On Wednesday, Wachovia Corp., the No. 4 U.S. bank, apologized because two predecessor banks had owned slaves before the U.S. Civil War.
Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., said research it commissioned from The History Factory, a research firm, showed that one of the banks, Georgia Railroad and Banking Co., owned at least 162 slaves.
The other, Bank of Charleston, accepted at least 529 slaves as collateral on mortgaged properties or loans and acquired some of these slaves when customers defaulted, Wachovia said.