Bad Capitalism: The Economics of American Slavery

Summary

Money and Wealth With John Hope Bryant: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Bad Capitalism: The Economics of American Slavery
Release Date: April 3, 2025
Host: John Hope Bryant
Produced by: The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio

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Introduction

In this thought-provoking episode, John Hope Bryant delves into the intricate relationship between capitalism and American slavery, categorizing capitalism into "good" and "bad." Through a comprehensive analysis backed by compelling statistics and personal anecdotes, Bryant elucidates how systemic economic structures have perpetuated wealth disparities, particularly within the Black community.

Understanding Bad Capitalism: Definition and Context

Bryant begins by defining bad capitalism as a system where one party benefits at the expense of another, contrasting it with good capitalism, where mutual benefit is emphasized. He asserts, “Good capitalism is where I benefit and you benefit more. Bad capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a price for it” (00:45).

The Economic Impact of American Slavery by the Numbers

Bryant presents eight critical statistics that highlight the economic ramifications of slavery in America:

1. $42 Trillion: The estimated value of stolen labor from enslaved Africans, translating to over 222 million hours of forced labor (02:20).

2. 4 Million: The number of enslaved people in the United States by 1860, representing nearly 13% of the total population at that time (02:20).

3. $3 Billion: The total market value of enslaved people in 1860, equivalent to over $100 billion today (16:20).

4. 60%: The percentage of U.S. exports generated by cotton in 1860, underscoring slavery's role in the national economy (16:20).

5. 250 Years: The duration of slavery in America from 1619 to 1865, followed by a century of legal segregation (16:20).

6. Families Owned Slaves: One in four southern U.S. families owned slaves by 1860, concentrating wealth and power among a white elite (16:20).

7. Zero Wages: Enslaved people received no wages, while landowners amassed intergenerational wealth (16:20).

8. Broken Promises: The failed initiative of “40 acres and a mule” which, if fulfilled, could have generated trillions in Black wealth (16:20).

Personal Family History and Its Connection to Slavery

Bryant shares poignant stories from his lineage, connecting personal family history to the broader narrative of slavery. He mentions his second great grandparents, Mary Scott and George Young, who were enslaved in Mississippi. George served in Abraham Lincoln's black troops, embodying the fight for liberation (02:20). This personal connection underscores the enduring legacy of slavery on individual lives and communities.

Slavery as a Business Model: Enslaved People as Assets

Bryant emphasizes that enslaved individuals were treated as valuable financial assets, akin to property. He states, “Enslaved people were bought, sold, traded, mortgaged, insured, just like property” (35:16). This commodification facilitated the growth of banks, insurance companies, and Wall Street firms, which leveraged slave-backed assets to amass vast wealth.

Intergenerational Wealth Gap Created by Slavery and Discrimination

The episode explores how slavery set the foundation for the racial wealth gap still evident today. White families accumulated assets and intergenerational wealth, while Black families were left with generational debt, exclusion, and trauma. Bryant notes, “The average black family's wealth today is about 10% of the average white family's” (45:00), highlighting a gap engineered over centuries.

The Broken Promise of "40 Acres and a Mule"

Bryant recounts the historical promise of “40 acres and a mule” made to formerly enslaved individuals, which was largely unfulfilled. This broken promise prevented Black families from acquiring land and building wealth post-emancipation. He explains, “General Sherman... authorized Field Action 15 to provide 40 acres to every... 18,000 families... [but] it was reverted” (16:20).

Modern Consequences and the Racial Wealth Gap Today

Today's racial wealth gap is a direct consequence of historical injustices. Bryant presents modern statistics:

• White Median Household Wealth (2022): Approximately $188,000.
• Black Median Household Wealth (2022): Approximately $24,000 (49:42).

He underscores that this disparity is not accidental but a result of systemic policies like redlining and discriminatory lending practices that excluded Black Americans from wealth-building opportunities.

Operation Hope: Bridging the Wealth Gap

Bryant discusses the mission of Operation Hope, his organization dedicated to closing the wealth gap through initiatives such as improving credit scores, encouraging homeownership, and expanding access to capital. He emphasizes, “Financial literacy is liberation. It is a civil rights issue of this generation” (49:42). Operation Hope aims to empower not only Black communities but also other marginalized groups, fostering economic equality and prosperity.

Conclusion and Call to Action

In closing, Bryant reiterates the importance of financial literacy and proactive wealth-building strategies as tools for empowerment and societal healing. He urges listeners to move beyond anger and focus on constructive actions to bridge economic divides. Bryant states, “When you understand that black people were once literally assets, you realize the mission today is about reclaiming ownership, equity, wealth and ourselves” (58:00).

He encourages the audience to engage with his resources, including his book Financial Literacy for All and the extensive library of podcast episodes available for those seeking to transform their financial lives.

Notable Quotes

• John Hope Bryant (02:20): “Human beings were the single largest financial asset in the US before the Civil War.”
• John Hope Bryant (35:16): “Enslaved people were bought, sold, traded, mortgaged, insured, just like property.”
• John Hope Bryant (49:42): “Financial literacy is liberation. It is a civil rights issue of this generation.”

Final Thoughts

This episode of Money and Wealth With John Hope Bryant offers a profound exploration of the economic foundations and lasting impacts of American slavery. Through detailed analysis and personal storytelling, Bryant provides listeners with a deeper understanding of the systemic barriers that have perpetuated wealth disparities and offers a compelling vision for financial empowerment and societal healing.

For more insights and practical advice on building wealth and achieving financial freedom, subscribe to Money and Wealth With John Hope Bryant on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[John O'Bryant]

Jeho Black Friday in Primavera, the Home Depotes Pormenos de Tres Porso dos Ventinue Black Friday and Primaveras Stal Dies d'abril in the Home Depot.

