CA Releases Names of Slave Owners and Their Insurers
 

FEATURE STORY:


May 2, 2002


Slave Owners and Their Insurers Are Named

By DAN MORAIN, Times Staff Writer


SACRAMENTO -- The California Department of Insurance on Wednesday identified
half a dozen insurance companies that issued slavery-era policies and posted
the names of hundreds of slave owners and the slaves they insured on the
agency's Web site.

For advocates of paying reparations to the descendants of slaves, the report
provides a compendium of material that could advance their efforts by
identifying companies that profited from slavery. At a minimum, the records
unearth long-forgotten names of those who trafficked in slaves and detail
the
crass financial arrangements that undergirded the nation's long embrace of
trade in humans.

"These types of exercises give us a history lesson, and what the reparations
movement is trying to do is concretely link the present and past by showing
the lingering economic effects," said Darnell Hunt, director of African
American Studies at UCLA.

The report, posted at http://www.insurance.ca.gov, attracted more than 8,000
hits in the first three hours after it was released.

None of the firms named Wednesday are based in California. But a state law
pushed by then-Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and signed into law by Gov.
Gray Davis in 2000 requires all insurance companies doing business in
California to publicly release information about policies they or their
predecessor firms wrote insuring slave owners for losses if slaves died or
ran away.

No other state has required insurance companies to compile and release such
information.

The report includes 60 pages of charts listing more than 600 slaves by name
and more than 400 slave owners. The listings are sketchy--slaves often are
listed only by first name--but tantalizing, offering clues into the lives of
slaves and their owners.

In one case, a man named Stephen Chenoweth of Louisville, Ky., took out
insurance policies on five slaves named Tillman, George, Jack, Bob and John
Owen. The policies, written by the predecessor of New York Life Insurance
Co., say the slaves were to be employed as firemen, cooks or cabin boys on
riverboats between Louisville and New Orleans.

According to the Kentucky Historical Society, the Chenoweths, originally
from
Virginia, were among the first settlers in Louisville. They established a
fort called Chenoweth Station, and become targets of the last major raid on
white settlers by Indians in 1789.

The Chenoweth clan became well-established and well-connected, said Ron
Bryant of the historical society, which has a 600-page tome on the family.
Bryant said records show that a Stephen Ross Chenoweth was listed in the
1850
Census as having a net worth of $20,000, a considerable sum at the time, and
an 1848 Louisville directory listed his occupation as "jailer."

"It means 'slave jailer;' he bought and sold slaves," Bryant said.

William Werfelman, spokesman for New York Life, said the California law
prompted the company to search its archives, finding that its predecessor
company, Nautilus Insurance, wrote policies for slave owners for two years,
in 1846-47, then discontinued the practice when the firm trustees voted to
end the practice.

"New York Life abhors the practice of slavery, historically and currently,
and we profoundly regret that our predecessor company, Nautilus, was
associated in any way with it, for even a brief period of time," Werfelman
said. "The fact that slavery was legal in certain parts of the United States
at the time doesn't make it any less repugnant."

New York Life provided a list of 484 names of slaves and 233 slaveholders.
The company reported that the policies generally were written for less than
$500 and were for one-year terms. New York Life turned its records over to
the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a part of the New York
Public Library.

At the Schomburg Center, director Howard Dodson characterized the report as
"a piece of evidence." It is limited to insurance companies doing business
in
California currently, and does not include other industries that profited
from slavery.

"I anticipated there would be a larger number of policies," Dodson said.

"I knew that New York Life was in the business Some of the others were in
much longer period of time."

Other firms named include Aetna, AIG, Royal & Sun Alliance, Manhattan Life
and Ace USA. Two other firms, Penn Mutual and Providence Washington,
provided
documents but nothing showing they had issued policies on slaves.

AIG produced a magazine article describing a $550 policy on a slave named
Charles.

Among the policy's exclusions: "death to said slave by means of any
invasion,
insurrection, riot, civil commotion, or of any military or usurped power, or
in case the slave shall die by his own hand or in consequence of a duel or
by
the hands of justice."

Another firm, Ace USA, found only a single policy on a slave identified only
as a laborer named Peter in Mississippi. Ace reported that as part of its
research to comply with the law, it obtained a database of 27,233
transatlantic slave ship voyages from 1595 to 1866.

For the most part, companies that issued policies for transatlantic shipping
firms are not represented in the report, perhaps because they are out of
business, or have no business in California, insurance department
spokeswoman
Nanci Kramer said.

One exception involved a marine insurance policy issued by Manhattan Life,
and that policy did not cover shipping in the African-American trade.

Rather, Manhattan Life insured 720 Chinese slaves, called "coolies," aboard
the vessel Sea Witch, bound for Panama. The company covered one-fourth of
the
$84,000 insured value of the human cargo.

When three of the workers jumped ship and 11 others died on the voyage,
Manhattan Life paid the owners $408, leaving the insurance company with a
profit of $432.

