Slave insurance in the United States

[1] Industries which rented insured skilled slaves from their owners included blacksmithing, carpentry, railroad construction, coal mining, and steamboat operations,[1] and insured rented slaves also included firemen and cooks.

The fact that a number of insurers continue the businesses that serviced these policies has brought attention to this history.

"[3] A lawsuit resolved in 1870 addressed the issue of debt for an enslaved person purchased on credit, after an insurance company refused to pay out on a property insurance claim, since the slave had committed suicide after being put in a slave mart in New Orleans.

[4] On September 30, 2000, Governor Gray Davis of California signed two bills relating to slave insurance.

In California and other states calls have been made to verify any documents that showed profits from slavery on the part of capitalized insurers whose successors remain in existence today.

Part of Governor Davis' Bill included: 13810 The Commissioner shall request and obtain information in the state regarding any records of slave-holder insurance.

C. R. Bricken sold life insurance policies on both enslaved black people and free white people, and listed a number of notable slave traders (including Seth Woodroof , Robert Lumpkin , Silas Omohundro , Hector Davis , Solomon Davis , and R. H. Dickinson ) as references to whom "losses had been paid" ( Richmond Enquirer , November 6, 1855)