20. Defendants, including, but not limited to FLEETBOSTON FINANCIAL
CORPORATION, AETNA INC., CSX, through their predecessors-in-interest, conspired
with slave traders, with each other and other entities and institutions (whose identities are not yet
specifically identified, but which are described herein as CORPORATE DOES # 1-100) and
11 Yuval Taylor, I Was Born a Slave.ഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
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Page 7
other un-named entities and/or financial institutions to commit and/or knowingly facilitate
crimes against humanity, and to further illicitly profit from slave labor.
21. Plaintiffs and the plaintiff class are slave descendents whose ancestors were
forced into slavery from which the defendants unjustly profited. Plaintiffs seek an accounting,
constructive trust, restitution, disgorgement and compensatory and punitive damages arising out
of Defendants’ past and continued wrongful conduct.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
22. This Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1332(a) since
the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 per plaintiff exclusive of interests and costs and there
is diversity of citizenship.
23. The Court has personal jurisdiction over the parties in that the defendants conduct
systematic and continuous business within the State of New York.
24. Venue is proper in this Court since the Defendants do business and may be found
in the District within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. 1391(a).
25. Plaintiffs and the plaintiff class are African-American slave descendents.
26. Plaintiff is a New York resident whose ancestors were enslaved in the agricultural
industry.ഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
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DEFENDANTS
27. Defendants and the other known and unknown defendants used and/or profited
from slave labor and have retained the benefits and use of those profits and products derived
from that slave labor. Defendants knew that the plaintiff class was subject to physical and
mental abuse and inhuman treatment.
28. Defendants conspired with each other with intentions to violate Plaintiffs’
ancestors’ basic human rights from slavery in that and by so doing to profit from these
violations.
29. Defendant FLEETBOSTON is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of
business located at 100 Federal Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02110. It does continuous and
systematic business in New York. FLEETBOSTON is the successor in interest to Providence
Bank who was founded by Rhode Island businessman John Brown. Brown owned ships that
embarked on several slaving voyages and Brown was prosecuted in federal court for
participating in the international slave trade after it had become illegal under federal law. Upon
information and belief, Providence Bank lent substantial sums to Brown, thus financing and
profiting from the founder’s illegal slave trading. Upon information and belief,
FLEETBOSTON also collected custom fees due from ships transporting slaves, thus, further
profiting from the slave trade.ഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
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Page 9
30. Defendant CSX is a Virginia corporation with its principal place of business
located at 901 E. Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23219. It is a successor-in-interest to numerous
predecessor railroad lines that were constructed or run, at least in part, by slave labor.12
31. Defendant AETNA INC. (“AETNA”) is a corporation with its principal place of
business located at 151 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut 06156. Upon information and
belief, AETNA’s predecessor in interest, actually insured slave owners against the loss of their
human chattel. AETNA knew the horrors of slave life as is evident in a rider through which the
company declined to pay the premiums for slaves who were lynched or worked to death or who
committed suicide. Additionally, AETNA insured enslaved Africans who worked in the
agricultural industry of which Plaintiff’s enslaved. AETNA, therefore, unjustly profited from
the institution of slavery.
32. Defendants CORPORATE DOES NOS. 1-100 are other companies, industrial,
manufacturing, financial and other enterprises that, like the named Defendants, its/their
predecessors, affiliates and/or assigns unjustly profited from slave labor. The designation
CORPORATE DOES NOS. # 1-100 is used until such time as the specific identity of such
additional companies, as they relate to this action, is ascertained through discovery and/or other
means.
12 Jim Cox, “Rail Networks Own Lines Bult with Slave Labor” USA TODAY (02/21/02)ഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
American Slavery Case - March 26, 2002
Page 10
CLASS ALLEGATIONS
33. This action is brought and may properly be maintained as a class action pursuant
to the provision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a), 23(b)(2) and 23(b)(3). Plaintiffs
seek certification of the following class: all African-American slave descendants.
34. The exact number of Plaintiff class members is not known. Plaintiffs estimate
that the class includes millions of African-American slave descendants and the Plaintiffs estimate
that the class is so numerous that joinders of individual members is impracticable. The number
and identities of the class members can only be ascertained through appropriate investigation and
discovery.
35. Questions of fact and law are common with respect to each class member.
Common questions of fact and law include:
a. Whether Defendants knowingly, intentionally and systematically benefited
from the use of enslaved laborers;
b. Whether Defendants wrongly converted to their own use and for their own
benefit, the slave labor and services of the Plaintiffs’ forebearers, as well as,
the products and profits from such slave labor;
c. Whether the Defendants knew or should have known that they were assisting
and acting as accomplices in immoral and inhuman deprivation of life and
liberty;
d. Whether Defendants have been unjustly enriched by their wrongful conduct;
andഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
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e. Whether, as a result of this horrific and wrongful conduct by the Defendants,
the Plaintiff class is entitled to restitution or other equitable relief, or to
compensatory or punitive damages.