[Shannon Schuyler]

In a world of economic uncertainty and workplace transformation, learn to lead by example from visionary C suite executives like Shannon Schuyler of PwC and Will Pearson of iHeartMedia. The good teacher explains the great teacher inspires.

[John O'Bryant]

Don't always leave your team to do the work that's been the most important part of how to lead by example.

[Shannon Schuyler]

Listen to leading by Example executives making an impact on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad is, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2, starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Charlamagne Tha God]

Peace to the planet. I go by the name of Charlamagne Tha God. And guess what? I can't wait to see y'all at the third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right, we're coming Back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April 26th at Pullman Yards. And it's hosted by none other than Decisions, Decisions, Mandy B and Weezy. Okay, we got the R and B Market Money podcast with Tank and J. Valentine. We got the Woman Evolved podcast with Sarah Jake Roberts. We got Good Moms, Bad Choices. Carrie Champion will be there with Her Neck and Sports podcast and the Trap Nerds podcast with more to be announced. And of course, it's bigger than podcast. We're bringing the Black Effect Marketplace with black owned businesses, plus the food truck court to keep you fed while you visit us. All right, listen, you don't want to miss this. Tap in and grab your Tickets [e-mail] podcast festival.

[John O'Bryant]

Welcome to Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, hey. This is John Hope Bryant and this is the Money and Wealth podcast series, season two. I'm John O'Brien, entrepreneur, and as my T shirt says, built by failure. I'm an entrepreneur and a builder of businesses and hopefully a contributor in building a builder of you. This is a unique episode in this series and I need to ask your Assistance. What do I mean by that? I'm going to get into a deep topic, the economics of American slavery. Bad capitalism by the numbers. I tell everybody I'm a capitalist, right? Black capitalists matter. I'm the people's capitalist. Some people on Wall street and in corporate America consider me, or they've called me, a conscience on capitalism, which I consider a great compliment. But there's good capitalism and there's bad capitalism. And I try to teach you good capitalism in my book Financial Literacy for All, which is now technically, factually a bestseller for one year, number one bestseller in business finance. I guess maybe the first time an African American has ever been a number one bestseller in business finance for a full year in America. But that book is now in the record books and this podcast and the work of Operation Hope. I'm trying to teach you how this game works, and I'm trying to teach you the basics, the tenants, the framework for good capitalism, and that good capitalism is where I benefit and you benefit more. Bad capitalism is where I benefit and you pay a price for it. Slavery is an example of bad capitalism. Pimping and prostitution is an example of bad capitalism. Robbing and murder and mayhem are examples of bad capitalism. We can go on and on and on about examples of folks separating you from your wallet in Wall street during the mortgage crisis was an example of bad capitalism. Whether it's Main street or your Street, I can give you many examples of bad capitalism. I want you to do me a favor on this particular example, and that is to not get emotional. I need you to not get angry. I need you to not act on what I'm saying. It's important that we heal as a nation. One of my books I'm going to write, my next book is probably going to be Inclusive Capitalism, Inclusive Economics, which is a framework I've sort of helped to pioneer in the country. And the next book will be the Bridging of an Unhealed America. One of the ways I live is to talk without being offensive, to listen without being defensive, and always to leave even your adversary with their dignity, because if you don't, they'll spend the rest of their life working to make you miserable. It becomes personal. And one of the problems with this country is we've never healed from our pain, from our trauma, ever. Those who perpetrated against us never healed. And those who were the victims certainly have never healed. That's why I think there's rampant, undiagnosed depression that affects self esteem. But in order for me to unpack this and for you to understand how the system works and how to thus take the mystery out of why you may or may not be successful and as a group, why people have not been successful. And as a country wide, this country has been both successful and unsuccessful and what it takes for us to then be successful in the future, which is really what this is about, which is a new framework for how we go forward. I've written business plans for America. I've tied it to Dr. King's 57th anniversary memorial of his assassination, April 4, 1968. That date is when he was assassinated. At 6pm Central Time, we have an event called dream forward with Dr. Bernice King and Ambassador Young, myself and Mayor Memphis Mayor Paul Young, framing the future with Republicans and Democrats and blacks and whites and rich and poor, insertive and liberal and rural and urban. Urban people working together. So this is not a blame game. People who are a lot, as a friend of mine told me, actually told Ambassador Young I was with him. It's not your fault that I was born white and I may have a history in my family of slave ownership. That's not my fault. It's not your fault that you're born black and born, you know, you know, poor or whatever, or whatever your situation is, in other words. But it's our responsibility now to heal, to bridge to each other, to figure out how we go forward together. Okay, enough of the speeches. Let me get into why you're in this podcast. So it's very important to me that you don't leave this podcast and start punching your fist in the air and all this kind of stuff and being angry. Whatever decision you make emotionally is going to be a bad decision, right? So I want you to be. I want you to be to this, to give you peace. I want this to