AMERICAN SLAVE/NEGRO
INSURANCE & ADVERTISEMENTS
INSURANCE & ADVERTISEMENTS
A way find descriptions of the enslaved, other Information about land or slave holders between U.S. Census years.
I put the information here for your study & review.
You may not find the names of people who were listed on a slave holders federal U. S. Census records, they were only listed by gender, age, and race. You can also check the owners name to see if the owner had taken out a slave or negro insurance policy for loss. These policies have a name and sometimes a description.
I tried to place documents about my family document in Keeper of the Fire in my UGRRQuiltCode Blogspot so that listeners of the 1/15/2015 radio program would be able to follow along and join our 1/15/2015 discussion.
Our wonderful host, Bernice Bennett's on-line Geneaology BlogTalk Radio Program did her best to assist in clarification and a orderly presentation of thousands of years of history in one hour.
This is the 2nd on-line radio interview I have done and I what to thank her for having me (Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp) as a guest. I will continue adding documents and more primary sources and Methodology. These post are part of the documents we will be discussing. I put the information here for your study & review. It continues my mission
To document, discuss preserve our families cultures and
contribution to World & American History.
Our wonderful host, Bernice Bennett's on-line Geneaology BlogTalk Radio Program did her best to assist in clarification and a orderly presentation of thousands of years of history in one hour.
This is the 2nd on-line radio interview I have done and I what to thank her for having me (Mrs. Teresa R. Kemp) as a guest. I will continue adding documents and more primary sources and Methodology. These post are part of the documents we will be discussing. I put the information here for your study & review. It continues my mission
To document, discuss preserve our families cultures and
contribution to World & American History.
You may not find the names of people who were listed on a slave holders federal U. S. Census records, they were only listed by gender, age, and race. You can also check the owners name to see if the owner had taken out a slave or negro insurance policy for loss. These policies have a name and sometimes a description.
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| Sometimes slave ships were captured after the British abolished slavery in 1808. |
International businesses also had insurance policies & kept records of both cargo and the crew.
Below is one of two page employment list from the British Royal African Trading Company. It gives the names of both the free and enslaved crew members employed.
The slave insurance policy paid the owner for either the loss of the life of a person or if they ran away and could not be retrieved. This post will give you sources and examples of records that were kept.
Below is one of two page employment list from the British Royal African Trading Company. It gives the names of both the free and enslaved crew members employed.
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After the passing of legislation Slave holders hired men to re-capture and return escaped people. The owners put money on the books and if it was never paid out that is one of the methods I have used to determine how many people escaped. (Note: They could have been killed or recaptured at another place and resold at auction.)
Many insurance companies internationally insured human cargo against loss. Don't just look in America for ships "Cargo" insurance records. Check the countries of origin for the ships in the link below:
Aetna Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut’s newspaper ad letting the public know they have moved to a new building and still offering "Negro Insurance". With many insurance companies ensuring lives of the “Negro” or slaves there was no way the owners could lose. If the enslaved person ran away, or were killed, they were paid. I’ve heard the mistaken point of view, “The cost of slaves made cruel treatment too costly to masters who needed the skilled labor. After all they were expensive to purchase.”
In most cases that would seem true and I always try to show the balance of slavery. All situations were not the same or humane!
