85

John Quincy Adams remarked in his Diary, page 459, "Newport’s 

former prosperity was chiefly owing to its extensive employment in the 

African slave trade."

The pre-eminence of J.P. Morgan and the Brown firm in American 

finance can be dated to the development of Baltimore as the 

nineteenth century capital of the slave trade. Both of these firms 

originated in Baltimore, opened branches in London, came under the 

aegis of the House of Rothschild, and returned to the United States to 

open branches in New York and to become the dominant power, not 

only in finance, but also in government. In recent years, key posts such 

as Secretary of Defense have been held by Robert Lovett, partner of 

Brown Brothers Harriman, and Thomas S. Gates, partner of Drexel and 

Company, a J.P. Morgan sub-

48

sidiary firm. The present Vice President, George Bush, is the son of 

Prescott Bush, a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, for many years the 

senator from Connecticut, and the financial organizer of Columbia 

Broadcasting System of which he also was a director for many years.

To understand why these firms operate as they do, it is necessary to 

give a brief history of their origins. Few Americans know that J.P. 

Morgan Company began as George Peabody and Company. 

George Peabody (1795-1869), born at South Danvers, Massachusetts, 

began business in Georgetown, D.C. in 1814 as Peabody, Riggs and 

Company, dealing in wholesale dry goods, and in operating the 

Georgetown Slave Market. In 1815, to be closer to their source of 

supply, they moved to Baltimore, where they operated as Peabody 

and Riggs, from 1815 to 1835. Peabody found himself increasingly