Complicity - How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery

The North’s profit from—indeed, dependence on—slavery has mostly been a shameful and well-kept secret…until now. Complicity reveals the cruel truth about the lucrative Triangle Trade of molasses, rum, and slaves that linked the North to the West Indies and Africa. It also discloses the reality of Northern empires built on …

The North’s profit from—indeed, dependence on—slavery has mostly been a shameful and well-kept secret…until now. Complicity reveals the cruel truth about the lucrative Triangle Trade of molasses, rum, and slaves that linked the North to the West Indies and Africa. It also discloses the reality of Northern empires built on tainted profits—run, in some cases, by abolitionists—and exposes the thousand-acre plantations that existed in towns such as Salem, Connecticut. Here, too, are eye-opening accounts of the individuals who profited directly from slavery far from the Mason-Dixon line. Culled from long-ignored documents and reports—and bolstered by rarely seen photos, publications, maps, and period drawings—Complicity is a fascinating and sobering work that actually does what so many books pretend to do: shed light on America’s past. Expanded from the “celebrated” Hartford Courant special report that the Connecticut Department of Education sent to every middle and high school.

The information in this title is presented by three veteran journalists for the Hartford Courant, America’s oldest continuous publication. (We wonder why the 16th President didn’t close their presses and incarcerate their editors?) This title was first published in 2005 and we are most surprised that it’s information is still accessible. Some have likened this book to yankee Marxists killing their own!