MANDINGO, Esq

BANZAI7 NEWS--Two of the biggest names in the City of London had previously undisclosed links to slavery in the British colonies, documents seen by the Financial Times have revealed.

Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the banking family’s 19th-century patriarch, and James William Freshfield, founder of Freshfields, the top City law firm, benefited financially from slavery, records from the National Archives show, even though both have often been portrayed as opponents of slavery.

In Mr Freshfield’s case, the records reveal that he and his sons had back room offices stuffed full of starving underpaid law clerks, mostly based in dungeons located in the Caribbean. The lawyers then tried to claim unpaid salaries for the enslaved law clerks through the government scheme set up to compensate law partners after time recording was mandated.

Mandingo Esq. Sr. was the nickname used by the clerk slaves in referring to Mr. Freshfield.