February is Black History Month in the Unites States. As I researched topics to write about I came across the issue of insuring slaves. I was surprised that this was the first time I had came across this. As I talked to my friends who were researching their African American ancestors, they also knew very little about slavery insurance. As I researched it more in depth, I began to realize that the records kept could be of some genealogical value. Of course, this topic is one that saddens us today when we realize that these black families, who longed for freedom and family, were insured as property.

It is not pleasant to talk about it today but slaves were insured just like any other thing that the slave owners owned, said Tom Baker, director of the Insurance Law Center at the University of Connecticut School of Law. If you were selling insurance in slave states, to people who had plantations, that was one of the things that you sold.

Aetna was one such insurance company that insured slaves and has since in 2000 apologized for their past involvement in the slavery issue. Some companies argue that their policies were not for slaves. But, for example a slave ship may have been insured for its “goods” on board. Of course, this would have included the slaves even though they were not specifically mentioned.

Some descendants are asking for copies of policies that may have covered their ancestors. While some would like retribution, many are thankful to have something that gives them a source of information and possible family clues.

In August 2000 the California legislature found that, “Insurance policies from the slavery era have been discovered in the archives of several insurance companies, documenting insurance coverage for slaveholders for damage to or death of their slaves, issued by a predecessor insurance firm. These documents provide the first evidence of ill-gotten profits from slavery, which profits in part capitalized insurers whose successors remain in existence today."

California Insurance Code section 13810 et seq. reads as follows:

13810. The commissioner shall request and obtain information from insurers licensed and doing business in this state regarding any records of slaveholder insurance policies issued by any predecessor corporation during the slavery era.

13811. The commissioner shall obtain the names of any slaveholders or slaves described in those insurance records, and shall make the information available to the public and the Legislature.

13812. Each insurer licensed and doing business in this state shall research and report to the commissioner with respect to any records within the insurer's possession or knowledge relating to insurance policies issued to slaveholders that provided coverage for damage to or death of their slaves.

13813. Descendants of slaves, whose ancestors were defined as private property, dehumanized, divided from their families, forced to perform labor without appropriate compensation or benefits, and whose ancestors' owners were compensated for damages by insurers, are entitled to full disclosure.

Dick Eastman’s 2007 Genealogy Newsletter states, “Under a typical slave policy, a slave owner would get a $500 payout from an annual premium of about $11 on an insured slave. The policies were legal and acceptable business practice at the time they were written. The policies disappeared with the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865.

In March of this year, Aetna became the first American corporation to issue a public apology over its involvement in slavery, expressing regret over the slave policies it underwrote in the firm's early years in the 1850s. The company stopped short, however, of committing any money to restitution or compensation.”

The Slave Registry gives the slave names, county, other identifying information, name of slaveholder, the county of slaveholder, and who the policy was submitted by. Kentucky, for example, lists many counties with slave names.

Sometimes it will list the job the slaves held. Some typical jobs are mining, carpentry, house servant, cooper, baker and blacksmith among other positions.
Genealogy Trails lists several states that had insured slaves. States included are AL, AR, DC, GA, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, SC, and VA. Sometimes the residence of the slaveholder may not be the same as the slave. This gives us reason to believe they were sold out to other slave owners.

Some insurance companies are reluctant to look deep into their past records to disclose these slave insurance policies. They are afraid they will have to financially pay for the errors of their companies policies made over 100 years ago. Most companies are understanding the importance of the families having this information, either voluntarily or by legal demand, and putting these records online or mailing copies to the families involved.