give you solace. I want this to give you understanding of how you got here. There's nothing wrong with you. You're not dumb and you're not stupid. It's what you don't know that you don't know that's killing you. But you think you know that's the worst situation. And you've been bamboozled. Malcolm X says you've been bamboozled. You've been tricked, you've been fooled, you've been hoodwinked. And so whether you're black and brown or you're African American specifically, and you are listening to this or watching this, and you now know what happened to you, or whether you're white, listening or watching this and now understand what happened through you or as a result of your descendants. I don't want you feeling a certain kind of way. I'm not trying to guilt trip here. That's not the point. And I certainly don't want people to go on a rant about stuff they cannot control. One of the things that I cover in the business plan for America, specifically the African American plan, that even if you got what you wanted, even if you got what you wanted, you may not want what you got again. I'm not going to get into that right now. I'll do that in a separate podcast. But black people have been reliant upon the government for way too long. I mean, it was required, it was a necessary situation after the slavery. Clearly it was necessary during the civil rights movement, Reconstruction. In the civil rights movement, clearly we needed the right to vote. You needed the right for access. It was separate and unequal facilities. It was literally a white water fountain and a black water fountain. This is, you know, in our lifetime, in our parents lifetime. And so you needed the government for that. And for some time after that you needed the government. Affirmative action, which ultimately benefited white women, by the way. All good, but it was designed for blacks. That was in the 70s. Okay, but. But we've probably overstayed our welcome as with the government as a primary funder of our lives. And even, as you'll see in the graph I issue in the business plan for America, even if the government does everything in its power, even if it decided to be benevolent, and even if it decided to give you support of all kinds, including welfare, maybe a stab at reparations, whatever that's only equal to, is estimated between 300 billion and $600 billion. And if you unleash the free enterprise system, which I keep talking about, raising credit scores alone is worth $750 billion. Hello, 150 billion more than the government's assistance and homeownership is worth 800 billion. And buying some of these businesses that are transferring from baby boomers, that are profitable is worth a trillion. And that hasn't even got to the power of artificial intelligence, which is worth another almost trillion. So let's focus on how we repair the breach in our lifetime, do what we can to move forward. But let's start with the history and understand the numbers. So if you are watching, listening, or watching this with family and friends, you want somebody to go back and listen to that, you want to go back and listen to it again your limited time, or you want other friends to watch or listen to this either through the podcast And I encourage all your friends to subscribe to this podcast. It's one of the top 5% podcasts, by the way, in the country, I'm now told, not just at iheart or Black Effect in the country, which is fantastic. Thank you. You can go to minute nine. Okay. If you want them to just cut to the chase. Okay, so here's the numbers. Let me start with the numbers. Then I'm going to give you the Unpack the history. So number number one, there are eight numbers you should know. 42 trillion. This is the estimated value of stolen labor from enslaved Africans. In today's dollars, enslaved Africans Contributed More than 222 million hours of forced labor labor over centuries. Modern economists estimate the economic value at $42 trillion, showcasing the generational theft of wealth. Now, there's no emotions in what I just said. I'm just giving you the numbers. Right. I like math because it doesn't have an opinion. Okay, number two, four million. Here's the second number you should know. The number of enslaved people in the United States by 1860. This included my second great grandmother and my second great grandfather, who I might unpack their stories in the course of this podcast. Mary Scott, my second great grandmother. Well, start with the elders. George Young, born in the 1830s, who was enslaved. My second great grandfather on my dad's side, Johnny Will Smith, who ultimately became One of the 7,000 officers in Abraham Lincoln's black troops, amongst his black troops that were fighting for liberation tied to the Emancipation Proclamation, which was behind enemy lines. So that's where I got my freedom fighting bones from. I guess my social justice bones from. And this is on my dad's side. And so George Young was a freedom fighter. And then my grandfather, R.B. smith. I put this in my book. I believe it's a memo or up from nothing. He was a sharecropper. My dad was a business owner and I'm an entrepreneur on my mother's side. Mary Scott, my second great grandmother on my mother's side, Juanita Smith, got rest their souls, my mama and my dad. Mary Scott was born in the 1840s. She was also enslaved. She was in Mississippi, I think. Yeah, George was also in Mississippi also, but he served in the military in Memphis, Tennessee, protecting Memphis. Same city where Dr. King was assassinated, by the way. And with Mary Scott, she was born into slavery and in her later elderly years, in which before she passed on to glory, she had owned a home, actually, of course, escaped slavery and ultimately owned a home, had a border. A renter who lived with her and she had a home with no mortgage on it. Isn't that interesting? And to fast forward that story, my grandmother had a shotgun shack. Vesta Murray Vesta Murray in East St. Louis. My mother ended up buying and selling seven homes and I ended up owning 700 homes, becoming the largest owner of of single family rental homes in America by a person who happened to be a minority. Not bad transition. So if I can do it up from nothing, you can do it. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with.

