Textile maker WestPoint Stevens can trace its roots to the pre-Civil War era through Pepperell Manufacturing, a company founded in 1851 and bought by WestPoint in 1965. Two Pepperell histories describe the company's ties to Southern planters, who supplied Pepperell with cotton and were among the buyers of its rough-milled fabric, called "Negro cloth." Pepperell's Rock River … [Read more...] about Wednesday Open Thread: Ripped From Slavery – Modern Corporations Built By Slaves