American History: The Forgotten Origins of Wall Street in Slave Auctions – Alan Gilbert

One might think New York was a bastion of abolitionist sentiment before the Civil War.  Hamilton’s Federalists had led a move for gradual emancipation in 1799; the last black person was freed in 1842. They, too, needed John Brown and mass abolitionism from below. Wall Street had founded the slave trade in 1711. Fernando Wood, mayor in 1860, proposed joining the …

Why fresh water shortages will cause the next great global crisis

Water is the driving force of all nature, Leonardo da Vinci claimed. Unfortunately for our planet, supplies are now running dry – at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to soar but that rise in numbers has not been matched by an accompanying increase in supplies of fresh water. The consequences are proving to be profound. Across the globe, reports …