New York Life: Insurance Comp. slave policy on life of Robert Moody, once called Nautilus Insurance (Mutual Life) Insurance Company of New York, wrote this policy to insure the life of enslaved African Robert Moody for one year in 1847, while he worked in a Virginia coal pit. Of the first 1,000 policies written by Nautilus Insurance, one-third financed the enslavement of African people. News from the www.Final Call.com
NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS -
Can give detailed information on people that can fill in the blanks left by the US Census. Here is one example below:
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| Prison Records of returned escaped people like this Ibo Man & newspaper adds are informative. I have hundreds of photos of copies of Run Away Ads |
Local prifon (prison has"f" is todays "s") or Gaol the 18th century word for prison kept records and are a great source of information. this one small Williamsburg Virginia advertisement list:
Location (James City Prison)
Skills, date (March 11, 1766), gender (Male), international origins - African Ibo group (tribe), His height (5 feet 6 or 7 inches tall), age in 1766 (about 40),
Slave holder information (he was sold by Col. Hunter),
Sold to (David Sallen)
Occupation of new owner (waterman)
Location of owner (late of Hampton),
Length of slavery before escape (about 6 years)
Period clothing worn (blue coat with metal buttons, cotton waistcoat, pair of buckskin breeches)
Facial description (he has country marks on his face)
*Groups from East Africa like Sudanese to West Africans like the Igbos and groups in between have body or facial markings for a variety of titled positions and reasons. Examples below.
Descriptions can be descriptive. Below the advertisement gives his name (George); that he is "outlandish"; his height; his fitness (strong limbed); clothing when and where he ran away from which a Census record and memories forget.
SLAVE ERA REGISTRY
INSURANCE REGISTRY LAWS
SUMMARY - California, Illinois, and Maryland have adopted
legislation requiring insurance companies to determine whether they have
records going back to when slavery existed in this country and, if so, to
provide information on insurance policies held by slaveholders on slaves to the
state's insurance department. The Iowa House passed similar legislation, asking
the insurance commissioner to request this information from insurers. In each
state, the department was required to report its findings to the legislature.
The departments in California, Illinois, and Iowa have submitted their reports; the report in
Maryland is due in April
2012. According to all three reports, the vast majority of insurers have
responded to the departments' inquiries. The responses have been similar
across states. Most insurers report that either they or their predecessors were
not writing policies before 1865 or that they no longer have records from that
period. However, a number of insurers have provided information. Among the
insurers active in the Connecticut market that have provided information are
Aetna, AIG, and New York Life.
In addition to these state initiatives, a number of
municipalities have required insurers and financial companies with which they
do business to provide information on slavery era policies or investments the
companies or their predecessors may have made or entered into. These
municipalities included Berkeley, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland, and San Francisco.
Check legislation for detailed information on policies & holders.
(1) request and obtain information
from insurers licensed and doing business in California regarding any records of
slaveholder insurance policies issued by any predecessor corporation during the
slavery era,
(2) obtain the names of any slaveholders or slaves described in
those insurance records, and
(3) make the information available to the public
and the Legislature. The law required each insurer licensed and doing business
in the state to research and report to the commissioner with respect to any
records within its possession or knowledge relating to insurance policies
issued to slaveholders that provided coverage for injury or death of their
slaves. It entitled 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, to full disclosure of this
information.
Implementation - In 2001, the Insurance Department
issued a notice to insurers regarding the law. The notice also indicated that
the department would hold hearings in order to gather public comment regarding
a proposed regulation to implement the statute. The hearings were held in San
Francisco and Los Angeles.
In addition, the department mailed a document that included the text of the
proposed regulation and described the department's rationale for the regulation
to
(1) All California property and
casualty and life insurance companies,
(2) A statutorily mandated list of
persons requesting notice of all department regulatory actions,
(3) A list
of interested parties. The department sent a special invitation to the hearings
to nineteen insurers that (1) were identified in the press as having written
slavery era insurance policies or (2) the department had identified as having
transacted business in California when the Office of the Insurance Commissioner
was established (1868). The final regulation required insurers to provide the
names of slaves and slaveholders electronically as well as on paper.
COMPANY
REPORTS
In a 2002 report to the legislature, the department
noted that 92% of insurers in the state had responded to its notice. The vast
majority of responses indicated the insurer had been incorporated after the end
of the slavery era and there was no predecessor company that existed during the
applicable period. As a result, the insurer had nothing to report.
The
department also received a few responses indicting that the company or its
predecessor was doing business during the period, and had conducted a thorough
search of its archives and records, but was unable to find responsive
information or documents. Some insurers routinely destroyed documents beyond a
certain age and therefore had no way of knowing whether or not a slavery era
predecessor existed. In other cases, a slavery era predecessor existed, but
responsive documents had been lost or destroyed.
