founders who personally enslaved people.

Below are notable examples identified in several supporting countries.

Direct participation

Ships, ports, and trading houses that transported and sold enslaved Africans.

Plantation capital

Banks and insurers that financed plantations, held enslaved people as collateral, or underwrote slave voyages.

Commodity processing

Manufacturers and merchants processing or selling goods produced through enslaved labor, such as cotton and tobacco.

Britain & United States

Banking, Trade & Industry

Brown Brothers Harriman

Historians such as Sven Beckert and Zachary Karabell discovered that the Brown family accumulated wealth via the cotton trade and, through foreclosing on plantation mortgages, owned at least 13 plantations and hundreds of enslaved individuals in the 1840s.

JPMorgan Chase

In 2005, the bank publicly confirmed that earlier banks in Louisiana had used enslaved people as collateral, gaining ownership of about 1,250 enslaved individuals through loan defaults, and later profiting from their sale.

Wells Fargo & Co.

Founded in California after the Civil War; its founders are not widely recognized as slaveholders. Some early financial institutions later folded into Wells Fargo have been identified as having historical connections to finance during the era of slavery.

Brooks Brothers

Historians have documented that Brooks Brothers sold clothing made from slave-grown cotton and produced ready-made garments for enslaved people on plantations. The company publicly acknowledged these ties in 2020.

Bank of England

Research by historians and the Bank itself has identified numerous governors and directors who were slave owners or beneficiaries of slavery, though the Bank itself did not own plantations.

Bank of America

Corporate reviews found that predecessor banks in several Southern states accepted enslaved people as collateral and financed slaveholding enterprises.

Citigroup

Researchers have connected predecessor banks, especially in New York and the South, to financing cotton, plantation commerce, and slaveholders. Citigroup has acknowledged historical links through predecessor companies.

Royal Bank of Scotland

Historians have identified directors and shareholders who received compensation when slavery was abolished in the British Empire and who held plantation interests in the Caribbean.

HSBC

Established in 1865 following British emancipation. Historians link it to imperial trade networks and slavery, although direct evidence of the founder's slaveholding is limited.

Lloyds Banking Group

Clear evidence from predecessor banks shows that several past institutions and their directors were involved in slavery and received compensation for slave owners after emancipation.

Arbuthnot Latham

Evidence exists of partners and clients associated with plantation wealth, although the firm's direct involvement is less thoroughly documented than that of larger British banks.

Greene King

Clear evidence shows that founder Benjamin Greene owned plantations in the Caribbean and enslaved people. Greene King issued a public apology in 2021 after historical research uncovered these connections.

New York Stock Exchange

Historians point out that many listed securities, member firms, and early Wall Street fortunes were linked to slavery, cotton, and plantation finance, though the NYSE itself was not a slaveholding enterprise.

Barclays

Historical research commissioned by Barclays found that founders and major partners were connected to slave ownership and benefited from compensation paid after abolition.

N M Rothschild & Sons

During the era of slavery, the firm financed governments and commodity trade. Limited evidence links the family to plantation ownership, though some studies indicate loans to compensate slave owners following abolition.

Jack Daniel's

The company acknowledges the founder-era link to Nathan "Nearest" Green, an enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel whiskey-making techniques. The brand originated in a slaveholding Tennessee setting.

Norfolk Southern

Many Southern railroads relied on enslaved labor for construction and maintenance before the Civil War. Modern Norfolk Southern now includes some of these predecessor lines.

CSX Corporation

Like Norfolk Southern, several earlier railroads in the antebellum South depended on leased or enslaved labor.

Union Pacific

Founded during the Civil War in the North; historians focus more on immigrant labor and Indigenous dispossession than slavery.

FleetBoston

Strong evidence links predecessor New England banks to the Atlantic slave economy and the cotton trade. FleetBoston was later acquired by Bank of America.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

Tobacco wealth in the American South was founded after emancipation but was deeply rooted in centuries of enslaved labor, though R.J. Reynolds is not generally identified as a slaveholding tobacco baron on the scale of antebellum planters.

Lloyd's of London

Historians have documented that Lloyd's underwriters provided insurance for slave ships and voyages. In 2020, Lloyd's publicly issued an apology for its involvement in the slave trade.

New York Life

Company archives showed that earlier policies covered enslaved individuals as property and processed claims for slaveholders. The company issued a formal apology in 2005.

American International Group (AIG)

Although founded in 1919, AIG is linked to slavery only through the acquisitions of older insurance firms that engaged in slavery-era activities.

