Three years ago, when I started thinking about making a podcast about insurance and history, I had only one topic in mind: slavery. It took three years of reading and researching before I was ready to share it with you, but this episode represents part one of a three-part series about insurance and slavery—an overview of the Atlantic Slave trade and how insurance contributed to and supported that trade. It’s a tough topic, but an important one, for insurance professionals and history buffs alike. This is a story about how capitalism developed in Europe and the Americas, about colonialism, the cost of labor, transcontinental marine shipping of kidnapped human beings, and how insurance supported all these things. And how underwriters decide what to insure, and how to insure it.

Selected Sources and Links:

1. Lloyd’s, marine insurance and slavery - Lloyd’s (lloyds.com)

Sources with Paywall:

1. Inherent Vice: Marine Insurance, slave ship rebellion and the law, Anita Rupprecht, Race and Class, 2016, Volume 57 p 31-44
2. Measuring the unmeasured hazards of the Atlantic slave trade: documents relating to the British trade, Joseph E. Inikori, Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, tome 83, n°312, 3e trimestre 1996. pp. 53-92.
3. Slavery, Insurance and the Law, Michael Lobban, The Journal of Legal History, 2007, Vol 28, p 319-328
4. The Zong in the Context of the 18th Century Slave Trade, Jane Webster, The Journal of Legal History, Vol. 28, No. 3, December 2007, pp. 285–298
5. Commercial Risk and Capital Formation in Early America: Virginia Merchants and the Rise of American Marine Insurance, 1750-1815 Author(s): A. Glenn Crothers Source: The Business History Review, Winter, 2004, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 607-633
6. Dead or Alive: Racial Finance and the Corpse-Value of the African American Slave Body, Bride A. , J Hist Sociol. 2020;33:99–115.
7. Insuring the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Pearson, R., & Richardson, D., The Journal of Economic History, 79(2), 417-446

 

Books:

1. Capitalism & Slavery: Williams, Eric, Palmer, Colin A., Darity, William A., Jr.: 9781469663685: Amazon.com: Books
2. The SLAVE TRADE: THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: 1440 - 1870: Thomas, Hugh: 9780684835655: Amazon.com: Books
3. Amazon.com: Over the Edge of the World Updated Edition: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe: 9780062890481: Bergreen, Laurence: Books
4. Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752 (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early ... and the University of North Carolina Press): Pettigrew, William A.: 9781469629858: Amazon.com: Books
5. Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History: Baucom, Ian: 9780822335962: Amazon.com: Books
6. The Slave Ship: A Human History: Rediker, Marcus: 9780143114253: Amazon.com: Books
7. Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage: Greenwood Milestones in African American History: Falola, Toyin, Falola, Toyin, Warnock, Amanda B., Warnock, Amanda B.: 9780313334801: Amazon.com: Books
8. A history of Lloyd's from the founding of Lloyd's coffee house to the present day : Wright, Charles : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
9. Armstrong, T. “Slavery Insurance and Sacrifice in the Black Atlantic.” In Sea Changes: Historicising the Ocean, edited by Bernard Klein and Gesa Mackenthun. New York/London: Routledge, 2004.

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

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