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[John O'Bryant]

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[Gilbert King]

See full [e-mail] Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[John O'Bryant]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long silent voices from his past came.

[John O'Bryant]

Forward and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad, it's oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy.

[Jeremy Scott]

Jeremy, I want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9th on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[John O'Bryant]

4 million is the number two number. This is the number of of enslaved people in the US by 1860 is represented nearly 13% of the total population in 1860 worth more in total value than all the factories and railroads in America at the time. Think about that number. 3. 3 billion. This is the total market value of enslaved people in $1860 equivalent to over 100 billion in today's money. Human beings were the single largest financial asset in the US before the Civil War. Again, I'm going to get into this here in a minute, but these numbers are absolutely clarifying. Of course they're shocking. But this is real. There's no flavor put on this. This is just the facts. Human beings were the single largest financial asset in the US before the Civil War. Specifically African American human beings. I'm gonna tell you why, and it's not for the reasons that you may think. It wasn't cruelty or somebody had animus against you. They hated black people, had nothing to do with that. In fact, and I may do this in a separate podcast, I'll run out of time. I think on this one, the word white is a made up word. The racial word white is a made up word. That's right. That blacks and whites were both indentured servants, poor blacks and whites and got along together. So and this concept of, of black people being dumb and stupid, I'm going to unpack that in this podcast today. That's also incorrect. In fact, it's the opposite is true. So enslaved people, black enslaved people, because white indigenous servants were ultimately released from their bondage, were the biggest asset in American history before the Civil War. The fourth number you should know is 60%. 60% of all U.S. exports. This is the percentage of U.S. exports generated by cotton. In 1860, cotton was called king cotton for a reason. Slavery powered cotton production was the backbone of the US economy. The global textile industry depended heavily on American cotton grown by enslaved labor. In fact, one of the first millionaires in America was a financier in the import export business in New York City, so way a long ways from cotton picking fields right in the South. But he was part of the chain of economic activity that got this stuff converted and transported and financed and transported to foreign ports. And he became a millionaire as a result of that activity. He wasn't the first millionaire, but was one of the first. And he again is result of King Cotton, result of slavery number five, 250 years. This is the length of time that slavery existed in America. From 1619, Jamestown, Virginia in 1865, the Freedmen's bank, which I love to reference as you may or may not know, I'm responsible, me and operational responsible for the renaming, inspiring the renaming of the Freedmen's bank building at the Treasury Annex in Washington D.C. across from the White House where I was at the Nobles at the White House. At the Treasury Department this week, meeting with Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessant. I want to say Bessant because it's French, but it's Scott Bessant. That's the way he says it. And actually Secretary of the treasury and I got to work on financial literacy issues together. So we found some common ground. And so that building is across the street. He's a good man. I've known him for a decade and so I think I can work with him on this topic on a bipartisan basis. Across the street is the Freedmen's bank building that was charted in 1865. Frederick Douglass tried to run it. It's another story for another time. So that's 10 generations length of flavery. 1816, 19 to 1865. Right? That's 10 generations of people born, lived and died in bondage. 10 generations without pay, rights or economic opportunity. Now you're starting to see why I gave you a preamble. Don't get upset when you're listening to this podcast. I want you to be educated. Step over mess and not in it. Don't rearrange the deck chairs in the Titanic. Don't rearrange the Titanic. And the ship is sinking. All right, you're picking drapes, right? I want you to win the war and not just the battle. Don't get angry, get even. Right? Win, succeed. Number number six zero. These are the wages paid to enslaved people. While landowners accumulated intergenerational wealth. Black families accumulated generational debt, exclusion and of course, trauma. And I keep saying that I think that today African Americans are traumatized. I think that we have generational low self esteem, generational depression. It just like seeps into our situation. It's different from African Caribbeans and African Africans is a different vibe. Like black African Americans have high. This is my. I observe life. I'm very nosy. I observe life and I've deserved that. African Americans have very high confidence because they're incredibly competent. They've mastered the game of arts, master the game of sports, master the game of public policy, mastered the game of church, which was the first real leaders in the black community in spite of all the slavery and all this other stuff. We're incredibly confident because we're incredibly competent. If you're black in America, you'll be twice as smart, twice as intelligent, twice as well at risk, twice as early, stay up twice as late, be twice as good at whatever your job is or you won't have it. But we have low self esteem because if I don't like me, I'm not going to like you. If I don't feel good about me, I'm not going to feel good about you. Don't respect me. Don't expect me to respect you. If I don't love me, I don't have a clue how to love you. And if I don't have a purpose in my life, I'll make your life a living hell. Whatever goes around comes around. There's a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is economic. Being poor is a disabling frame of mind, a depressed condition of our spirit. And we must vow never ever, ever to be poor again. But I think that this experience beat the self esteem out of us because they had to have us to sort of cooperate. So they didn't want a bunch of folks rolling around with high confidence and talking back and all that stuff that didn't work. So they had to beat the self esteem out of us. I'm going to get into how that happened at the moment. I might get into it as I need to get out of these numbers and get into the story because I get so wrapped up in this. The 45 minutes can go like that. I want to get you get this lesson in your head so you can tell me in comments as you listen to this whether there's something you want me to go deeper in and I'll do a part two and I will go deeper. But I'm trying to give you the high notes here. And that is a very important distinction that black Americans have tend to have. There's exceptions to every rule but high self esteem. So high confidence and lower levels of self esteem. And Africans from Africa, recent arrivals, arrivals in this country, immigrants and African Caribbeans tend to have higher levels of self esteem. They have intact families. They see lawyers, doctors, bankers, prime ministers, robbers, criminals. Everybody looks black for where they came from. And this was recent. They have intact families. So they have higher self esteem but lower levels of confidence because they didn't succeed in one of the biggest market economies in the world, the United States of America. And to show you that blacks can do anything, I mean if we say something's cool, as in we make culture cool, period, if we say something's cool, it's cool in Tibet, it's cool in North Korea, it's cool in China, it's cool anywhere in the world. If we say it's