France

Banking & Colonial Commerce

Banque de France

When established in 1800 under Napoleon Bonaparte, several major investors came from merchant families engaged in French colonial trade, including commerce related to Saint-Domingue, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and other slave colonies.

Caisse d'Escompte

The Magon family of Saint-Malo, a prominent slave-trading dynasty, was one of the main private shareholders in the early Caisse d'Escompte, amassing wealth through the Atlantic trade including slave trading and plantation investments.

Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC)

Established in 1859 after abolition, so not directly linked to slavery. Scholars have found CIC and related French investors became heavily involved in Haiti's financial sector, many coming from families that owned slaves or received abolition compensation.

Crédit Lyonnais

Established in 1863 by Henri Germain, well after abolition, but like most major French banks of the late 19th century, it funded colonial trade and enterprises in former slave colonies.

Société Générale

Established in 1864, sixteen years after France abolished slavery. No widely accepted evidence of direct slave ownership or financing, though researchers note colonial wealth from earlier slave economies filtered into the bank.

BNP Paribas

Some predecessor institutions operated in French colonies and financed colonial commerce. Researchers have noted that colonial wealth from earlier slave economies circulated through its French financial markets.

Spain

Colonial Finance

Banco Hispano Colonial

Founded in 1876 by Antonio López y López and others whose fortunes were closely tied to Cuba. The bank's purpose was explicitly tied to financing Spanish colonial interests in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, and emerged from networks of Cuban planters and anti-abolitionist interests.

Banco de Barcelona

Several key investors and directors were former slave traders or individuals whose fortunes were built in Cuba, a prime example historians cite of how slave-trade profits entered Spain's early banking sector.

Banco de Cádiz

Cádiz was one of Spain's principal Atlantic commerce ports. Historians have documented former slave traders and merchants involved in the Cuba trade among those connected to the bank's foundation.

Crédito Mercantil

Founded and controlled by Antonio López y López. Historians frequently cite López as an entrepreneur whose wealth from Cuba played a significant role in founding major Spanish financial institutions.

Banco de España

No direct evidence of involvement in slave trading, but numerous nineteenth-century Spanish financiers and elites who invested in institutions linked to the Bank of Spain profited from Cuba's plantation economy.

Banco Santander

Founded in 1857. No evidence Santander itself was founded by slave traders, but it grew during a period when Cuban colonial wealth was an important source of Spanish capital, later expanding into Cuba.

Portugal

Colonial Banking

Banco Nacional Ultramarino

Established in 1864 to serve Portugal's overseas empire as the issuing bank for its colonies, focused on "Colonies, Commerce and Agriculture" across Angola, Mozambique, São Tomé, Cape Verde, Goa, and Macau. Many investors had made their wealth through slave-trading investments.

Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD)

Established in 1876, well after the transatlantic slave trade ended. After acquiring Banco Nacional Ultramarino in 2001, it inherited a history linked to Portugal's colonial financial system.

Banco de Portugal

Founded in 1846 through the merger of Banco de Lisboa and Companhia Confiança Nacional. Nineteenth-century Portuguese finance was intertwined with merchants whose fortunes were connected to Brazil, Angola, and other colonial economies shaped by slavery.

Banco Comercial do Porto

Porto was among Portugal's first commercial banks and played a key role in Atlantic trade, especially with Brazil. Early investors linked to the bank had commercial ties to Brazil during the period of slavery.

Banco de Lisboa

A predecessor of Banco de Portugal, operating during a period when Brazil remained a slave society and Portuguese merchants derived wealth from Brazilian trade shaped by enslaved labor.

The Netherlands

Documented Colonial Finance

ABN AMRO Bank

Formed in 1991 through the merger of ABN and AMRO. In 2022, ABN AMRO commissioned an independent study finding that predecessors Hope & Co. and R. Mees & Zoonen were deeply involved in slavery-related business, and formally apologized.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)

A study by Leiden University historians found that among the 16 main investors who contributed the bank's initial capital in 1814, 11 had direct links to slavery or plantation ownership. The bank issued a formal apology in 2022.

MeesPierson

A modern private bank descended from Hope & Co. and R. Mees & Zoonen. Historical records indicate these predecessor companies financed plantations linked to slavery and brokered insurance for slave ships.

Sweden -> Denmark -> Vatican

Documented Colonial Finance

Sveriges Riksbank

The world's oldest central bank. No evidence links it directly to plantation mortgages or slave-ship insurance, though nineteenth-century Swedish banking benefited from economies connected to slave-produced goods; Sweden compensated slave owners after abolishing Caribbean slavery in St. Barthélemy.

