creadon races the history of the farm openly he still has some objects made by one of the slaves we're proud to have a mile. agriculture it was not the only field of commerce that benefited from slavery . back in the days there were american banks that used to accept slaves as a form of payment and insurance companies made their profit by specializing in slave policies even some universities were found by people who made their fortune through employing slaves floundered years ago the 1st slave ships iraq in virginia marking the beginning of slave trade and labor in the united states ultimately the capital stored in slaves exceeded the combined value of the nation's railroads and factories which lead some historians to argue that slavery was indispensable for the development of the american economy at the time one of them is dr william starkey he does research about race in the south at the university of north carolina at chapel hill very clearly there are some roots of american economic wealth that definitely originated on the plantation and through the institution of slavery but also