Reflecting on Juneteenth

Juneteenth marks a pivotal moment in American history—the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas in 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. As the insurance and InsurTech community pauses to honor this holiday, it’s important to acknowledge not just the progress we’ve made, but also the legacy that lingers in our institutions. One such legacy is the little-known but deeply troubling history of slave insurance—a practice that turned human lives into insurable property.

In the decades leading up to the American Civil War, particularly between the 1830s and 1860s, life insurance companies across the United States, including in Virginia, offered policies to slaveholders insuring the lives of enslaved individuals. These policies were not about the welfare of the enslaved but were designed to protect slaveholders from financial loss. Premiums were paid to insure enslaved people engaged in high-risk or high-skill labor—blacksmiths, carpenters, coal miners, steamboat workers, and domestic servants.

Companies like the Baltimore Life Insurance Company of Maryland and Virginia Life Insurance Company sold these policies in large numbers, particularly in industrializing cities like Richmond. By the late 1850s, nearly 70% of Baltimore Life’s new policies were on the lives of enslaved individuals. Policies rarely covered the full value of a person—often capped at two-thirds of their estimated market price—but were a way to mitigate perceived “risk” in labor-intensive industries.

Insuring enslaved people posed unique actuarial challenges. Lacking reliable mortality data for the Black population, insurers often charged double the premiums required for white policyholders. Some even refused to insure individuals in extremely dangerous roles, though others later relaxed these standards to expand their market. To prevent what they considered “moral hazard,” insurers like Baltimore Life capped policies and prohibited multiple coverages on a single person, fearing they could become worth more to their owners dead than alive.

Though rare, some policies were used as financial instruments to aid in emancipation. Individuals like Reverend Noah Davis used life insurance as collateral to raise money for the freedom of his wife, children, and others. These efforts, while noteworthy, were the exception to a broader pattern of commodifying human life.

As we honor Juneteenth, it is essential for the insurance community to reflect on this chapter of its history. The fact that insurance once played a role in sustaining slavery underscores the need for continual reckoning, equity, and reform in our systems. At InsurTech NY, we believe innovation must be accompanied by reflection. A future-forward insurance industry must also be one that is grounded in awareness and responsibility.

Juneteenth is not only a celebration of freedom, but also a call to action: to build industries that uphold dignity, and to ensure that technology and finance serve humanity, not exploit it.

Historical Information sourced from Encyclopedia Virginia