cool, if we say something is dull and dunce and backwards, it is dumb dull and backwards anywhere in the world. Shaetra and I were just in Singapore and Indonesia and they're playing black music all the way over there. Sometimes there was language barriers, but that was not with the music and with the culture. So we can do anything, right? But we were held back. Number seven. One in four. Number six was zero. Okay. Families in the U.S. in the U.S. south who owned slaves by 1860, one in four families. This concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a white elite laid the groundwork for the racial wealth gap that persists today. One in four families in the south owned slaves. Number eight. Forty acres and a mule. A broken promise. General Sherman, Special Field Action 15 briefly promised land redistribution. This was signed in Savannah, Georgia, not very far from where I'm at now in the American south after the Civil War. It was signed in the presence of 20 former black ministers or 20 black ministers, former slave people, who were asked, what do you want after slavery, they didn't ask for welfare. They didn't ask for a handout. They asked for land they wanted to do for themselves. And General Sherman, Secretary of State Sherman or General Sherman, on behalf of Lincoln, authorized Field Action 15 to provide 40 acres to every of. To 18,000 families who were fighting the good fight. This would have. Technically, this would have been my second great grandfather who had qualified also. This was 40 acres, 400,000 acres, give or take, in total for 18,000 black families. And that sounds like a lot, but you compare that to the Homestead act, which was passed in 1862 during the war, and that was for 270 million acres. So it looks like the math is 40 acres times 18,000 families, about 720,000 acres, give or take. Okay. And that was reverted. That was taken from blacks the year or two after it was awarded when Lincoln was assassinated. But in 1862, which were years before this, because this was 1865, you had the Homestead act that applied nationwide, not just in the. In the south. It was 270 million acres. Ultimately, to one point, I think it was 1.9 million plots given to families. That accounts for 10% of all land today. And the government created, like, agricultural support networks of, call it affirmative action, of workers from the federal government whose job it was to teach these new farmers, who happen to be 99% white, by the way. 99% and change. Because there's only 6,000 plots of land given to blacks out of 1.9 million plots. Hello. These were bigger plots of land, by the way. I think it was 160 acres on average. So there are people who are actually. Their job was to teach these new white farmers how to become successful. There you go. Call it A further action. Call it whatever you want. That's just a fact. So it was a broken promise. It was revoked by President Andrew Johnson. Real jump. Destroying the opportunity for formerly enslaved people to build wealth. Okay, so I'm going to come back maybe to how that created a generational wealth gap because I want to get into the bad capitalism economics of slavery and where this came from. So let's now go into non emotionally the start. Africans as assets. So full first perception. Africa wasn't. Was somehow full of primitive people. They were unskilled, they were stupid. And white people went there, I guess, I don't know. Because they hated black people. This is just silly. Just to make any sense. The soil, the crops of that day were tobacco and cotton, et cetera. These crops were in land that was hard to farm. And poor white European indentured servants brought over from England mostly, I think at that time, did not want to do this work. Did not. Could not do the work. They fell out and they did. Had no talent for how to turn this dead soil in the south into something that would produce a profitable crop. Well, where do you have people who understand how to take dead soil and bring it to life? Let me think about this. Africa. Because Africa is, well, hot, often humid. So these agricultural geniuses, that's what they were, agricultural geniuses. They weren't primitive people. They were skilled agriculturalists. They were metal workers, they were builders and they were traders. These people were stolen not just for labor, but for their knowledge and expertise in land cultivation. Economic rationale. Enslaved Africans were considered prime labor assets for building the American economy, particularly in the South. Slavery wasn't random. It was targeted asset extraction. And they brought slaves here, many of them lost in the middle passage. Those that got here. And I don't want to get too far in the story because this is part of another podcast I'll do separate from this to break down how race is in this example was made up and was a farce and was really hiding the ball for power and position in the world and got poor whites and poor blacks to fight with each other from then to now. And I was all distracted on this alternate topic, which racism is real, but it's really about power, money and position in the world and it always has been. But just to underscore this point here, blacks and whites in early 1600s in Jamestown, Virginia were friends and they ran away together. And you know, there's bakers, bankers rebellion if you want to go study that. Okay, so that. Put that aside for a moment. Okay. So this whole Concept that blacks and whites were enemies or only blacks were enslaved. Enslavement came after indigenous servitude, by the way. That's just wrong. But let me jump over that. Get to the meat of this matter. So you had these big burly black men who came over here and with a lot of self esteem. They were tribesmen, they were, they were leaders, right? They were in many cases part of royal families. They were really highly skilled and knowledgeable and high self esteem and they were protecting their family. Well, how do you break that up? You take the kids and you separate them and you sell them and move them in different directions. Now you're losing hope and you hold down the wife maybe and you abuse her. I'm trying to, I'm not to trigger you. I'm just trying to get you to understand. Until the man who's burly as you hold him down can't protect her and at some point he gives up. That's what they wanted. They wanted basically a human robot. Now let me. So I got over that cruelty part. I won't go any more to that because it's disgusting, it's horrible. But I'm trying to get you understand how they got control over a group of people. Really they were outnumbered and how that broke their spirits. We're not human beings have a spiritual experience. We're spiritual beings having a human experience. And by the way, it wasn't just white Europeans that we're doing this. How do you get blacks off of the coat? How do you get blacks on the coast of Africa? Okay, I really want, if you're going to talk, get emotional about this. Get emotional fairly. There were black African slave traders where they were originally slave traders. They were tribesmen that were taking other tribes, men as tribes, women as prizes of warfare. And they would take them in and they would trade them. And you had Indian traders, as in from India. You had Arab traders, slave traders, you had European slave traders. Europeans just perfected this art, disgusting art. But everybody was involved with it, including some black Africans. Now did they know they were selling their brothers and sisters off into American slavery? Of course not. They didn't even know was beyond the coast. But in order to get somebody from the middle of Africa to the coast, white folks would have got decimated going in that situation. You needed cooperation from folks who are indigenous. So let's knock it off on everybody's this and somebody's that. There's just good capitalism and bad capitalism. There's good people and there's bad people and there's bumps everywhere. So that was at minute 3029 or in 2829 if you want to have somebody go just to that topic of was it just white Europeans? The answer is no.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley season one.

