Corporation · est. 1763
Dismal Swamp Land Company
A 1763 Virginia land-speculation venture — investors included George Washington — that used enslaved labor to drain and canal the Great Dismal Swamp for profit.
← Follow the MoneyFormed in 1763 by a group of Virginia gentry including George Washington, the Dismal Swamp Land Company aimed to profit by draining the Great Dismal Swamp for farmland, harvesting its timber, and digging a canal to move goods. The work was done by enslaved laborers, who dug miles of ditch in waist-deep, disease-ridden water. The company is a small, concrete example of how the founding elite's personal fortunes were built directly on coerced Black labor.
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- profited from·ThreadChattel Slavery
Washington and fellow investors profited from enslaved labor digging the swamp's canals.