Researching African American ancestry can be challenging, especially when standard records like birth certificates, death certificates, and census listings are scarce or incomplete. One often overlooked yet valuable source is slave insurance records. These documents, issued by insurance companies in the 18th and 19th centuries, can provide unique clues about individual enslaved people, their skills, and their locations. While reviewing these documents can feel uncomfortable because of their origins, approaching them thoughtfully can help uncover missing pieces of your family’s history.
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The Nature and Origin of Slave Insurance Records
During the 18th and 19th centuries, various insurers—both foreign and domestic—issued life insurance policies on enslaved individuals. Although deeply troubling in its premise, slave life insurance was a commodity reflecting the business practices of the time. Slaveholders would take out policies on those individuals considered most valuable: skilled artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, or others whose work generated substantial income. In the event of the enslaved individual’s death, the policy would pay out to the owner, much like modern-day life insurance policies pay the beneficiaries.
The resulting documentation provides not just the policy details but also snapshots of enslaved people’s identities and skills. While these insurance papers rarely recorded extensive personal information, they often included the enslaved person’s name (or the name given them by their owner), age or approximate age, occupation or particular skill, and sometimes physical characteristics or health assessments. Collectively, this information can confirm family relationships, geographic origins, and chronological markers of a family’s presence in a certain locale.
Understand What Slave Insurance Records Contain
- Identify the Purpose: Slave insurance policies were taken out by owners to insure enslaved individuals—often those whose labor held significant economic value. If the insured enslaved person died, the owner received a payout.
- Know the Types of Information: These records frequently include names (or the names given by owners), ages, occupations or specialized skills (blacksmithing, carpentry, etc.), and sometimes descriptions of health or physical characteristics. Such details may help you trace an individual ancestor or confirm family connections.
Find Where the Records Are Kept
- Start with Local Archives: Check state and local archives, historical societies, and special collections in libraries. Many have begun cataloging their holdings online, making it easier to search from afar.
- Contact Insurance Company Repositories: Some historical insurers donated or preserved old policy ledgers in university or corporate archives. Determine which insurance companies operated in your area of interest and explore their historical records.
- Use Digital Databases: Search online databases maintained by African American genealogical organizations or academic institutions that have digitized slave insurance records.
Search by Location and Insurer
- Narrow Your Geographic Focus: Identify where your ancestors might have lived. Insurance policies were often issued in prominent economic centers like New York, Philadelphia, or Charleston. Targeting these places helps you pinpoint the right repositories.
- Match Insurers to the Region: Once you know where your ancestors might have been, find out which insurance companies operated there. Contact those repositories or visit their websites to search their holdings.
Analyze the Records You Find
- Look for Names and Occupations: Even a first name or a unique skill can help you zero in on a specific individual. For example, if you find a policy that lists an enslaved blacksmith named “Jesse,” and family oral history mentions a skilled artisan ancestor called Jesse, you may have a match.
- Check for Identifying Details: Beyond the name, note the individual’s approximate age, health, and other descriptors. These can confirm or refine what you already know.
- Pay Attention to Locations: Insurance policies often list where the enslaved person lived or worked. This geographical clue can guide you to related land records, property inventories, and tax documents.
Cross-Reference with Other Historical Documents
- Use Plantation Records and Estate Inventories: Compare what you find in the insurance documents to plantation ledgers, wills, probate records, and inventories. These sources can confirm relationships or indicate family connections.
- Incorporate Church and Cemetery Records: Though less common for enslaved individuals, some church registries, cemetery plots, or burial records may confirm names or offer dates.
- Leverage Oral Histories: Family stories can corroborate details from the insurance records. For instance, if oral history mentions a relative known for expert carpentry, and you find an insurance record for a carpenter enslaved on a certain plantation, the pieces may fit together.
Handle the Material with Sensitivity
- Acknowledge the Historical Context: Understand that these records represent a time when human beings were treated as property. Approach them respectfully, recognizing the painful history they reflect.
- Keep the Family Narrative in Mind: Your goal is to restore identity and dignity to ancestors who had none under slavery. By piecing together their stories, you honor their memories and legacies.
Build Your Family’s Story
- Combine All Clues: Integrate the details from slave insurance records with other sources to form a more complete picture of your ancestors’ lives.
- Document Your Findings: Keep careful notes, copies, and citations of all records. Sharing these findings with family members, historical societies, or genealogical groups can help preserve history for future generations.
Conclusion
To use slave insurance records in your genealogical research, start by understanding the type of information these documents provide. Next, locate the right archives and insurance company repositories, narrow your search by region and insurer, then carefully analyze the details. Cross-reference with other historical sources for confirmation, and approach this work with sensitivity. By following these steps, you can uncover invaluable details about your ancestors and help restore a fuller narrative to your family’s past.
See also
Learn more about slave era insurance records
- An Unusual Resource for African American Genealogy. Los Angeles Public Library
- Slave Trade Insurance in the Age of Abolition: Archives, Politics, and Legalities. Taylor & Francis
- Slavery Era Insurance Registry Report. State of California