The following insurers were able to locate information
or records responsive to the regulation and provide them to the department. ACE
USA. The company is the successor to the Insurance Company of North
America (ICNA) and Aetna
Fire, which conducted business during the slavery era. Ace reported that to
comply with the regulation, it retained a law firm to assist in its efforts to
identify and compile all of the records and information related to slavery era
insurance policies. Ace said that it contacted archivists and historians from
several universities and historical societies and obtained insights on how they
might most fully identify any responsive data located in its archives.
To help its search, Ace acquired a database of
information about the transatlantic slave trade that contains the records of
27,233 transatlantic slave ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866. Ace
reported that it also reviewed the historical records that it received from its
predecessor corporations. Ace reported that it found a copy of a slave policy
written in 1855 by Aetna Life. Although this was after Aetna Life's separation
from Aetna Fire, in the interests of full disclosure Ace submit the document to
department. This policy was issued in Mississippi and insured the
life of a slave named Peter, identified as a laborer.
Aetna. Aetna filed a report on behalf of its four
companies presently licensed to do business in California. It stated that Aetna Life Insurance Company (ALIC) is
the only one of those companies that was in existence during the slavery era.
It reported that ALIC was incorporated in Connecticut in 1853 and was first
licensed to write life insurance in California in 1868.
Aetna reported that it established a team of lawyers,
paralegals, and business people who were charged with coordinating its response
and overseeing its compliance with the regulation. Aetna reported that the team
conducted a thorough review of potentially relevant practices of all of its
companies that issued life insurance anywhere in the United States. The team
reviewed all pertinent documents in its possession and also communicated with
former subsidiaries for all potentially applicable materials. It reported on
materials and information still located within the company as well as materials
and information transferred to the former subsidiaries.
Aetna reported an extensive internal search through
its archives to locate records, files, and other information required by the
statute and to determine the extent, location and nature of its business
activity and operations from the slavery era. The search included historical
policies, annual reports, company publications, rare books, agent instruction
manuals, communications to agents, records housed outside of the company, among
other types of documents, as well as communications with the South Carolina Historical
Society.
Aetna also reported that its team spoke to former
employees now employed at its former subsidiary, who told them that the
administrative database that tracks all of the former life insurance policies
does not contain any policies from the slavery era. Aetna reported that the
system automatically deletes the files after the policies have terminated, and
therefore, no life records would exist either in paper or electronic format.
The oldest policy in the database was issued in 1923. Aetna reported that after
reasonable efforts and due diligence, the team was not able to identify any
additional records relating to slavery era insurance.
Aetna's search uncovered seven policies, some of which
cover multiple lives. In most instances, there is no record of the last name of
the insured slave. Five of the policies were found in the company's archive,
and two from outside sources. Aetna produced a list of sixteen first names of
slaves culled from the seven policies. Sometime after its initial report, Aetna
discovered a ledger book containing the names of slaves and slaveholders and
submitted those additional names as well.
Native Americans, foreign born Irish, Germans and other nationalities were enslaved worldwide & in America not just indentured.
Native Americans, foreign born Irish, Germans and other nationalities were enslaved worldwide & in America not just indentured.
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| In America it wasn't just Africans/African Americans who were oppressed in slavery. |
AIG. AIG - reported that in August 2001 it acquired America General Corporation (AGC), comprised of seventeen insurers licensed to do business in California. AIG reported that of those seventeen, only United
States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York (U.S. Life) did business during
the slavery era.
AIG reported that it used a professional staff of
certified archivists to research the records of the company and its
subsidiaries. It reported that its corporate archivist researched records and
interviewed staff in all ACG offices and that all potentially relevant
documents, both paper and microfilm, were examined. AIG also interviewed
records administrators in their facilities in several states and at its outside
storage facility.