[John O'Bryant]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long silent voices from his past came.

[John O'Bryant]

Forward and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad, it's oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done their job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy, Jeremy, I.

[Jeremy Scott]

Want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th, subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[John O'Bryant]

Okay, so now let's talk about slavery as a business model. Enslaved people were bought, sold, traded, mortgaged, insured, just like property. Yes, that's accurate. I'll say it again. Enslaved people were bought, sold, traded, mortgaged, insured, just like property. That's why I like owning property now. Properties to own me. I used to be owned. My descendants were owned property. Now I own property. Right? And the family sits on 48 acres in a Sprinter van. We have 40 acres here in Georgia, a few minutes from the busiest airport in the world. I just absolutely love it. And this land we sit on, I'm told was a slave plantation. Either this particular land or land all around here. I'm still researching it, but in that cool full circle. And I'm not mad about it. I don't have to get mad. I just hit you with my Merry express card and knock you out. Just over mess, not in it. So banks, insurance companies, that meant that banks, that any bank that's over 150 years old, certainly 180 year old bank institution had slaves on their books. I'll come back to that for a minute. In a minute. Banks, insurance companies, and even Wall Street Firms built wealth from slave backed assets. In fact, here's one for you. Wall street was actually started in Alabama. That's right, Wall street firms. I don't start naming names, I want you to go picketing people. But there are Wall street firms that are still to this day around that were founded trading crops and other things. They weren't directly involved in slave trade but they were benefiting from it. And they were is where the money was. What was the wealthiest city in 1840? Not just Mississippi, the wealthiest city per capita in the world in 1840. Ish was notches. Mississippi can't make this stuff up. Now the poorest city or one of them in the whole country and maybe the world based on a developed country sort of matrix is Natchez, Mississippi. Because it had a bad business plan built on racism and bad capitalism. And whatever goes around comes around. So if a bank is very old, they would have financed a plantation. That plantation would have had land and livestock and buildings and assets to put up as collateral for a loan, you know, receivables. And they would have had slaves and those slaves would have been put on the books as collateral at the bank. Don't get mad at the bank today. The people at the bank today didn't do it. As I can say, okay, that's like getting mad at your wife because you find out or your husband, you find out their relative or getting brighter, your cousin because you find out their fifth grandfather or whatever was, you know, a rapist or something. They have nothing to do with it. The math. Average prices of an enslaved person in the 1800s was $500 to $1,500. This is equal to 15,000 again I'm telling you this was not. These were not dumb people. These were not people who lacked value. These were people who were very valuable. This equated to 15,000 to $50,000 today per slave. That's why when. And we don't have time for this. But Lincoln experimented for a time with in Washington D.C. of all places of compensating slaveholders for stopping slavery. And he actually gave them give somebody too much fodder here to go going on some rampage for reparations. They gave them reparations. They repaired the damage to their economics in Washington D.C. i forget how much I think it was about. I think it was like 6,000 slaves that were part of this transaction. But if somebody wants to make a case for reparations, it's already been done. It was done to reimburse white slaveholders. But I don't Think that for reasons I'll get to in a minute, I don't think that's a very valuable use of your time today. If you're trying to move forward in your agenda, if you're an academic or you're a policyholder or not policy, you're a policymaker there. If you're a civil rights leader, if you're an activist, this might be your lifelong thing. And if that's your thing, I, you know, I respect that. We need people doing all kinds of social justice work today that, you know, I, I prefer to, to equip you to, to repair the breach by moving forward in one generation than other things. But that's just my approach. But one thing is for sure. We were not dummies and we were not in. We didn't lack value. The estimated total value of enslaved people in 1860, 3.5 to $4 billion. That's over $100 billion today. At one point, enslaved Africans were the single largest financial asset in America. More than the value of railroads, more than factories, more than all land in the South. Part 3. Slavery fueled the entire American economy. The industrial. This is the industries that profited. The industrialization of America. Pre industrial revolution, this agricultural revolution. Cotton. 50% of US exports in 1860, made possible entirely by slave labor. Textiles in the north and in England ran on southern cotton. Imagine everything you wear today that has cotton in it. Most things that you wear have cotton in it. The legacy of that is us all around the world. And the cotton gin that was created and positioned in places like Notches, Mississippi, because slavery was dying. That technology fueled the growth, the regrowth of slavery. The re energized slaveholders and the slave trade and slavery took off because of technology. The cotton gin being in particular piece of that technology. Shipping, banking, insurance and railroads all grew thanks to slavery's capital base. Wall Street's role. Many early investment banks collateralized enslaved people as part of financial instruments. Okay. The economy wasn't just built on slave labor. It was built on the valuation of black lives as financial capital. Okay, so it was not just the labor itself, the free labor. It was the blacks as an asset themselves. You were not a person. You were an asset. Intergenerational consequences. While America got wealthy, black Americans were left with nothing. No land, no wages, no equity. Yes, it's reason to be upset, but just being upset is not a useful emotion. That's why I want you to not be emotional about this. I want you to solve it. See where emotions have got us. See where being angry has got us not very far after. And you die because you're, you know, you're cooking your organs because you're angry. And you, you know, if you're going to pray, why worry? You're going to worry. Why pray? And don't, don't, don't worry yourself to death. Literally worry yourself to death. People in low credit score communities who are all stressed out die at 60 years of age. And people in high credit score communities who are chilling and financially free live to 81 years of age and they're 15 minutes apart. That's my hope Financial literacy index that we've mapped every zip code by credit score today. So it's still an issue today. Like if you stress yourself out, you're just going to die of hypertension, high blood pressure and a few other things. Stress and whatever, heart attacks, et cetera. So I want you to go easy on yourself. You forgive others not because they deserve it, because you do. Love works better than hate. Dr. King once said that hate has within it the seeds of its own destruction. There was hate and evil. So while America has got wealthy and black Americans were left with nothing. No land, no wages, no equity after emancipation, no reparations, no business capital, no seed capital. This is the failure the freedmen's bank, which again, I've talked about in the past in great detail. That's the economic gap we're still trying to close today. Okay, modern takeaways. This isn't about being angry. It's about being aware. When you understand that black people were once literally assets, you realize the mission today is about reclaiming ownership, equity, wealth and ourselves. I mean, Quincy Jones once told me, not one ounce of my self esteem is dependent upon your acceptance of me. I would say it's not what you call me, it's what I answer to that's important. And never answer out of your name. And to argue with a fool proves there are two. As I said earlier, there's a difference between being broke and being poor. Being broke is economic, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind, a depressed condition of your spirit. And you must vow never, ever, ever to be poor again. When you understand that black people were once literally assets, you realize the mission today is about reclaiming ownership of ourselves. Financial literacy is liberation. It is a civil rights issue of this generation. Ownership is the new freedom. Hello, can I get an amen? So let me now before I close, by the way, have you enjoyed this? Give me some dab, give me some love Tell me what's up. Let Me tell you very quickly about that wealth gap that I mentioned. And I went through eight numbers, right? And I went through how those eight numbers broke down. And then I said I would promise to tell you before I left you how that relates today. So here we go. The black versus white racial wealth gap. The numbers from slavery aren't just history. They're economic origin points for the racial wealth gap. Let me connect the dots. So let me go back to number one. The wages were zero for blacks then, so zero inherited wealth now. Enslaved people built trillions of dollars in wealth, but passed down none of it. Meanwhile, white families began accumulating assets, land, businesses, bank accounts during and after slavery. They weren't geniuses. They weren't smarter than you. They were lucky because of the color of their skin. And I'm going to break down in a separate podcast why even the color of their skin was a farce that that was literally made up for economic reasons. The racial word white was literally made up. The world is 5 billion years old. Organism life, 4 billion years old. Neanderthal life, a few hundred million years old modern human life. You can find a time that you want to focus on, but basically 1602-002000-00160,000 years ago. You know, enlightenment, let's just say, you know, 3,000 years before Jesus, you know, so it's before Christ and then after Christ and then of course, spirituality and so on and so forth. And you've had the time since and all of this time and you had, you know, because you had black royal members of the royal classes and you had blacks who created. Helped to create finance. I'm going to do this as a separate podcast. Blacks and Jews in the middle and folks in the Middle east helped to create modern finance. And math, not, well, mathematics is a separate thing, but modern finance as we know it, modern economics was something that actually was originated in the minds of Middle Eastern people, North Africans, Jews. By the way, you might find it shocking these three groups are related. I don't, I mean, like, literally, like DNA. Separate podcast for another time. It's so much to unpack. We just. So we're like all arguing over stupid stuff. And some people, like, they really want certain people to argue over stupid stuff.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[John O'Bryant]

