The links between the founder of America's most prestigious investment bank and slavery have come under scrutiny after a campaign by a Liverpool historian.

Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) is Wall Street's oldest private investment bank and is known for the role its alumni have played in shaping U.S. politics and the global economic order. Its former partners include Presco, the patriarch of the Bush political dynasty. Prescott Bush.

The bank's roots date back to the early 19th century, when Irish merchant Alexander Brown moved to Baltimore and made a fortune in the cotton trade and entered banking.

His sons worked throughout England in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Liverpool, establishing businesses including Brown Brothers & Co, which merged in 1931 to become Brown Brothers Harriman.

The bank, describing its history on a website called The Cotton Trade, claims that there are "no known examples of members of the Brown family owning slaves," adding that the Brown family "strongly supported the abolition of slavery." The years before the American Civil War

However, research by the Liverpool Black History Research Group (LBHRG), whose members include broadcaster Laurence Westgarve, reveals a different story.

"Brown Brothers Harriman is a very important bank and their story is modern capitalism as we know it and the emergence of the United States as a superpower," Westgarff said.

“The Browns used the money they made from buying and selling slave-produced cotton to establish themselves in the banking industry—they began lending money to other cotton producers.

“When these people took out mortgages for the plantations, they also took out mortgages for the people.

"If the Brown family's bank foreclosed on the loan, they not only foreclosed on the land, they foreclosed on the enslaved people - so in the 19th century, the Brown family ended up owning the plantations and enslaving the people.

“They saw themselves as opposing slavery while maintaining the institutions that sustained it.”

Despite BBH's denials, books cited by the company on its website reveal additional information, including Sven Beckert's 2015 "Empire of Cotton," which describes " How the Brown family of New York owned at least 13 plantations in the 1840s," "and hundreds of slaves," and Zachary Karabell Karabell's "Inside Money: The Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power," which describes how two of Alexander Brown's sons, William and James, "didn't want to own the plantations," but "kept" them, hiring managers. By definition overseeing operations based on slave labor…until prices recover enough for them to sell”.

After LBHRG wrote to BBH accusing the bank of "deliberately trying to sanitize historical truth," BBH removed "no known instances" of the Brown family owning slaves from its website, adding in the text: The plantation they acquired The park included "associated slave labor."

In an email to LBHRG seen by the Guardian, a spokesman for the bank said: "The text we publish is not intended to obfuscate the direct ownership of slaves, but rather to explain the context."

As well as being a leading figure in transatlantic trade and banking, William Brown also served as Liberal MP for South Lancashire from 1846 to 1859, providing funding for Liverpool's central library and museum, including Crosby Brown (Crosby Brown) Collection of thousands of musical instruments from all over. The World of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Westgaph is now urging BBH to "fully, openly and honestly" acknowledge its history and launch a restorative justice programme.

"It's the least they can do, especially because they have a tradition of philanthropy - philanthropy built on the horrific exploitation of African people," he added.

A spokesman for BBH said: "Slavery is a shameful and abhorrent chapter in history. We provide information on our website about our predecessor companies' involvement in the cotton trade that relies on slave labor, be transparent and explain What we believe to be the true situation at that time.

“Brown Brothers Harriman is committed to promoting equal opportunity within the company and fostering an equitable and inclusive environment.”