While AIG's research failed to uncover copies of any
slavery era insurance policies, the search did locate a magazine article which
contains a replica of a policy issued to a slaveholder in the amount of $550.00
on the life of one male slave known as "Charles." The article recites
the provisions of the policy. AIG also provided a list of the names of slaves
and slaveholders culled from U.S. Life bound registries.
Manhattan Life. Manhattan Life provided one policy
that insured shippers for their cargo of seven hundred Chinese contract
laborers on a journey from China in 1854, but
provided no records regarding slaves.
New York Life. The company reported
that it undertook an extensive review of its slavery era archival records,
including published histories of the company, policy registers, index of
applicants, and death claim books. The company also reports that it retained
outside professional archivists to assist with this research effort.
The company reported that its predecessor,
Nautilus Insurance Company began writing life insurance policies in 1845 and
sold slaveholder life insurance policies for approximately two years in the
1840's until the Trustees voted to end the sale of such policies in 1848. New
York Life reported
that of the first 1,000 policies written by the predecessor, 339 were on the
lives of slaves and that these policies were usually written for less than $500
and for a term of one year. New York Life reported that there were three death
claims under slave policies in the period under review, with a total of $1,050
paid. New York Life provided a list of 484 names of slaves and 233 names of
slaveholders.
The company stated that it abhors the practice of
slavery and profoundly regrets that its predecessor was associated in any way
with that contemptible practice for even a brief period of time. It went on to
state that the fact that slavery was legal in certain parts of the United
States during that time does not make it any less repugnant. New York Life stated that while it
regrets this history, it understands the historical value of its archival
records and that contributing to our society's understanding of the slavery era
and helping people trace their genealogy are laudable objectives.
Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. The company
reported that during the slavery era it was licensed to do business in
Pennsylvania only and so
wrote no slave insurance in California. It reports that it was licensed to write insurance
in Virginia as of 1912.
Penn Mutual reported that it found two documents in
its archives regarding insurance policies issued to slaveholders that provided
coverage for the death of slaves in Virginia. The documents provided no indication of the identity
of the insurance company that issued those policies, and no indication of how
or why Penn Mutual had acquired the documents in its archive. Copies of the
documents were provided along with the report.
Providence Washington. The company reported that,
as part of its 200th anniversary celebration in 1999, it went through all
of its files, along with material at the Rhode Island Historical Society.
Although no material was found indicating that it had insured slaves, the
company did find an entry in one of its historical reference books setting
forth the account of a meeting held in 1799, where the company adopted a policy
of not providing insurance on slaves.
Royal
& Sun Alliance. The company submitted a consolidated report on behalf
of all of its companies licensed in California. It reported that it conducted a thorough search for
records of policies issued to slaveholders during the slavery era for injury to
or death of slaves and found that they had no such records in their possession.
The
company reported, however, that historical records exist, indicating that
London Assurance, one
of their member companies, was a marine insurer starting in 1720 and limited
evidence suggests that it may have insured owners of slave-carrying vessels.
Royal & Sun Alliance reported that it was not possible for them to quantify
the extent of the insurance written by this affiliate. The company reported
that the slave trade was abolished in England in 1806, pursuant to Parliament's passage of the Abolition of Slaves Act, and the
insurance of slaves and ships was prohibited in the United Kingdom in 1811
pursuant to the Slave Trade Act. Further Information - Royal & Sun Alliance
submitted excerpts of a corporate history of London Assurance written in 1949,
which described the insurance of a number of slaves.
Further
information about California's Insurance laws and the subsequent filings are
available at:http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0300-public-programs/0200-slavery-era-insur/slavery-era-report.cfm.
ILLINOIS - Law and its Implementation - Illinois' law, adopted in 2003, is nearly identical to California's (215 Ill. Con. Stat. Sec. 5/155.39).
On
March 10, 2004, the Insurance Division of the Department of Financial and
Professional Regulation sent a bulletin to all licensed insurers in the state.
