Black Owned Wall Street

The wealth of the nation’s sugar enterprise was built on the backs of enslaved labor. The U.S. sugar industry made planters—plantation owners—immensely wealthy tycoons off the forced, unpaid labor of enslaved people. The annual value of U.S. sugar production before the Civil War is estimated at roughly $100–150 million in 1860 dollars, which equals $3–5 billion+ today (inflation-adjusted).