Brutality & Avarice

The items in this section have been selected to show the early roots of capitalist avarice/greed in the Atlantic World. The items not only highlight that slavery was seen as an everyday business in its accounting practices and uses of brutality to keep enslaved people in their places, but also gives a sense of the racist philosophies that maintained and even used the Bible to rationalize the “need” for the institution.

Ship’s Cargo Invoices (Two Copies) of Merchandise on the Voyage of the Brig Dauphin

1789

Sidney Lapidus Slavery and Abolition Collection

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.