I just knew him as a kid.

[Gilbert King]

Long silent voices from his past came.

[John O'Bryant]

Forward, and he was just staring at me.

[Gilbert King]

And they had secrets of their own to share.

[Jeremy Scott]

Gilbert King. I'm the son of Jeremy Lynn Scott.

[Gilbert King]

I was no longer just telling the story. I was part of it.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between a killer and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

If the cops and everything would have done the job properly, my dad would have been in jail. I would have never existed.

[Gilbert King]

I never expected to find myself in this place. Now I need to tell you how I got here.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Bone Valley Season 2 Jeremy.

[Jeremy Scott]

Jeremy, I want to tell you something.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley Season 2 starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear the entire new season ad free with exclusive content starting April 9th. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[John O'Bryant]

Today. It actually benefits people to stop arguing. Actually, that's my argument for the business plan for America. God has a sense of humor now. For the first time, we're actually better together. You can only succeed now if everybody is empowered to come up from nothing. A little financial literacy, a little AI literacy, a little love, and a color. Focus on color. Not black or white or red or blue, but green. Everybody getting some more of it. You expand the table, you add a chair. Nobody loses anything. White folks don't lose anything. Nobody loses anything. We expand opportunity for all. The economy grows and deficit comes down, opportunity comes up, hope expands, light comes in, you know, in the morning. And we have a sustainable world. But that's the future. So finishing on this. So enslaved people built trillions of dollars in wealth, but passed down none of it. Meanwhile, white families had accumulated assets, including land, businesses, bank accounts during and after slavery. Number two, 250 years of exclusion followed by 100 years of legal segregation. And people are like, why don't you guys get up and do something for yourself? Well, you try this. You try to make it with this thing I'm describing. We did pretty dang on good for having a 9,000 pound weight tied to your leg. Slavery ended in 1865, but Jim Crow, redlining, discrimination, lending, discriminatory lending, and exclusion from the New Deal. Yes, the New Deal, which helped poor whites from Europe. The GI Bill, which helped poor whites, like 99% of GI recipients were Caucasian. That was a government giving you education, a skill for the future, and a mortgage to buy a house, which was the birth of the modern middle class in mainstream banking. In fact, the FHA actually discriminated against Black. It wasn't banks that redlined. It was the fha, the Federal Housing Authority. It was a government that redlined in the 1930s, I believe, against blacks who are then in ghettos, that they. It's a whole nother thing. They migrated to these neighborhoods and then the government decided the number of neighborhoods were dangerous because blacks were there and decided to not guarantee loans in those areas, which is guaranteed they'd be dangerous and not unknown investable. So a bank with rational common sense would go where the mortgages were guaranteed, which were by the way, in white suburbs that were built for these families to move from the quote, inner cities to someplace else where blacks didn't exist. Blacks were not migrating to. And so the properties that had loan guarantees or guarantee mortgage guarantees were white suburban neighborhoods. Those mortgages were guaranteed. So that's where banks lent at. So the banks weren't racist per se. They might have been, but that was not. They weren't racist by design. They were capitalists. But they went where it was low risk and high return they got. They knew that the government federal guaranteed a mortgage in the suburb. People had jobs there and it was seemed nice and peaceful. That's where you should want to put your money. Heck, I might have done it myself. And if you're in a ghetto in a black neighborhood and there was no loan guarantees and the government actually said it was red line, don't go there. And it looked horrible. And it. And crime persisted. Well, who wants to invest in that place? It just so self. Manifest destiny. So mainstream banking ensured that black Americans were locked out of wealth building for another century. Hello, 1965, 1865-1965. Number three, the average black family's wealth today is about 10% of the average white family's. I'm almost finished with this podcast, so hold on, I'm almost there. We're almost at the promised land. White median household wealth in 2022 was $188,000, give or take. Black median household wealth same year, $24,000. This gap didn't happen by accident. It was engineered over generations. Number four, by the way, slight aside, just so you know that you can get out of this and that races and everything. And by the way, there's more poor whites in America than poor anybody else. So the issue was all race. You'd have, everybody would be just be like rich white. You wouldn't have poor whites and rich whites. No one thinks about this. Also in Boston, they did a study a few years ago about poverty. The Federal Reserve bank there did. And they found that whites had a net worth of, like I said, $188,000, whatever it is. And then Caribbean blacks had a net worth of about $1,200. And African Americans, same color as Caribbean, had a net worth of seven bucks. That's right, seven bucks. In fact, they did a front page story said black Americans have a network in Boston of seven bucks. And they had to say on the front page, this is not a typo because it's so unbelievable. But if it was just race alone and not attitude, perspective, experience, background, situation, then shouldn't the Caribbean black and the African American black number be the same? Either seven bucks or twelve hundred, but it shouldn't be both. The number's not even close. So attitude and perspective and mindset really does matter. I'm gonna get you out of this podcast within an hour. We're at 49 minutes, standby. This gap didn't happen by accident. It was engineered over generations. Number four, 40 acres and a mule was the original stimulus plan. That never happened. If each of the 4 million formerly enslaved people had received 40 acres in 1865. Again, it was an experiment