Wow! The way this starts hooked me immediately. It changed my perspective. I already want to eat the rich and I am eternally full of rage, but I have been directing some of that rage at the plantation owners, actually I think I will keep some rage there. They could have said "oh maybe I need a better business model" and they didn't. Still though the wealthy controlled us then and they control us now.
This books explains it all in easy to understand, yet beautiful and detailed, sentences.
I was saying things like "YES" and "Amen!:" out loud.

3/5 stars (audiobook),

Important piece about the wealth of slavery. Slave owners are often seen as the biggest blameholder for slavery but they were just a small part of the large system that was creating and establishing the economic wealth of the United States. When slavery ended, plantation owners lost their primary source of revenue, while the banks and companies they sold products to remained stable and found other investments. Reparations should exist, but how can you possibly pay back the lives lost and the value of money multiplied by generations of wealth?

This essay from Montero allows us to think critically about the grand picture of slavery that is not taught in U.S. public schools. It was unclear who the target audience of this piece was.

Thank you Grand Central Publishing for the advance reader copy. This is my honest review.

A blistering tale of how the rich got richer. This book explains how both the south and the north profited from slavery and how those captains of industry built wealth that continues to manifest even today. This book is well researched and incredibly detailed, drawing clear lines between the origins of slavery to present day. It's a fascinating read that at times feels overly academic, but in the end, provides much needed intel on our country's history.

The Stolen Wealth of Slavery is a welcome intervention into current discussions of systemic racism. Montero answers how exploitation and violence are baked into the very foundations of American society by following the money—the massive fortunes built by Black labor under enslavement. Montero thereby makes a case for reparations by tracking the less commonly acknowledged beneficiaries of American enslavement: the Northern bankers and businessmen who profited by financing and selling Southern exports without getting their hands dirty via direct contact with the violent exploitation of the plantation system.

The ensuing argument is well-researched and accessibly written for non-academic audiences, if sometimes dense in accounting the details. While I struggled with the density at times, it is to be expected in a history text. Professional and amateur historians alike will especially benefit from reading this book. It is well-timed to meet the current moment.

This book methodically and interestingly makes the case for reparations. The changing narrative of history in which wealth flowed to northern bankers (in particular, Citibank) complicates previously easily digestible thought that southern plantation owners were the chief inheritors of wealth. The section about the colonization effort was also enlightening and makes sense that it came from a deeply racist belief that people of different skin colors could not live together. Corporations are symptom of capitalism and will only do what's best for their bottom line, particularly if that means whitewashing the past.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback

An interesting read centered around the Northern men who benefited the most from the transatlantic slave trade