Hunt said the material released Wednesday represented an incremental but
important step in recasting the national discussion of race and slavery.

Targeting insurance companies helps reveal the "naked calculation," Hunt
added. It paints a picture of slaves as chattel insured like valuable
jewelry, cars or homes.

The ultimate value of the information will only be known over time, said
Douglas H. Daniels, professor of black studies and history at UC Santa
Barbara.

The report, Slavery Era Insurance Policies Registry, makes no comment on the
politically controversial issue of reparations. Indeed, it never uses the
word. Neither Davis nor his appointee, Insurance Commissioner Harry Low,
commented on the report's contents.

Davis, who signed the Hayden bill into law in 2000, had planned to hold a
news conference Wednesday in Los Angeles but canceled it. Davis press
secretary Steve Maviglio said the governor "hasn't taken a position on
reparations."

But in a comment that last week became fodder for Northern California talk
shows, Davis, appearing with the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., said: "Clearly,
we want to right any wrongs, and do justice to people who were taken
advantage of if that is the case. And I believe that will be the case."

Jackson on Wednesday hailed California's posting of the report as a
"breakthrough" and praised Hayden for pushing the legislation, which he said
would urge other states to follow.

"This is the key that opens the door to insurance companies and banks
involved in the slave trade," Jackson said.

But Bill Simon Jr., Davis' Republican challenger in the race for governor,
issued a statement criticizing the Democratic governor's "divisive and
politically motivated support for reparations."

"Bringing up the wounds of our country's past in a politically motivated
attempt to shore up his political standing today is typical of Gov. Davis,
who offers only politics, and no solutions," Simon's statement said.


"Americans feel pain for what happened over 150 years ago, but we cannot
right the wrongs of history by handing out money generations later."
_ _ _


Times staff writer Lisa Richardson contributed to this report.


Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times

Reparations do not have to be in the form of a check!:mad: Why can't these companies offer "reparations" in the form on college scholarships, internships, urban renewl initiatives, grants to urban schools, etc.?:confused:

WOW!!
 

That article was very informative. Did you hear about the African-American lady that plans on suing some of these big corporations that participated in slavery? That means she could sue the insurance company if she wanted, since they received profits as well. I agree totally with reparations. Not necessarily the 40 acres and a mule, but the free college education or paying off of loans. However, even though the information given by the insurance companies was valuable, it is still hard to trace our ancestors.:rolleyes:

CAN I GET. . .
 

. . . 100% LOAN FORGIVENESS!?!?!?:D :cool: :eek:

Very interesting article. Playing devil's advocate for a minute. How can one sue a company for a legal activity that ceased 150 years ago? Slaves were property, right. Property could be legally insured.

I'm more interested in learning the names of the slaves and those whose families profited from their labor. I think that the findings will go a long way in establishing how America was built on our backs and attendant subjugation. We should use this documents to educate an America that wants to ignore this period of history, especially the Uncle Toms.

Liked the second part, but I am kinda disturbed by the first. Why SHOULDN'T one profit off of the capitalism that oppresses him/her? The corporations that labeled humans as "property" are just as guilty of perpetuating slavery as the individuals who called themselves owning that "property". Why shouldn't they be punished as such? And why shouldn't a government that deemed such activity "legal" be punished as well? I agree 110& with Honeykiss..."punishment" can and should have a positive result.

Capitalism is oppressive? Do you prefer communism or socialism as your economic system? Choose your devil wisely.

Be objective and not emotional, explain to me how you punish a completely different entity, 150 years later, for an activity that was not only legal, but sanctioned by the constitution and upheld by the Supreme Court. While I wholeheartedly agree with the deleterious institution and effects of slavery, I have a hard time seeing the justice attacking a company who may have LEGALLY insured a few thousand slaves.

What government should be punished? The Federal govt or those individual states that allowed slavery? Should descendants of whites born to those in free states be forced to fork over tax dollars for slaves they never possessed or profited from?

There is a case for reparations. But it must be reasoned and well thought, not based on emotional, reactive enmity for the current govt and its citizens who were not responsible for policies instituted 400 yrs ago.

Microsoft sinks millions into Urban schools each year, and Bill has yet to be implicated in any this. Yet, urban schools and test scores are pitiful. Outside handouts are NOT a SOLUTION.

What good would it do if these companies put up money? What WE NEED to do is stop playing poor ol' me, give me a reason to uplift myself and my community and ACTUALY DO IT!

I'm sorry, but no one alive to day can give an accurate first hand account of what it was like to de a slave, so how can profit as if we had done the work?

If you are born into poverty, as some point that becomes apparent to you. At that point it should NOT become apparent to you that it is someone else's fault and they should pay. Instead, it should mean that you MUST and you had BETTER work twice or three time as hard to get where you want to be. If one does not want to do that, no amount of money or tuition payments or whatever else will suffice.