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB)

Formed through the 1972 merger of Stockholms Enskilda Bank and Skandinaviska Banken. No proof of direct financing of slave voyages; its connection is tied to participation in economies that traded slave-produced commodities.

Nationalbanken

Denmark's central bank, founded in 1818 while Denmark still possessed slave colonies. No major study demonstrates it was built on slave-trade capital directly, though researchers note members of Denmark's financial and political elite were involved in colonial commerce.

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola with approval from Pope Paul III. Historians have documented Jesuit ownership of enslaved people, plantation operations, and slave sales, though these are generally not tied to the Vatican Bank or its predecessors.

Role in the TASH mission

Supporting Corporations

These companies, financial institutions, and chartered corporations are important partners in advancing the mission of the Transatlantic Slaves Homecoming and the Door-of-No-Return Standard (TASH Standard), and they play a vital role in supporting remembrance, historical accountability, reconciliation, and cultural restoration.

Our efforts are backed by other organizations that acknowledge the lasting impact of the transatlantic slave trade. They recognize the importance of honoring the millions of African men, women, and children who were forcibly taken from their homes, enslaved, and whose suffering and deaths have never been fully recognized.

TASH Supporting Corporations advance remembrance and restorative justice by observing and promoting the Principles and Commitments of the TASH Standard and by contributing financially and institutionally to the implementation of the Transatlantic Slaves Homecoming initiative, the preservation of the Doors of No Return, historical research, memorial development, educational programs, and cultural restoration projects across Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and other regions connected to the transatlantic slave trade.

TASH Supporting Corporations help strengthen international efforts to preserve sites associated with enslavement and forced displacement, promote historical truth and public awareness, support the respectful recovery and symbolic repatriation of soil and memory from former plantations and sites of enslavement, and contribute to initiatives that restore dignity to victims whose lives, identities, and final resting places were lost to history.

Supporting Companies and institutions also contribute to the continued development and implementation of the TASH Standard by engaging with governments, traditional authorities, descendant communities, academic institutions, memorial organizations, and civil society partners to advance remembrance, reconciliation, historical preservation, and cultural exchange.

Through their support, TASH Supporting Corporations demonstrate a commitment to acknowledging the human impact of the transatlantic slave trade, preserving its historical record, promoting international understanding, and ensuring that the stories, sacrifices, and legacies of enslaved Africans are permanently honored and never forgotten.

Role in the TASH mission

Benefits of Becoming a Supporting Company

As societies around the world continue to confront the legacies of slavery, colonialism, racial injustice, and historical exclusion, companies increasingly recognize the importance of demonstrating responsible corporate citizenship, ethical leadership, and meaningful engagement with affected communities.

The TASH Standard provides a globally recognized framework through which companies can support remembrance, reconciliation, cultural restoration, and historical accountability related to the transatlantic slave trade.

International Benefits

Global standing

Gain recognition as a leader in advancing historical remembrance, reconciliation, and restorative initiatives.
Demonstrate a commitment to corporate values by supporting dignity, inclusion, historical truth, and cultural preservation.
Strengthen Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and corporate responsibility objectives through meaningful engagement with descendant communities and memorial initiatives.
Build trust and strengthen relationships with governments, traditional authorities, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and Afro-descendant communities across Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean.
Contribute to globally significant efforts to preserve and protect the Doors of No Return and other sites connected to the transatlantic slave trade.
Enhance corporate reputation by supporting internationally recognized memorialization and cultural restoration programs.
Gain insight into evolving stakeholder expectations regarding historical accountability, social justice, cultural heritage, and responsible business practices.
Participate in a unique international framework dedicated to restoring dignity to millions of enslaved Africans whose suffering and deaths were never properly acknowledged.

Local Benefits

Community standing

Supporting local heritage preservation, museum development, memorial projects, and educational initiatives related to the history of the transatlantic slave trade.
Strengthening community trust and social legitimacy by demonstrating a commitment to acknowledging historical injustices and supporting reconciliation efforts.
Contributing to cultural tourism, heritage infrastructure, and economic opportunities associated with the preservation of Doors of No Return and related historical sites.
Promoting engagement and dialogue among governments, traditional leaders, descendant communities, academic institutions, and civil society organizations.
Supporting local capacity-building through investments in historical research, documentation, education, and cultural preservation.
Helping preserve important historical sites and collective memory for future generations.
Creating opportunities for collaboration with initiatives that support Afro-descendant engagement, genealogy, cultural exchange, and ancestral reconnection.
Demonstrating tangible support for communities affected by the long-term social, economic, and cultural consequences of the transatlantic slave trade.