It requested that they conduct research to determine if they possessed
information responsive to the act. The division asked insurers to advise it whether
or not such information was found and to provide the research methodology used.
If a company found slavery era policies or information regarding slavery era
policies, they were required to report the names of slaves and slaveholders.
The bulletin was sent to approximately 1,700 insurers, with an approximate
response of 99.6%.
In
2004, the division submitted its report to the legislature.
It reported that most of the responding insurers and their predecessors, if
any, had been incorporated after the end of the slavery era (pre-1865) and
therefore had no information to report. The division received a few responses
from companies that were in business during the slavery era, but whose search
of their records and archives revealed no information.
Company
Reports - The following companies provided information about their policies
from the slavery era: ACE, Aetna, New York Life, Penn Mutual, and the
United States Life Insurance Company in New York City.
The
last company had not submitted a report to California. The American Home Assurance Company reported on
behalf of the United States Life Insurance Company in New York City, successor
to The United States Life Insurance Company in the City Of New York. The
company located two U.S. Life bound registries that contained a list of
policies issued between 1850 and 1872 and claims paid in this period. Two certified
archivists used the two registers to create lists of slaveholder policies
issued by the company. A majority of the policies include only the first name
of the insured slave. As a result of this effort, the company reported 174
slave policies.
The company also found a magazine article
from The American Conversationalist, A Magazine of Information and
Inspiration for Life Insurance Men (June 1935), which contained a copy of
an actual policy issued by The United States Life Insurance Company in the City
of New York. That policy was issued to John G. Tillman on
September 3, 1852 on the life of a slave named Charles. The policy was issued
in Lexington, Kentucky.
The
other companies provided information that was very similar to that provided to
California. ACE's report noted that the one policy it previously
found was written for a man named Francis Fountain in Harrison County,
Mississippi. Aetna Life Insurance Company followed the same procedures
in Illinois as it had in
California. However, by the time it reported to Illinois, it was able to
provide twenty-four policies, although in some cases the names of the slaves
were not available.
New York Life Insurance's report was also
very similar to the one it made in California, although it was able to identify
one additional slavery era policy, bring the total to 485. Penn Mutual was able
to provide some more information about its archival data than it provided in
the California report, noting the name of the agent of the unidentified
insurance company, was Franklin Slaughter, of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
The Illinois report noted that there was every
indication in Penn Mutual's records that it could not have been the company
issuing those policies, as the company has no records of agents during the
slavery era. The report by the Providence Washington Insurance Company was
essentially identical to the California report.
IOWA -
Legislation - In 2003, the Iowa House of Representatives adopted House
Resolution twenty-nine, which urges the insurance commissioner to request
slaveholder insurance policy records Iowa-licensed insurance companies,
including subsidiaries of international insurance corporations. The resolution
stated that the House intended to rely on the voluntary cooperation and good
example of insurers licensed to do business in Iowa. It asked the insurance
commissioner to seek the slaveholder insurance policy information from such
insurers by request.
The
resolution requested that the commissioner report his findings to the general
assembly by December 1, 2004.
Implementation
- Since insurance companies doing business in Illinois were required
to report information about slavery era insurance policies at the same time the
Iowa Insurance Division was seeking similar information, the division decided
to request information only from those companies doing business in Iowa, but
not in Illinois. The Illinois Insurance Division and the California Department of
Insurance shared their findings and information with Iowa.
On
May 21, 2004, the division sent a letter to one hundred and twelve insurance
companies, requesting their cooperation in searching for any records of
insurance policies issued during the slavery era. The division requested that
the companies provide:
1.
The name, address, telephone number, and National
Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) number for the main office of the
insurer making the report;
2.
The name, address, and telephone number of the
insurer's contact person
3.
A description of the research methodology used to
identify and compile the records requested, including a description of the
record, whether the insurer found responsive data, and a summary of the
responsive data; and
4.