36. The claims of the individually named Plaintiffs are typical of the claims of the
Plaintiff Class Members. Plaintiffs and all members of the Plaintiff Class have been similarly
affected by the Defendants common course of conduct and the members of each class have
similar claims against the Defendants. The claims of all class members depend on a showing of
the Defendants’ common course of conduct, as described herein, which gives Plaintiffs,
individually and as class representative, the right to the relief sought herein.
37. There is no conflict as between Plaintiffs and the other members of the class with
respect to this action or the claims for relief. Plaintiffs know and understand their asserted rights
and their roles as class representatives.
38. Plaintiffs and their attorneys are able to and will fairly, and adequately, protect the
interest of the Class. Several of Plaintiffs’ attorneys are experienced class action litigators who
are or will be able to conduct the proposed litigation. Plaintiffs’ attorneys can vigorously
prosecute the rights of the proposed class members.

39. Prosecution of separate actions by individual Plaintiffs will create the risk of
inconsistent and varying adjudications and will establish incompatible standards of conduct for
Defendants in that different Courts may order Defendants to provide different types of
accounting or take other inconsistent actions.ഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
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Page 12
40. Prosecutions of separate actions by individual plaintiffs of other proposed class
members not party to the adjudications will substantially impair or impede their ability to protect
their interest in that, for example, Defendants may exhaust their available funds in satisfying the
claims of earlier plaintiffs to the detriment of later plaintiffs.
41. Defendants have acted and/or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to
the proposed class, making final injunctive relief and correspondent declaratory relief
appropriate with respect to the class as a whole in that Defendants have been unjustly enriched
by participation in acts that were known to be immoral and inhumane, and Defendants: (a)
prevented and or refused restitution to the proposed class members, (b) prevented and/or refused
to disgorge wrongfully gained and/or earned profits and benefits, or (c) refused to provide a full
and complete accounting and disclosure of the extent of their aforesaid actions.
42. Common questions of law and fact predominate in the claims of all class
members, including the named Plaintiff. These claims depend on proving Defendants are liable
for their acts and/or omissions based, in part, on evidence of a common scheme. Plaintiffs’ and
the plaintiff class members; proposed evidentiary showings would be based on the same
documents and testimony concerning the Defendants’ actions.
43. A class action is superior to the other available methods for the fair, just and
efficient adjudication of the controversy. Plaintiffs and the Plaintiff class members have no
interest in individually controlling the prosecution of separate actions and, instead are on the
whole incapable as practical matter of pursuing individual claims. Even if individual class
members had the resources to pursue individual litigation, it would be unduly burdensome to the
Courts in which the individual litigation would proceed. Individual litigation magnifies the delayഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
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Page 13
and expenses to all parties in that the Court system of resolving the controversies engendered by
Defendants/individual and/or common course of conduct. The class action device allows a
single court to provide the benefits of unitary adjudication, judicial economy and the fair and
equitable handling of all plaintiffs; claims in a single forum. The conduct of this action as a class
action conserves the resources of the parties and of the judicial system, and reserves the rights of
each class member. Furthermore, for most class members, a class action is the only feasible
mechanism that allows them an opportunity for legal redress and justice. A large concentration
of proposed class members is estimated to reside in this District and nearby states. The
management of the litigation as a class would pose few problems for this Court.
44. Certification of the Plaintiff class is appropriate under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a) and
also under 23(b)(2), 23(b)(3).
EQUITABLE TOLLING
45. The plaintiffs have been unable to secure records with regards to their ancestors
due to the failure of most to be able to reliably access ship manifestos, or human cargo lists that
directly connect them to their descendants. Moreover, family names were changed once the
Africans arrived in America making it nearly impossible to accurately trace records. Recent
advances in Internet and computer databases have made these records more accessible to the
average African-American.
46. Likewise, corporate histories and records have also been extremely difficult and
inaccessible to most people. Hence, research tracing the monetary benefit derived by AmericanഊNew York/ Class Action Complaint
American Slavery Case - March 26, 2002
Page 14
corporations from the slave trade has only been accessible and discussed by prominent
researches within the last year.
47. Moreover, efforts to attempt to raise the issue of reparations for African-Americans
in an attempt to secure easier access to information have stalled in Congress.
Representative John Conyers from Michigan has for the last 11 years attempted to propose a
resolution, No. 40, seeking to set aside $8 million dollars to study the effects of slavery and come
up with a formula for reparations. His resolution has died in committee for each of these past
eleven years.
48. Moreover, with the advent of litigation related to reparations for holocaust victims
from government entities and corporations, more emphasis has been placed on the viability of
lawsuits for reparations for human rights violations.
49. Finally, the action of each of the Defendants by their failure to provide an
accounting to the plaintiff constitutes a continuing tort that tolls the statute.