Black people: DO FOR SELF!!

well-said
 

Very well-stated. There is a very definite line between playing poor ol' me and recognizing the past for what it was: a pre-cursor for the state of our society today. I may have been ambiguous in my post, but I do not advocate the sit-back-and-whine approach. Rather, a more pro-active, learn-from-the-past-or-be-doomed-to-repeat-it approach. I don't think that reparations have to be monetary. It is not unusual to think so, since in this day and age, America's heart lies in its pocketbook. I do not think that you should trace back the lineage of those who had enslaved ancestors (that applies to a lot of whites too!) and dole out dollars. I DO think that in order for anyone to be able to heal from the atrocity of our past, it must be acknowledged rather than swept under the rug. I would like to see reparations in the form of a PROPER education for all students. I mean can we get something more than a paragraph in the history books saying "slavery happened, it was abolished, now we are equal, whoopee!"? Please. Let's tell it how it was so that everyone can be exposed to it.

As for the government. The fact that they deemed slavery legal absolves them from guilt? I refuse to buy into this. They also deemed Blacks as 3/5 of a person. Oh...since THEY said it...and it WAS a long time ago...and NO ONE feels that way now :rolleyes: ...why worry? This kind of attitude bothers me.

As far as government...pick your poison, huh. I don't know if any of the structures thought out by America's founders had any merit at all. And that goes back to when THEY were being oppressed in Europe by another bogus government. I am studying the so-called "primative" cultures that existed before America or any other colony was ever even a twinkle in anyone's eye. Forming a hierarchy, in my opinion, is human nature. Playing crabs in a barrel is not. I think there is a big difference.

Interesting........

How is providing college scholarships handouts? :confused:
How is providing funding to urban schools for building improvements, better curiculumns, better textbooks, better teachers (for salaries), afterschool programs and such handouts? How is providing a job service training center within an impoverished neighborhood that would provide job training a handout? If all Microsoft is doing is donating a few computers to an urban school so that they can smile and say "WE'RE HELPING THE POOR", where is the push for improvements? These types of things will not only apply to those that live in urban areas, but in rural communities as well.

Furthermore, I know a lot of companies that donate monies to predominately non-black high schools and institutions of higher learning as well as provide scholarships. Are these non-black institutions accepting handouts?

Slave Descendants File $1B Lawsuit
41 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!



NEW YORK - Descendants of slaves filed a $1 billion lawsuit Monday against U.S. and British corporations, accusing them of profiting by committing genocide against their ancestors.



Lawyers for the eight plaintiffs said the complaint was the first slave reparations lawsuit to use DNA to link the plaintiffs to Africans who suffered atrocities during the slave trade.


The suit filed in federal court in Manhattan accuses Lloyd's of London, FleetBoston and R.J. Reynolds of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide" by allegedly financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to tobacco plantations in the United States.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ations_lawsuit

I have a BIG problem with reparations. I really believed if people concentrated more on how they can pull together their families and excel in the greatest country on the planet, that we'd be alot better off..instead of blaming slavery and what "the man" has done for all of our problems. Of course slavery has impacted our race, but i think we need to move on and take advantage of the many opportunities we have in this country now instead of focusing on the past.

College scholarships and other things are great...if they are earned based on academic success. Handouts don't help anybody. And we as a community (some of us) seem to find money from alot of places...because we sure stay in the hottest cars and in the freshest name brand clothes...so I ask you..will $$ really help us? We're so busy trying to look rich by buying houses, cars, clothes we can't afford...that we're squandering valuable opportunities that are right before us. Are we really going to go out and invest? Some of us have 401-k's through our jobs and don't even take advantage..some of us are in our thirties and forties and haven't saved for retirement...now who's fault is that? Slavery?? I think not.

We as a community need to adopt a mentality of making it happen regardless of what the situation looks like...cause if these slaves that we are trying to profit on had our current mentality of looking for handouts...we'd still be in the cotton fields.

I've said it once and i'll say it again...black folks biggest enemy is ourselves. All the $$, scholarships, money for new textbooks etc. won't help us unless we tighten up the things in our community that really matter i.e. the family and our values.

Yeah, THAT!
 

Well said, LoveSpell. Couldn't have said it better myself. Requesting reparations is IMHO the Omarosa syndrome to the Nth degree.

The Omarosa Syndrome (defined): The manipulation of a disadvantaged state, be it physically, mentally, or socially, in order to obtain personal gain for purely selfish purposes, while often simultaneously using the disadvantaged state as a rationale for not contributing to the good of society as a whole.

We do not need reparations. We already have them, in the form of opportunities and available access to scholarships, loans, grants, and other types of "free money".

You want reparations? Get Matthew Lesko's book on how to take advantage of free money to be used for college, advancing a career, etc. Reparations GALORE!

1 billion. All I want is 40 acres and a Bentley.

In a political context, the reparations fight is waste of time and political capital; it'll never happen. Other attainable issues, -- health care, better educational delivery, end to housing discrimination, etc... -- which can have the same positive benefits, need the attention.

But from a purely theoretical context, heck yeah, we deserve it. We built this place......for free.