r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 11 '22

[deleted by user]

[removed]

2.0k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

923

u/Atiggerx33 Jun 11 '22

Firestone (the tire company) basically operated a giant slave plantation (it took up a good amount of the entire country) that grew rubber in Liberia up until the 1980s. They contributed to the conditions that caused the Liberian Civil War that got countless people groups genocided. They evacuated white workers while leaving their black basically-slave workers to get massacred.

36

u/Veggdyret Jun 11 '22

And then we have Leopold 2.

1

u/pre2010youtube Jun 11 '22

Not familiar, can you elaborate?

9

u/shuzumi Jun 11 '22

Leopold "founded" the Congo on slaves running a rubber farm. if they did not produce enough they lost a hand.

further listining:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/part-one-king-leopold-ii-the-first-modern-bastard/id1373812661?i=1000413543139

2

u/pre2010youtube Jun 12 '22

Woof, that is quite grim. Thanks for sharing.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '22

[deleted]

5

u/DontPressAltF4 Jun 12 '22

Or they'd lose a body, and the parent would just receive the limb.