Records reveal erstwhile slavery links at Rothschild and Freshfields
Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking dynasty’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the leading City attorney firm, had previously secret ties with slavery in the UK colonies, records from the National Archives have revealed, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Rothschild made personal gains by using slaves as collateral in banking transactions with a slave owner, the documents show.
In Freshfield’s case, the records reveal that he and his sons had many slave-owner customers, primarily based in the Caribbean. The lawyers served as trustees of the owners’ estates and in one instance sought to claim unpaid legal fees for the firm through the government scheme created to reimburse owners after abolition.
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