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Lehman Brothers Inc., founded in 1844 in Montgomery, Alabama, recently acknowledged that documents exist proving the firm participated in one of the cruelest crimes against humanity— profiteering from the enslavement of African people. The firm's official history states that the Civil War, the outcome of which ended the system of chattel slavery, was not good for Lehman Brothers' business. After the Civil War, Lehman Brothers transitioned out of profiting from slavery and into financing emerging retailers that would later become household names.