that was only given 18,000 offered to 18,000 Union soldiers initially. So it wasn't even everybody, it was just. In fact, I think the number was actually limited to 400,000 total acres. But I could be wrong. Even if the number was. It was 18,000 times was 40 acres times 18,000 families, that's still only 700 and some odd thousand acres. So it's not a lot in comparison to 270 million acres given to whites tied to Homestead Act. But anyway, let's get back to this. If each of the 4 million formerly enslaved people had received 40 acres in 1865 and that that land had appreciated modestly, it would have created trillions of dollars in black wealth. Operation Hope is missing. Operation Hope's mission, the organization I founded, is about closing this wealth gap by increasing credit scores, encouraging homeownership, expanding access to capital and, and teaching financial literacy, which I think is the civil rights issue of this generation. Operation Hope is fighting to reverse centuries of damage in unempowered black people. But not just black people. We're helping poor whites, we're helping Latinos, Asians. I think 25% of my coaches are helping Spanish speaking Hispanic and Latino families. We're here for everybody. But certainly I'd be nuts if I didn't focus and center the work in my own experience. Coming from a history of slavery and founded after the Rodney king riots in 1992 I see. And I grew up in these communities. Clearly that's going to be a priority. So we're trying to reverse centuries of damage and empower a new black economic narrative. But it's not about black people per se. It's about helping excellence, which happens to be black. Can I get an amen? This is the church of what's happening now and what have you done for me lately? We are on the move. This is a powerful podcast. At least I think so. You'll tell me whether it is or isn't so. Here is the close. Slavery was bad capitalism built on stolen lives and labor. And the receipts are in the numbers. I'm encouraging you to share this episode and read and learn and keep building your life not to get angry. If you want to do something, get even by succeeding massively. When you know better, you do better. And when you understand the money, you understand the power. And when you don't understand the money, you don't have any power. If you're not at the table, you might be on the menu. This is John O'Brien. This is Money and Wealth on the Black Effect Network. I just unpacked the economics of American Slavery. Bad Capitalism by the numbers. If you want me to do part two to this and to get into the false narrative of race and how that was used as a proxy for power and money, let me know in the comments and I will do it. I'm listening to you, literally, actively. Thanks for making this podcast series Top 5% for all podcasts in America. I am told by my production team. Please tell your friends who subscribe to it. This is my weekly ministry of hope. New episodes every Thursday. Go back and listen to old episodes from this season and last season as I've given you a library for changing your life. You know, a family that is just starting, people just getting married, somebody going to college, somebody going to high school, somebody resetting their life, somebody trying to establish themselves at 50. Somebody who's depressed and wants to be into one, wants to get redressed. But the new attitude. Tell them to get the library of that last season and work your way back up. Or find the episode that just relates to you and just listen to that. If you're just on the edge. And get my book, Financial Literacy for All. If you can't afford it, call my office and we'll give you a scholarship to get a copy of the book. I just made that up. Don't have everybody. Don't be calling if you just want a free book. That's wrong. If you really want the book and you don't have any money, we'll try to get a previously owned copy and scholarship it to you. You'll have to write an essay why you think you should have a copy and we will make sure that you have a free copy of the book. Maybe we'll just print out the text of it and send it to you so it won't be all pretty and everything, but you'll have the information. It just shows. I just want you empower and go to my team at Operation Hope and get empowered to get your credit score up, your debt down, your savings up. So when you go to the computer at midnight, they're not asking you what your race is or your gender. The bank, if your credit score is 700 or better than the computer at midnight, just says yes. Yes to home ownership, yes to small business, yes to a line of credit, yes to prime credit, prime access so that you can go live your dreams. As a friend of mine once told me, the CEO of KeyBank, Chris Gorman, I thought I was there to teach him at an opening of Hope Inside about history or whatever he taught me he learned, leaned over me, he said, you know John, it just might be that the only true freedom in America is financial freedom, economic freedom, because every other freedom can be taken away from you. Religious, political, and you look at a lot of what's going on today and that's not untrue. So a little wisdom from Chris Gorman at KeyBank. A good banker, by the way, and that's in doing good capitalism like a lot of my partners. All right, John O'Brien, I'm out. Tell a friend, let's go change the world together. From civil rights in the streets to civil rights in the suites. Foreign wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

[Shannon Schuyler]

In a world of economic uncertainty and workplace transformation, learn to lead by example. From visionary C Suite executives like Shannon Schuyler of PwC and Will Pearson of iHeartMedia, the Good Teacher explains the great teacher inspires.

[John O'Bryant]

Don't always leave your team to do the work that's been the most important part of how to lead by example.

[Shannon Schuyler]

Listen to leading by Example executives making an impact on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Gilbert King]

Something unexpected happened after Jeremy Scott confessed to killing Michelle Schofield in Bone Valley Season one.

[Jeremy Scott]

Every time I hear about my dad, it's, oh, he's a killer. He's just straight evil.

[Gilbert King]

I was becoming the bridge between Jeremy Scott and the son he'd never known.

[Jeremy Scott]

At the end of the day, I'm literally a son of a killer.

[Gilbert King]

Listen to new episodes of bone Valley, Season 2, starting April 9 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.