; Whereas the enslavement of Black people became an indispensable economic driver in the United States, allowing White Americans in both the South and the North to enjoy the profit of unpaid and dehumanizing labor; Whereas the enslavement of Black people and the country’s commitment to using unflinching violence and oppression created an endless supply of labor-enriched White slave-owners and their descendants, fueled the country’s economy while suppressing self-determination and wealth-building for enslaved Black people, and postemancipation, left newly freed Black people with zero wealth and landless, with a lack of education, poor health, and severed family and homeland ties; Whereas the economy of the United States was founded on the production of tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton, all of which were planted, harvested, and produced by enslaved Black people; Whereas the economy of the United States, in both the North and South, flourished as a result of Black trafficking, torture, and exploitation; Whereas, while New York began to abolish slavery in 1799, New Yorkers invested heavily in the Southern plantations, insured enslaved people as collateral, produced the agricultural tools that were used in Southern plantations, and funded the building of ships that were used to traffic enslaved people; Whereas, by 1831, the United States was delivering nearly half the world’s raw cotton crop as a result of chattel slavery; Whereas, from 1801 to 1862, the amount of cotton picked daily by an enslaved person increased by 400 percent; Whereas cotton produced by enslaved people accelerated worldwide commercial markets in the 19th century, creating demand for innovative contracts, novel financial products, and modern forms of insurance and credit that will define financial markets for centuries to come; Whereas, in 1861, the value placed on cotton produced by enslaved Black people was $250,000,000, or more than $8,200,000,000 today