Names of slaves, slaveholders, beneficiaries, and
policyholders; a copy of the responsive policy; and other identifying
information. The division allowed holding companies to submit a consolidated
report on behalf of all of its members. The reports were due at the division on
August 16, 2004. On August 23, 2004, the division sent a second letter
reminding the companies of the earlier request. All insurance companies were
given a final deadline of September 1, 2004.
5.
Company Reports - All of the 112 insurance companies
responded to the division's request for information regarding any records of
insurance policies issued during the slavery era. Many of the companies filed
consolidated reports and included information about companies for which the
division did not seek information.
Most
of the responses indicated that the insurer and its predecessor, if any, had
been incorporated after the end of the slavery era and thus had no information
to report. A few of the responses stated that the company or its predecessor
were in business during the slavery era, but a diligent search of their records
did not reveal any responsive information. A few of these insurers reported
that old records were routinely destroyed.
It
appears that all of the information supplied by the companies doing business in
Iowa had been reported to California or Illinois. A copy of the division's report to the legislature
is available at http://www.iid.state.ia.us/slavery.
MARYLAND - During the 2009 session, the general assembly
adopted legislation that requires insurers to produce documents relating to
slaveholder insurance policies issued in Maryland before 1865 (Md. Code Secs. 30-101 to 30-103). The law required the insurance commissioner to
adopt regulations by January 1, 2010 on the form and content of the report. The
insurers were required to provide information by October 1, 2011 and holding
companies could file a consolidated report. The insurance commissioner must
provide a report to the legislature by April 1, 2012 based on the information provided by the insurers.
The above information are excerpts from my book
"Keeper of the Fire"
"Keeper of the Fire"
Follow me on GoodReads.com Author Page Teresa R. Kemp
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Igbo: E kwere m ị me ọke m.
English Translation: "I agree to do my part."
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Video Below was Underwritten by
New York Life Insurance Company
New York Life Insurance Company
For Further Reading:
On hiring of enslave workers see:
Jonathan Martin, Divided Mastery: Slave Hiring in the American South (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004). On slave mortgages, see Bonnie Martin, "Slavery's Invisible Engine: Mortgaging Human Property," Journal of Southern History (November 2010): 817-866.
Dan Bouk, "The Science of Difference: Developing Tools for Discrimination in the American Life Insurance Industry, 1830-1930," PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 2009.
Vincent Brown, The Reaper's Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), 201.
W.E.B. Du Bois, "Some Efforts of American Negroes for their Own Social Betterment," Report of an investigation under the direction of Atlanta University, together with the proceedings of the Third Conference for the Study of Negro Problems, 25th -26th May, 1898.
W.E.B Dubois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (New York: Free Press, 1999).
Sharon Ann Murphy, Investing in Life: Insurance in Antebellum America, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010). See also Murphy, "Securing Human Property, 615-652, and "Security in an Uncertain World: Life Insurance and the Emergence of Modern America" (PhD dissertation, University of Virginia, 2005), by the same author.
Atlanta Life Insurance collection, Herndon Home, Atlanta, GA 2010.
National Loan and Life Insurance Assurance Company of London circular, 1852, Baltimore Life Insurance Company archives, Maryland Historical Society.
Josiah C. Nott, "Life Insurance at the South," The Commercial Review of the South and West 3 (May 1847): 358, 275-291.
Daniel Rasmussen, American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt (New York: Harper, 2011).
Rick Schnurr, "A Layman's Guide to Corporate Life Insurance," (Actuarial Practice Forum, 2008), Archives of the Society of Actuaries.
Walter B. Weare, Black Life Insurance in the New South: A Social History of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993); Alexa B. Henderson, Atlanta Life Insurance Company: Guardian of Black Economic Dignity (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990).
On-Line Articles:
LIFE INSURANCE ON SLAVES BY RUSSELL GUERIN
INSURANCE FIRMS ISSUED SLAVE POLICIES
IN USA TODAY
IN USA TODAY
SLAVE INSURANCE POLICIES AT US SLAVE
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